I'm buying a Grade 2 listed do-er up-er!
Discussion
As there seems to be a lot of love for these types of thread on here, I thought I'd start one on the house I'm about to exchange on in the next few weeks.
As a bit of back-story, me and the wife decided on a move out of the congested and way too busy SE England and move to a slightly more rural area, and reduce the mortgage a little.
I was lucky enough to have two job offers, one in Norfolk and the other in Somerset. We've got family in North Somerset, so after the job offer for Somerset came in, our house was on the market and sold for full asking the first weekend. We opted to rent first and buy once we got to know the area a bit better.
Having set out our criteria, of rural or semi rural, a big plot and ideally not too much work (our last two houses being major renovation projects) 18 house viewings later, we'd thrown the criteria out the window and fallen in love with & had an offer accepted on a Grade 2 listed Georgian town house, in need of major updating!
The OH has always loved Georgian properties, and they've always been well outside of budget, but this one hasn't been touched since the late 70's (plumbing and electrics are probably 60's) but IMO fantastic looking and has bags of potential. So we have 2800 sq ft of work to do!
I take it that plans are mandatory,
The old front, now the east side of the house
Internally, the wiring and plumbing is very dated, so will be first on the list of things to get done. There is also a part of the small walled garden than has a notable lean on it, which will need doing - alongside a chimney rebuild, again with a lean.
All of the radiators are proper museum pieces, and only one radiator on the first floor, on the landing!
Bathroom is a little dated! There is two made out of 1 room, so planning to make one fantastic sized one in when we come to redo it.
Kitchen and dining room are probably the best rooms in the house, but both need some investment. The fireplace in the kitchen is the local Ham Stone and mentioned in the listing.
There is just over .6 acres, mostly south facing, but walled to the west and a drive, and a walled and railing to the east. Plan is to build a double garage on part of the west garden and drive, but I recon that will be next year.
As a bit of back-story, me and the wife decided on a move out of the congested and way too busy SE England and move to a slightly more rural area, and reduce the mortgage a little.
I was lucky enough to have two job offers, one in Norfolk and the other in Somerset. We've got family in North Somerset, so after the job offer for Somerset came in, our house was on the market and sold for full asking the first weekend. We opted to rent first and buy once we got to know the area a bit better.
Having set out our criteria, of rural or semi rural, a big plot and ideally not too much work (our last two houses being major renovation projects) 18 house viewings later, we'd thrown the criteria out the window and fallen in love with & had an offer accepted on a Grade 2 listed Georgian town house, in need of major updating!
The OH has always loved Georgian properties, and they've always been well outside of budget, but this one hasn't been touched since the late 70's (plumbing and electrics are probably 60's) but IMO fantastic looking and has bags of potential. So we have 2800 sq ft of work to do!
I take it that plans are mandatory,
The old front, now the east side of the house
Internally, the wiring and plumbing is very dated, so will be first on the list of things to get done. There is also a part of the small walled garden than has a notable lean on it, which will need doing - alongside a chimney rebuild, again with a lean.
All of the radiators are proper museum pieces, and only one radiator on the first floor, on the landing!
Bathroom is a little dated! There is two made out of 1 room, so planning to make one fantastic sized one in when we come to redo it.
Kitchen and dining room are probably the best rooms in the house, but both need some investment. The fireplace in the kitchen is the local Ham Stone and mentioned in the listing.
There is just over .6 acres, mostly south facing, but walled to the west and a drive, and a walled and railing to the east. Plan is to build a double garage on part of the west garden and drive, but I recon that will be next year.
singlecoil said:
Very nice, some of that furniture would be worth having, any chance of getting it with the house?
Yes, the vendors are downsizing so there is a potential for purchase of some of it. The OH does furniture resortation as a bit of a hobby, so nearly had a fit as we were viewing.I've said we'll definitely have the mirror in the dining room, if nothing else.
inabox said:
Congratulations! I love Georgian properties. My brother has something similar to yours that was essentially derelict. I've been rewiring it and it's becoming a lovely home. What state are the windows in?
Mostly fubared. Painted shut, weights and cords removed on some of them and some screwed closed, but all of the downstairs have the original internal shutters, as does half the upstairs. That's this summers project to reinstate them.There is a fair bit of secondary glazing, although it helps for insulation, I think it ruins the look of the windows. I think a long chat with the local conservation officer is going to be an early priority.
Beautiful property which deserves sympathtic love. May I suggest. www.periodproperty.co.uk
Some very knowledgeable and helpful people on this excellent site.
Some very knowledgeable and helpful people on this excellent site.
Good Luck !Thanks all for the wishes of good luck, it's my first listed building, so going to be a bit of a learning curve on what I can and can't do without consent. We intend to do it very sympathetically so hopefully that should stand us in good stead.
Property values are much better as well.
Stuart70 said:
Gorgeous house, good luck with the work to follow.
I would love something like that, however sadly stuck in the south east....
It's one of the best decisions I've made to make the move to the south west, there is a real community feel here and people are genuinely friendly, something that the south east has lost. I would love something like that, however sadly stuck in the south east....
Property values are much better as well.
crankedup said:
Beautiful property which deserves sympathtic love. May I suggest. www.periodproperty.co.uk
Some very knowledgeable and helpful people on this excellent site.
Great site, thanks for sharing!Some very knowledgeable and helpful people on this excellent site.
I have a Georgian place a similar size to yourself and I love every minute I spend in it.
I also however weep at the monumental gas bills and the bodges that a 200 year old house inevitably suffers from. It is however worth it to not have to live in a modern clonebox. Basically take the rough with the smooth!
A few words of advice:
-Be prepared for the scale, everything is always bigger and more of it. We are wallpapering the house and when some of the drops in the hallway are 5m+ and none of the rooms are under 3m. A 10m roll of wallpaper doesn't go far. I've gone through 150m of skirting, need about the same again! Also standard furniture doesn't work, it needs to be massive to not look lost!
-Be prepared for overpainting. Everything will have 6+ increasingly badly applied paint. You may be able to live with it, but depending on how much of an eye you have for perfection it could drive you crazy.
-Nothing will be flat or square, therefore if it 'looks' right, it is right.
-The first day you go to the house after buying it and it is devoid of furniture you will have a wonder around and be thinking to yourself 'f
king hell it's big' 
Beautiful house you have, if I could pick mine up and put it in the country like yours is it would be the perfect home. I am therefore extremely jealous!
Look forward to the updates
I also however weep at the monumental gas bills and the bodges that a 200 year old house inevitably suffers from. It is however worth it to not have to live in a modern clonebox. Basically take the rough with the smooth!
A few words of advice:
-Be prepared for the scale, everything is always bigger and more of it. We are wallpapering the house and when some of the drops in the hallway are 5m+ and none of the rooms are under 3m. A 10m roll of wallpaper doesn't go far. I've gone through 150m of skirting, need about the same again! Also standard furniture doesn't work, it needs to be massive to not look lost!
-Be prepared for overpainting. Everything will have 6+ increasingly badly applied paint. You may be able to live with it, but depending on how much of an eye you have for perfection it could drive you crazy.
-Nothing will be flat or square, therefore if it 'looks' right, it is right.
-The first day you go to the house after buying it and it is devoid of furniture you will have a wonder around and be thinking to yourself 'f
king hell it's big' Beautiful house you have, if I could pick mine up and put it in the country like yours is it would be the perfect home. I am therefore extremely jealous!
Look forward to the updates
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