New Home

[1975]

I recently moved home and bought a house that I though needed a little work, nothing much but enough to keep me busy for a couple of months, as the house was only built 15 years ago.

The day we got the keys we found that the front door did not lock at all, and on further inspection found that the door was not inline with the door frame, it was so bad that at night you could see light shining through the gap from the outside. So i set to work and got the door into a reasonable state so it would lock. The first day I went to work I got a fone call from the missus telling she was locked out and the key was stuck in the door. 5 hours it took me to drill the barrel out and re-align the full locking mechanism.

Then we find that the boiler would not supply enough hot water to even wash your hands, this is after the previous tennants had a plumber out with a problem just 2 days before we got the keys. So I have had to change out a diverter valve and de-scale the DHW heat exchanger and now this is fine.

I also beleived that the main bathroom was in a reasonable state, due to the fact that at a quick glance the basin and toilet looked new with some new wall tiles around the bathroom. But to my horror whilst having a bath, noticed that the bath had not been replaced and the old tiles around the bath where still in place, they had hidden the dividing area between the old and new tiles with the shower curtain. This will teach me to just poke my head in and leave it to the missus to inspect.

I am also missing 3 doors from the house, the kitchen living room and on-suite, how I missed this I will never know.

The only main area I was concerned about was the on-suite, this was showing its age and I thought it will be usable for a while, but will need gutting pretty soon. How wrong, it was disgusting, the shower was leaking badly, the toilet cistern was loose on the wall. The shower enclosure was rusting to hell, and there was no wall tiles. They had used sheets of acrylic as a waterproof membrane from the plaster. This has now been gutted, and I am planning on starting on this next week.

I recon I have at least 6 months work to do on this place. The previous owners have definitely had a DIY nightmare, which is going to cause me one.

At least I have something to keep me busy.

Have fun all.

Regards.

Dean.

 

[gcol]

Just doing the sign of the cross for you.

 

[Bazdaa]

Had this conversation last week. But yours is a nightmare.

The amount of people that just get star struck by a lick of paint is amazing. We were even saying that if you knew what you were doing that you could hide subsidence!

 

[wouldbplummer]

i was thinking about buying a house like that, was going to make an offer 15k under asking price but reading your story think i might try 20k at least if i get it and things are as bad as yours i can take some joy in thinking i still could make a bit of cash out of the deal, any tips on what to look out for?

 

[Bazdaa]

Ye, a door with no house attached.

 

[1975]

I knew the house needed work doing on it, I was just so surprised at the things like the boiler, the front door and the en-suite. For me these are things you need and can't live without. I payed a lot less for the house than you would think. The things that need doing are not expensive, just time consuming.

One thing is for sure I will not be getting bored for a long time. We are still living with the old carpets, as it is not worth replacing them until the building work has been done.

Reading some of your comments made me laugh. At least my front door now locks perfectly well, I have piping hot water and the central heating works fine. I have now installed a temporary shower in the main bathroom so I can at least have a decent shower on a morning before going to work.

Have fun all.

Regards.

Dean.

 

[AdamW]

My friends have just bought a 1-year-old house. They noticed a damp smell in the bathroom not long after moving in. Traced it to something behind the bath panel, so took that off. What was behind? Well, water had been leaking down behind the bath so the previous owner had just been putting layer-upon-layer of paper towels down to soak up the water whilst buyers looked round and whilst she still lived there.

But then, my friends move in and didn't realise the bathroom relied on paper towels to avoid mouldiness.

Just needed the silicone replacing, but what a swizz to leave it in such a state!

 

[Nige F]

My friends have just bought a 1-year-old house. They noticed a damp smell in the bathroom not long after moving in. Traced it to something behind the bath panel, so took that off. What was behind?

Not as bad as what I`ve found in same place