Mortgage Rate Rises
- Thread starter glenimp617
- Start date
To be honest we hadn't planned on doing really any of it, we thought it was done when we bought it.
Then when we moved in we discovered it had all been done on the real cheap by the idiot previous owners trying to flip it.
We still get debt collection letters and all sorts of dodgy stuff for them now after 3 years.
Then when we moved in we discovered it had all been done on the real cheap by the idiot previous owners trying to flip it.
We still get debt collection letters and all sorts of dodgy stuff for them now after 3 years.
Our previous owners put in all good stuff, Bosch, smeg, well fitted units, etc., they just were lacking a bit on maintenance and cleaning. All the walls were scrubbed and repainted, woodwork too. Carpets were shampoo'd, radiators cleaned internally and a whole facelift, redecoration carried out. Now the expense in good quality fittings pays off. Most of the above was my wife's work with a bit of technical stuff by me.
Same here!
You won't though.
I agree it's nice inside, but the previous fittings were not too bad either. If £100k was spent on that there is no way you'll get that back on the value of your house, maybe 20%, probably not even that.
Extensions or things that add floorspace will add value, but even then only to a point.
I see it all the time unfortunately people are a bit misguided, if you want to spend £100k doing up your house because you want it to live in and enjoy it, then crack on, if you are doing it because you somehow think you'll get that investment back you simply won't.
Yeah to be clear we've done nothing to the house in order to do anything to the value, I'm quite spikey about that. A house is for living in.
I mean, we did have it "valued" when we were due to remortgage thank god just before trussonomics and we'd more than cleared the spend but given where we live I fully suspect that would have been the case for the most part had we spent nothing.
The reason it got out of hand though is because everything done to it before we moved in was shoddy and superficial.
Eg, the bathroom was made as a sort of wet room, no shower tray, so you had a shower and then the floor was soaking wet for ages so you got wet feet going to the toilet, also the bath overflow wasn't connected it turns out so any overflow ran straight onto the kitchen ceiling.
In the kitchen the wiring was borderline illegal, all the lights blew and there were substantial leaks under the sink from the cold water feed that meant until it was fixed we had to keep turning the water off at the street. That's how we ended up meeting the guys who did the kitchen and bathroom.
Also just like the bathroom the layout in the kitchen was all wrong/no island but also no obvious seating area, super cheap units and floor etc. I mean the more you looked the more wonky you realised everything was.
We've joked it was a small version of the money pit, it's all been "oh god what now?"
The garden would have been salvageable for sure, that was totally because we wanted something special. That's probably why it got out of hand.
I mean, we did have it "valued" when we were due to remortgage thank god just before trussonomics and we'd more than cleared the spend but given where we live I fully suspect that would have been the case for the most part had we spent nothing.
The reason it got out of hand though is because everything done to it before we moved in was shoddy and superficial.
Eg, the bathroom was made as a sort of wet room, no shower tray, so you had a shower and then the floor was soaking wet for ages so you got wet feet going to the toilet, also the bath overflow wasn't connected it turns out so any overflow ran straight onto the kitchen ceiling.
In the kitchen the wiring was borderline illegal, all the lights blew and there were substantial leaks under the sink from the cold water feed that meant until it was fixed we had to keep turning the water off at the street. That's how we ended up meeting the guys who did the kitchen and bathroom.
Also just like the bathroom the layout in the kitchen was all wrong/no island but also no obvious seating area, super cheap units and floor etc. I mean the more you looked the more wonky you realised everything was.
We've joked it was a small version of the money pit, it's all been "oh god what now?"
The garden would have been salvageable for sure, that was totally because we wanted something special. That's probably why it got out of hand.
Wow, what a transformation of the garden - it looks fantastic!I forget we did the bathroom too..
Before:
After:
Kitchen before:
After:
Garden though was the biggest thing...
Before:
After:
So yeah.. that's how you blow 6 figures on a house.
Thanks.. as with so much of the house it had massive issues, on the first pic you can see what looks like green gravel, it's not, it's green spray painted chopped up bits of old tyres I guess for their dozens of kids. When it got hot that STANK of burning tyres.
Then behind that there's what looks like a bed, it's not, it was a pond.. I say pond, it had no water in it it was just reeds and stagnant boggy mud.
The fences on both sides were falling down, I get I could get something done about one side but we wanted matching.. then we were all "hey its got a summer house" when we moved in, then realised it was rotten/leaking and useless (when we viewed the house it was full, I mean like stacked to the ceilings hoarder style full making it next to impossible to get a proper opinion) but the one good thing is it had a concrete slab already so that massively reduced the price of the gym we built, that was actually pretty good value at about £15k of the total garden, built to proper housing spec etc.
We very nearly really really fell out with the company though, but for the fact we sort of partly knew them by association with a friend etc.. when he turned up with a statement that was double.. like.. we need to talk and you need to convince me not to throw you out etc.
Anyway, back on topic, allegedly it had increased in "value" about £200k over 3 years and all the work, god knows whether that's held or dropped now but we're at a decent LTV but right now if nothing cools off within the next 2 years we'll be paying about £800 a month more just to stay which we could afford but god damn that's a lot for "nothing"
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I've no idea but they were at it for months, it required a LOT of work to get it to anything like a blank canvas.
That's also the cost of materials and labour to scratch build the gym, also a big chunk went on the fence panels, they're besp-oak
Caporegime
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I'm not sure what exactly 15k has gone to in the bathroom lol
That before picture was also really nice lol
That before picture was also really nice lol
Caporegime
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Previous bathroom and kitchen looked decent already lol.I forget we did the bathroom too..
Before:
After:
Kitchen before:
After:
Garden though was the biggest thing...
Before:
After:
So yeah.. that's how you blow 6 figures on a house.
I feel like I'm sort of defending myself but you're right, you could totally live with it.
But again remember, the bathroom was a badly made wet room, the shower had no tray and it was by the door so the moment you had a shower the whole floor was wet so if you wanted to use the toilet you got wet feet. It was also leaking like a sieve.
Then the kitchen, you're absolutely right we had no intention of doing the kitchen but then the longer we stayed the more we noticed.
Like see the line on the floor? Thats where the incredibly thin vinyl flooring showed how the slab for the extension (most of the kitchen is in an extension) wasn't level with the rest of the house.
Then see how the plinth is snapped? Then look closer, there's a corner cut off the door for the dishwasher because none of it was level if you had a complete front it wouldn't open so you had to chisel a bit off the corner which I found out after I bought a replacement from Howdens and then had to do the same.
Everything and I mean everything in the kitchen was wonky, not a single straight line.
Then the lights exploded, I mean really exploded, a proper BANG and all stopped working. Turns out they were wired up illegally.
Also, we jokingly referred to the dancefloor in the kitchen... why on earth was there so much space at the end.. for basically nothing. We ended up putting a sofa there but it was facing the wall and a tv so away from the room.
Etc etc... it was one of those things where we'd have spent half the money repairing what we had so why not go the whole hog and get exactly what we want so we did.
Etc etc... it was one of those things where we'd have spent half the money repairing what we had so why not go the whole hog and get exactly what we want so we did.
Caporegime
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Oh I also fully get it about house finishing looks fine in a picture till you see it properly