Who'd live in a house like this? Part 2

Deeec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118530218#Comment_118530218

Jaysis that is grim. The sellers would have been better to rip everything out - at least then someone could see the potential.

Tow

Phone and electrical sockets in the bathroom. Leather torture bench complete with neck brace and chains. The dryer rack you see on the ceiling of the Kitchen was supplied free when you bought an Aga cooker, back is the day. Looks like the house still uses old 15a sockets. Expensive parquet floor and banisters etc. Looks like a good few bob was spent on building the house and little or nothing since.

Mollyb60

Jeebus. Looks like a house in rural Russia from the 70's. Single glazed too I think. It would cost a fortune to bring that up to spec.

wassie

Advert says downstairs had a doctors surgery.....if those walls could talk!

HeidiHeidi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118530218#Comment_118530218

That house is the maddest mixture of styles, quality, design - and electrical horror-shows!!!

What is that concoction right beside the sink in pic 15???

HildaOgdenx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118530269#Comment_118530269

But the estate agent is 'delighted to present this fabulous 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom detached...'

Fabulous, it ain't.

Mr. CooL ICE

I thought "horror show" was a harsh description when I started looking through it as it just seemed like a house that was overdue a renovation and had been lived in by elderly people until recently. But then I saw those pictures...

And why were those pictures repeated a second time???

miamee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118530492#Comment_118530492

I think it is a hastily added phone line - there is a cordless phone sitting on the little shelf.

wotzgoingon

That house in Cork, you'd want to be brave to buy it as it needs gutting. Big enough site too though if you wanted to live in that town for some reason you'd be better off knocking it and building a nicer house.

As above an elderly person lived there for years as evident by the stair lift and never spent a penny on it since they hit 65 and looked to live to a decent age as the condition of the house says so.

freshpopcorn

I'd like the Newmarket house for hosting my Murder Mystery parties.

BattleCorp1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118514091#Comment_118514091

You could always pay Big Joe's Joe (The Young Hulk) to keep the riff-raff away. That's if he isn't in jail at the moment.

SupaCat95

Wait until you see this beauty because it is all hidden. 70 Abbeygrove Navan.

https://www.daft.ie/for-sale/semi-detached-house-70-abbeygrove-navan-co-meath/2628555

So my buddy wanted to buy it. He recognised it was at the top end of the Price Property Register price (115% previous highest paid in the estate). He recognised that there was a good bit of work to be done. So the Estate agent handed him a list of surveyor's, which he promptly read and put in the bin. He went with a friend of his wifes husband an experienced builder.

The builder never even completed the survay. The list of shoddy workmanship was extensive. Shoddy plumbing with pipes exposed, complete rewiring job, floors uneven, new central heating system, new windows, cracked flu pipe in the chimney, new doors, technicalities with the stairs, one wall completely uninsulated. He never even looked at the attic, the bill in his estimate was about €70k plus without looking at the roof or attic.

Then, The estate agent wouldnt give him back the deposit, saying the contracts had to be returned unsigned. Really they were hoping to hang onto the money. He had to get his solicitor to get it back.

wotzgoingon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118532299#Comment_118532299

Mad. I'd say someone is going to get stung as it looks to the layman's eye that it is fine from the pictures anyway.

SupaCat95

@wotzgoingon they are either delusional or they are hoping some young builder buck with his payout from his uncles farm, thinks its not so bad as a fixer upper.

Deeec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118532299#Comment_118532299

Being honest your friend should have got a proper surveyor to do a proper survey - his builder friend may only be trying to get some work for himself.

mystic86

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118533410#Comment_118533410

Hardly, sure he didn't even finish it because he knew it required too much work, would cost too much, and the potential buyer wouldn't be OK with that.

Tow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118533662#Comment_118533662

It looks fine, you could move into it as is. It is probably 50 years old, they are not buying a new house. It has central heating, from the height of the sockets it was rewired recently, but they surface mounted upstairs. You could easy spend 70k plus on any house. New kitchen, bathroom, heating system, laminate/carpets, windows and gutters.

Did it have dry rot or signs of subsidence etc?

wassie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118533410#Comment_118533410

Every single builder I know at the moment has their order books full and doesnt need to go chasing work. I would take the opinion of a builder whom I know over a random surveyor's report when buying a house.

I've seen too many surveyor reports over the years that are essentially cut and past jobs after a cursory glance at the house. Don't get me wrong, there are some really good surveyors out there, but there are many more who are lazy and just churning out the work.

Mr. CooL ICE

I'd be on the side of SupaCat95's friend. There's a handy little disclaimer on the ad that reads like it's to cover their asses:

Please note we have not tested any apparatus, fixtures, fittings, or services. Interested parties must undertake their own investigation into the working order of these items. All measurements are approximate and photographs/floors provided for guidance only.

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118533901#Comment_118533901

that is on pretty much every house ad.

ec18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118493352#Comment_118493352

That's been up for sale for ages. It's actually gone up 50K since the last time it was up

Mr. CooL ICE

https://www.daft.ie/for-sale/detached-house-shangril-williamstown-road-co-waterford/3549721

Like, I've seen far worse. But you'd really have to love pine.

But looking at the pictures, I can't figure out whether or not there is a conservatory extended with another conservatory.

Deeec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118533777#Comment_118533777

I agree €70K is not alot to have to spend on a house of that age and by the looks of the house you could live in it for a while before doing anything. Most houses of that era would need work. Alot of the stuff mentioned like windows, doors, uneven floors etc.would be visible as needing replacement to any person viewing the house.

wench

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118534140#Comment_118534140

That bed setup in pic 20 is just asking for trouble.

I think the conservatory is off the kitchen, which also has a lot of windows.

josip

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118534208#Comment_118534208

From the last pic, it looks like it's been extended 5 times over the years. It even looks like they extended the conservatory with another bit of a conservatory.

MuttonDagger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118530040#Comment_118530040

Looks like they are hooking a stove up to the central heating and didnt finish, note the removed fireplace.

PommieBast

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118534282#Comment_118534282

Its the scaffold that looks a little odd to me..

Ray Palmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118533662#Comment_118533662

@SupaCat95

**For some reason the wrong quote was used

Most of what you mentioned is completely normal in a house of that age. Some of it is just complaints about older building construction. A wall completely not insulated is a ridiculous complaint about such an old house where no insulation was required at all. Exposed pipes, please that is every house that age unless the owners boxed it in. The house probably didn't come with a central heating system so that is how they were installed. Electrics on an old house will need rewiring at some point but unlikely immediate requirement.

A builder is not surveyor in even the vaguest sense. From what you described a lot of this is nonsense such as door replacement which I would say they were quoting for a finish they wanted not remedial work on the building. If you have central heating you don't need a working chimney and it is also a minor job to fix a broken flu. I have the same issue and never bothered fixing it because I don't light fires

Your friend seems to want a new house and not prepared to spend time on money on older buildings. Should start looking at cheaper newer houses. I have had builders say something needs to be done that didn't like replace the fuse board because they say it isn't up to code. It may not be up to modern code for new installations but doesn't mean it has to be replaced. One guy tried to tell me that you can no longer buy fuses for an old style fuse board.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118510752#Comment_118510752

I'd assume it means there's a planning or title issue that they will not fix and its up to you to sort it after.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118530218#Comment_118530218

Could tell it had been a doctors surgery by just looking at it from the outside - been in countless near identical looking gaffs that are rural doctors surgeries. Must have been an architect advertising in the medical press in the 60s.

Died last year:

rip.ie/death-notice/dr.-john-p.-h.-jack-bourke-newmarket-cork/435847