After buy disappointments

Deleted User wrote:

.. my upstairs neighbour was dealing....he was shot dead eventually in the flat and wasn't found for weeks....and yes it was as awful as you might imagine to live underneath that.

Oh jesus, we had it bad, but not that bad! Hope you get out of there soon!

pauliebdub wrote: »

Totally agree with this, a big problem we had in our estate was people using the residents parking as a long term parking for the the airport which is close by. Parking in general seems to lead to disagreements, so next place I move to will have enclosed parking

Parking cost money

Entering month number 10 in new house.
The initial feeling died straight away and it was quite deflating. The morning after moving in I set the alarm off and the previous tenant who had rented the house we bought came knocking on the door and gave us the alarm code (he was friends with my now neighbour) told us we bought a really bad house which had previous damage and leaks. He really hated his landlord who sold me the house.
Previous owner left no rubbish behind but I have learnt overtime the house had not been looked after at all. Noise levels are bad so will look at insulating between floors. Plumbing seems to be awful so in October we’re going to get the en-suite and main bathroom done. En-suite is currently unusable as tiles and plasterboard is damaged so going to get the whole en-suite done.

Main bathroom hadn’t got an electric shower and the water was barely spitting as the pressure was messed up. Basically couldn’t clean ourselves for the first week. But got an electric shower installed which resolved this.
Our boiler didn’t work so we had no heating. Plumber couldn’t fix it so called his friend who specialised in our particular boiler. He fixed it for 50 euro. Turns out the boiler was quite new barely out of warranty and just got jammed. Apparently last tenant used electric heaters and didn’t get heating fixed. (The last tenant was clearly an idiot).


Few months on and the place looks fantastic we’ve really transformed it. Looking forward to getting the en-suite and main bathroom completely done in October.
Downstairs we installed all new flooring throughout and painted the kitchen. Painted all walls and ceilings and really made it our own. It’s looking fairly modern downstairs now.

Next year I’ll focus on new external doors and Windows possibly. See how money is. We’re happy out now though. Just have to put in the effort and time to get your house to a standard you’re happy with.
Unfortunately buying an old house especially rented is going to come with lots of hidden issues. Suck it up and make it your own I say. We love the area and the neighbours are absolutely amazing would do anything for you and I think this is so important. We got so lucky with our neighbours and the location because you can usually always fix a broken house but you can’t fix your neighbours or estate. I feel for anyone who gets neighbours from hell as seen in posts above.
The problems with the house don’t even bother me now because I feel we can get through the issues and tbh the place is fine now so happy out.

Yellow_Fern wrote: »

I wouldn't recommend an electric shower if you really want to a really nice place. It is really inferior to a proper large gas or heat pump cylinder system

I would say the same. When I'm viewing I sometimes see an electric shower and it's usually a turn-off for me personally, although not a dealbreaker or anything. Every one I've ever used has had weak pressure and been expensive to run. Always think when I see it that it'll be one of the first things I'll want to change if I end up getting the house.

We’ve a pump fed shower in the en-suite but can’t be used due to damaged wall.
The main bathroom for whatever reason got barely any pressure. The plumber!said it was working off gravity and just wasn’t powerful. We needed a shower right away so I’m happy with the decision to have an electric shower installed. The pressure is really good now it’s actually too strong on certain settings and haven’t really noticed much difference in electric bill. It’s not far off my old apartment elec bill which had a pump fed shower too. Which also was failing for the 2nd time when we were moving out. Noisy thing too.
Also the pump broke in this house for en-suite causing a leak but got it fixed. Also noisy.
I haven’t had great experiences with pump fed showers tbh. Most likely just been unlucky. Each to their own I suppose.

old_house wrote: »

Not related to the house (or disappointments) as such, but after buying our "forever home" two years ago we quickly realized how much our perception of the surroundings has changed.
We had been renting a house in a really nice area for a decade and a half, and while being happy there we somehow didn't want to get too emotional about it. We saw quite a few neighbours come and go, and none of them were pleased to move away. We too were aware that we would lose this place sooner or later and that really kept our feelings of belonging at bay.
Through sheer luck we got the opportunity to acquire what will hopefully become our dream home, and it's very close to where we are now. It's absolutely amazing how the certainty of being able to stay here for the future takes away all the emotional constraints of "engaging" with your surroundings. I had no issue with renting and still think it has a place in housing, but once you feel you should settle into an area it makes a huge difference to know you can't be turfed out when your lease ends.

The downside is that I can image that process working both ways. So, if you are currently renting in an area that you already hate, buying a house there might make you feel a lot worse and all the problems you managed to ignore as a tenant will become far more striking when you "commit" to living in an area. For us the emotional side of buying was really unexpected and impossible to prepare for.

Maybe we like the misery.