Was It Worth It?

[spider8]

Have any of you -ishers bought a place that needed doing up/renovating/extending even though you knew you wouldn't have the money to actually do the work? Was it somewhere you fell in love with and just had to have it even though it meant living in a freezing dump for years after?
We are considering doing just that as funds would allow us to buy it but have nothing left to do it up with.........are we mad........are we alone or are there other nutters out there........what's your advice?

[fifi folle]

You're not alone, we offered on a place that was both wonderful and awful at the same time! It was a small holding with 1/3 acre of ground, 3 bed bungalow and barn but the house needed completely gutting and we offered the absolute max we could afford but would have no money left to do the work, it was a blessing that we didn't get it as we would have been living in a hovel for years!!! But then again it would have been lovely to have that land.
I guess if you really love this property and it's structurally sound then it might be worth it. How much work does it need?

[Green Aura]

I think it depends on several factors - how much you really love the place, how much work realistically needs doing and how long you're going to have to put up with it in that state all factors that spring to mind immediately.

When we bought this it had the original single-glazed metal-framed windows the MOD put in in the fifties. It had been rented for over ten years so although it was clean and kept reasonably decorated it had no renovations etc done. The summer I moved in, alone, was really wet, windy and cold but I knew it would improve as soon as we replaced the windows. That happened 8 months later and I was still so much in love with living here it was manageable.

I still love living here but I think wind and water streaming in through the windows would have worn me down by now. We've still not managed to sort out the central heating but at least it's more an inconvenience - it is warm and well insulated.

You need to think seriously about what you can put up with - and how much it's going to cost to try and heat the place. That summer I went through 2 bags of coal a week - £30 a week + electric heaters - in the winter that went up to 3 bags some weeks. We're now spending half that so the windows are paying for themselves pretty well.

[oldjerry]

Looking back,the things I did that that I shouldn't have done make me smile,the things I wish I'd done,but never did,just cause despair.
But only you know your own circumstances , and personal make up. Good Luck with whatever you decide.

[spider8]

Thanks folks but I guess this is a heart over head matter and luckily, the head is winning. The place is in a lovely position with land and ruined outbuildings and beach but it has a very small cottage which would need gutting - new windows, electrics, plumbing, central heating - you name it. We couldn't afford an extension so really it's a no-go. The trouble is, we can see this happening over and over as a place we can afford will mean it needs lots doing to it - catch 22!
Don't know what the answer is but living in a box with a small garden in a built-up area isn't for us.
Yes I know that is more than a lot have and we shouldn't be picky but we've had to live where we were told in the past (RAF married quarters) and for once we wanted something that's of our own choice.
Living in a building site for years and always being skint does scare the hell out of me.......my OH is even looking at a self-build/kit house and that scares me too as I don't think we'd be able to afford that either.
Health matters are a problem for myself as I will be in a wheelchair at some point in X number of years so somewhere that can accommodate that aspect will be needed. I just feel that now, when I could be actually doing the things I've always wanted to do i.e. gardening, DIY, craft stuff, time is running out - it's so frustrating .
I really want my hubby to have the things he's always wanted like a workshop with enough room for him to do all his hobbies in, something I know most fellas dream of but he's never had that before.
We just want our own place to do with what we like. I guess we'll have to keep looking and hoping.

[fifi folle]

A kit house might be the way to go. Have you worked out exactly what you can afford? I think working out a budget is the first (and most boring) thing to do, not just what you can afford property wise but cost of living nonsense too. Then the joys of researching the price of land and the kits. It might not be outwith your reach.
I'm a great believer that things happen for a reason. The smallholding would have been fantastic for us in some ways but in others not so, i.e. we're trying to start a family and if we succeed I would have been very isolated at home with a baby, also I've recently discovered they are building a new housing estate across the road from it. Whilst the house we have bought is in a small town we have friends who live here and the house is in a cul de sac which looks out over fields.

As my Mum says "Whats for you won't go by you".

[fran]

What about a very large caravan (I am talking mobile home type). These can be picked up very cheap and would sort out your living accommodation whilst the cottage was being done up gradually.

[boboff]

This is my opinion for what its worth.

Having spent time in the Armed forces, you want to change your life by living in a derelict romantic cottage by the Sea, whilst you have problems with your health and no money?

I think you would be Mad to put this much pressure on your health, relationship and finances.

Rent a 1 bed cottage and get an allotment, use your money to get a small camper and go on weekend foraging trips in the highlands, get OH enrolled in night school engineering or Stained Glass window making. Be safe, be warm, be happy, be healthy.

Fifi Folle is so right about trusting in Fate though.

My Father gave me my best lesson in life, Never look back and say "if only"

I can only gauge my opinion on what you have said, and therefore its said very much without the knowledge you have. It's your choice, obviously, but at the end of it all you have asked for peoples opinions, and they may just take you in a completely unrelated but Sernedipidous Direction.

I like the word Serendipity, it kind of sums me up!smiley face!

[spider8]

We've talked long and hard and thought about every permutation there is to make it work and it won't. We've been living in this rented cottage in Orkney for nearly three years now and it's been a complete change from where we lived before and we love it. The place and people are amazing and we know we've made the right move........all we have to do is find the right property and, TBH, we haven't been looking long. It's the wrong time of year for property sales so perhaps in the spring things will pick up.
If we can't manage something then we just can't, we have to be practical no matter how frustrating it can be. My brother moved into an old farmhouse in Lancashire ten years ago and we've watched him struggle to do it up and he's still doing it now.
Land prices are rising here (although they are nothing like on the mainland) but the affordable ones are in plots all grouped together and it will end up looking like a housing estate, we see it happening all over Orkney. The plots we do like are way out of our reach but we'll do the planning and work out the costs etc., of a self-build and see.
We want to get on with 'our' life now, not in two years time when I've deteriorated some more. Thanks for your advice, all taken onboard, wish us luck!

[pelmetman]

Buying a house is probably the most money you will ever spend in one go so you need to be 100% sure it is the one for you especially if you plan on buying a wreck.

We did just this with our last house it was a total and utter wreck, it was also a listed property which made everything much harder to get things done and more expensive. It was about 300 hundred years old and had been an old Ale House many moons ago. We fell in love with it straight away and had to have it. From the outside it had the perfect chocolate box look, people were always stopping to take photos. Little did they know how we lived inside. In a two year span we had the roof done twice, yes the first chap made a right pigs ear of it. For the first year we had buckets, bowls even plastic bin liners taped to the ceilings to try and keep the water out. In the kitchen and utility room we had a stream running through. Leaves used to blow in the windows when they were shut, that first winter was to say the least a challenge.

Dave is very hands on and did as much of the work as possible with me acting as labourer but the problem was time. We had to work every hour to earn enough money to pay for all the work. There was no electricity upstairs and all the ceilings were collapsing. We had to replumb, rewire, new ceilings, replaster. But we discovered a wonderful inglenook fireplace and the dining room had oak panelled walls which once cleaned and polished were a real feature. We somehow managed to live whilst the builders worked around us. In the end we had a wonderful home and built a huge extension so that we had like an inner courtyard. It sat on a lovely piece of land and through shear hard work we made it into a garden to be proud of.

We lived there for around 7 years and then decided to move. Looking back it was a wonderful and awful time all wound into one. Would we do it again YES.

Sue

[ina]

For me personally, having my own, no matter how decrepit, would outweigh all the downsides... I've been in rented accommodation most of my life, and practically all of it (in this country) has been dark, damp and/or freezing cold - at least two out of the three! (The only time it was of an acceptable standard was at college...) If I could ever afford it, I'd buy any old dump that's on offer; as long as I didn't have to worry about getting planning permission to actually live in it.

[spider8]

We haven't done an in-depth plan for a self-build yet and should get down to it soon. We were going to a self-build and renovating show near Edinburgh last weekend and we'd crossed the Pentland Firth, started to drive south when Dave developed a migraine and that put an end to our plans. A night in a shabby hotel, a return ferry ride back to Orkney and back home so soon wasn't the weekend we'd envisaged!
We will wait and see what property comes up for sale and take our time as it has to be 'the right one'. Our landlady (and close friend) is perfectly happy for us to stay in her cottage for as long as we want to be there so that is a great weight off our shoulders. It's the frustration of my mobile time running out and wanting to get on with getting the home of our own that's driving us mad!
I've got a few photos on Flickr if anybody wants a look, not many just now but more will be added soon.http://www.flickr.com/photos/54597307@N08/
Thanks for your suggestions and opinions, I'll let you know how things develop , thanks, Claire and Dave .

[Millymollymandy]

Your garden is huge and you are already by the sea - I hadn't realised and got the impression you were in a built up place with a pocket handkerchief type of garden. I would be happy there if I was you - you can plant plenty in tubs on that enormous patio. I'm surprised if she doesn't let you turn some of that lawn into a little veg patch in a corner though.

[spider8]

We were in a built-up place with a tiny garden MMM and now having lived in this cottage here in Orkney for nearly three years we know it'd where we want to stay. We are happy here but would really like our own home and not one on a main road like this is. I'll have to take some more photos of the patio because now there is very little room left! I have hundreds of prisoners there but, after asking our landlady, she doesn't want us to make a veg plot and to leave things as they are.
We have no regrets about moving up, best thing we ever did but we just want our own home.

[Susie]

For me personally, having my own, no matter how decrepit, would outweigh all the downsides...

This is how I felt, because I'd not had a good experience in rented accommodation. Our house is a bit decrepit but being done up slowly, I do get a bit fed up of having to explain to visitors the special way they need to flush the toilet and rescuing people from the bathroom when the door sticks but it's worth it (although last winter was a bit cold with a big hole in the living room wall ). I think it helps if either of you has practical skills or the inclination to deal with it - we didn't to start with but then I discovered ish and things are looking up! One day our house might look like other people's! (Although who wants to be like other people?).

Spider8, where you live is stunning! I don't blame you wanting to stay. You'll find somewhere that will work, I'm sure