Skips!

[Stonehead]

most of our furnature and kitchen is not out of skips but is from people who where throwing it away. We got some great 50's funrature from an old co-op that was closing down.

Most of our stuff is Freecycled, found or hand-me-ons. The only downside to that is that you can end up with three dining room tables, but no mattress for your king-size bed.

It can also be difficult to find things that can be squeezed up an old, narrow staircase - so visitors staying in our spare room get a squeaky old air bed.

I do have a flatpack computer desk, but it's at least 10 years old, held together with copious amounts of hot glue, is missing several bits, the laminate surface has worn through under the mouse, and those strange screws seem to blow out of the chipboard with monotonous regularity.

Our big luxuries are six mismatched bookcases - replacing the previous arrangements of white painted breeze blocks and planks.

Something that really annoyed me several years back was when a young couple bought a beautifully restored terraced house just down the road from us in London. It had sash windows, a hardwood, panelled front door, original Victorian fireplaces and mouldings, a gorgeous, original cast iron bath with the original taps and the original toilet (with concealed modern plumbing)

What did the new owners do? Smashed the bath and toilet with a sledgehammer and threw the bits out the window, replaced the windows and door with plastic double glazing, ripped out the fireplaces and knocked through the walls to create "modern living". Argh! (Even if you don't like Victorian fittings or recycling, consider the financial value of that beautiful bath and loo!!!!)

[the.fee.fairy]

[Millymollymandy]

Bet they are kicking themselves now - everybody is desperate for houses with original features and they are worth a fortune!

[Stonehead]

Bet they are kicking themselves now - everybody is desperate for houses with original features and they are worth a fortune!

It was only six or seven years ago. We had an estate agent around to value our place at the time and he was gobsmacked. He said in that area, period features were an absolute must and the owners had knocked at least 10-15% off the value of the house within six weeks of moving in.

We encountered similar attitudes when selling our house - an 1830s model cottage built to show how workers could be housed well. It had all the original walls and most of the doors, we'd had the rotten windows and doors replaced with exact matches of the originals then re-used the original fittings and hinges, and it had beautiful original hand-cut wood panelling. It even had the original gaslight fittings.

We'd carefully halved a large bedroom to provide an inside bathroom and toilet (with period-style fittings), and put in a modern kitchen that, while clearly new, was sympathetic to the rest of the house. We restored the internal chimneys so the original fireplaces could be used again, and having found the original colours (very dark green and dark creamy yellow) we lightened them to a more modern pallette, then used them to modern tastes (so very pale creamy lemon walls with dark green skirting, doors, panelling, and windows inside).

Outside, we repointed the house with lime mortar, painted the mortar around the doors and windows in buttermilk and then painted the external woodwork in dark red. Again, the original colours.

But when we had people looking around, they wanted to knock out walls, rip out the panelling, close up the "dirty" fireplaces, rip out the windows and put in modern ones, replace the new kitchen etc etc. But there was no way I was going to let all the hard work put in by the OH and myself be destroyed, so we sold it for less money to a couple who liked the house exactly the way it was (and who couldn't have afforded it at our original asking price).

I think it is completely bonkers to pay top money for a house with period fitting and features, only to rip them out and "modernise".

Anyway, we still made a good profit to sink into buying a smallholding and felt good about selling a beautifully restored house to a couple who clearly appreciated it and couldn't otherwise have had it. A lot of people thought we were mad, but to be frank, we are!!

[Millymollymandy]

I can understand that! I would feel a bit the same about a garden I had lovingly created too.

Anyway, given all the TV progs that have been on over the last 5 - 10 years stressing how important original period features are in a house, I'm surprised there are so many people still wanting to rip them all out!