Are you moving house?

Are you factoring in the value of the potential building plot Gramaretto, or looking to sell it separately? If the latter, sell it before the house to avoid CGT.

I'm still waiting to hear if I have planning permission Barleyfields
If not, the plot will go with the house.

Has anyone bought a new property? I’ve not had much luck house hunting since I lost a really nice house, so I’m now also looking for new properties as well. I’m just wondering if they are fraught with teething problems? and I assume gardens are very basic.

Our present house was new when we bought it, tanith but that was years ago.

There were a few minor problems but we had been asked to write out a Snagging List so they came to put things right as they building nearby for some time.
There should also be a 10 year New Build warranty.

Gardens tend to be smaller now than when we bought ours but are a blank canvas so you can be creative. There should be fences and a patio laid by the builder.

as they were building nearby.

Our first house was a year old and had no teething issues.

We had to go to auctions to buy furniture!
Oh that I had that problem now 😅

Our first (new)house was full of teething issues.

Three days before Christmas and off work with a nasty infection, I sat in the site hut looking as if I might pass away at any moment, refusing to move until someone came and repaired the bathroom loo that was unuseable because it was leaking. It was a 3 storey house and the alternative loo was 2 floors down. The builders had said they would repair it '.in the new year'. They mended it that day.

All our furniture was bought in auctions, donated by family members or bought in junk shops and renovated - and 56 years on - still is. This traait goes down the family on both sides - DH's grandfather was an antiques dealer. It is clearly an inherited gene because DD wouldn't know how to buy new furniture and DS's daughter, aged 17, is already buying and renovating furniture for her bedroom.

We were much the same M0nica so now with the downsize I am trying to distinguish between the hand-me-downs, those we won at auction, the carefully chosen from junk shops and one or two bought new.

I've arranged for another auctioneer to come in a couple of weeks. He's on
the lower end of the scale! The last one only takes things valued at over £300. I don't have much of that.

The bottom fell out of the brown furniture market about 20 years ago. We hve drastically reduced the value of our house contents insurance because items of furniture, which were valued at £400-500 at the beginning of the century are now only worth double figure prices.

I am not bothered, we bought very little of it, mostly inherited, but I did buy a set of chairs for £300 in 1998 - and sold them for £30 in 2021.

I like my "brown furniture" but even the upcycling place didn't want a good chest of drawers (or chester draws as I've seen on the local FB page ) because they were mahogany. 😁 They renovate and resell furniture, so what was wrong with chalk painting them or similar?
Shabby chic or whatever is on trend.

Allira

I like my "brown furniture" but even the upcycling place didn't want a good chest of drawers (or chester draws as I've seen on the local FB page ) because they were mahogany. 😁 They renovate and resell furniture, so what was wrong with chalk painting them or similar?
Shabby chic or whatever is on trend.

Shabby chic is old hat now.
Mid century is in!
We have sold most of our furniture with the house, just sent some art to the auctioneers.

It would be terrible to start scrapping the mahogany sideboard or Rosewood bookcase.
I guarantee that they will be appreciated again some day.

I have an enormous Victorian, mahogany wardrobe which takes up an entire bedroom wall. We inherited it in our last house. It houses clothes and linen in its vast drawers and cupboards. I am tempted to take it with me when I move, as any new replacement will be far more flimsy.

Sago

Allira

I like my "brown furniture" but even the upcycling place didn't want a good chest of drawers (or chester draws as I've seen on the local FB page ) because they were mahogany. 😁 They renovate and resell furniture, so what was wrong with chalk painting them or similar?
Shabby chic or whatever is on trend.

Shabby chic is old hat now.
Mid century is in!
We have sold most of our furniture with the house, just sent some art to the auctioneers.

Oh, I must get with it! 😁

Some of ours is mid-century teak.

Sago I am beginning to think Mid-century Modern has had its day as well.

We bought an elm Ercol dining table and chairs about 5 years ago. I was looking up the current value of them because we will probably need to sell them when we move and was shocked to discover how far the price of them had fallen

Oh no! Ercol is not passé as well, is it?

I'd love a very small Ercol table and chairs for the kitchen if only I could find a set!

I'm never on trend. 😁

Mid century Danish furniture is very much on trend and anything by Robin Day or Hille.

Our home has brown furniture. Fashionable or not, it was my grandparents and great grandparents. Boring NeoClassical - Hepplewhite and Sheraton. Plus nice Ercol purchased for a song, painted white.

We're without style and nobody cares a bit.

I have 2 small ercol armchairs. A previous owner painted them white and recovered the seats in floral fabric. The pirelli webbing has perished. I don't find them very comfy or pretty. Any takers? 🤣😅

Norah

Our home has brown furniture. Fashionable or not, it was my grandparents and great grandparents. Boring NeoClassical - Hepplewhite and Sheraton. Plus nice Ercol purchased for a song, painted white.

We're without style and nobody cares a bit.

Actually Norah, although you may not think of yourself as fashionable, your style is one people respond to very positively.

It sounds very similar to ours. and, as you know, our house is for sale at the moment, and viewers, always tell the estate agent what a lovely house we have, referring to its presentation.

We went to look at another potential house purchase last week and the young man showing us round, said he had been surprised we were looking at this particular house as a down sizer, then in a sudden rush he said once he had seen the house we were selling and how beautiful it was inside, he understood why we were viewing the house we were standing in.

I do not say this from any sense of self congratulation, I am as puzzled as anyone, but it shows that younger people, actually like houses with brown furniture, but they know so little about it, and have only ever experienced buying new furniture, so they do not know where to begin. One potential buyer as actually asked us whether we would be prepared to sell any of of our (brown) furniture with the house!

Brown furniture suits old houses MOnica, and yours is very old. On the other hand, modern furniture can also look good in old houses - my son’s house is C15 and he has a mix of old and new pieces which blend beautifully. I have a contemporary house and although I have a couple of pieces of inherited brown furniture, which I keep as they are of sentimental value, they really don’t suit it.

Well, we've got brown furniture (not antique but retro!) in a fairly modern house but I don't care what anyone else thinks because we like it.

It's a bit like clothes, as we get older we go for comfort!

I sold some furniture recently on Facebook marketplace. One young couple, furnishing a mid century house got very excited to discover that the wing armchair grandad's was actually designed by an Italian who worked for Ercol.
I never liked the chair so was delighted that it was going to an appreciative home.

Allira well, precisiely

barleyfields I am not casting any aspersions on other peoples taste in decor, I am just amused that with brown furniture at auction valued only at fiewood levels, so many people seem to find houses with brown furniture so attractive and comfortable, a word used a lot.

Our house is merely an old house with a lot of old furniture, books and pictures on all the walls. - and a big squashy sofa in front of the wood-burning stove.

Must admit I don’t like/appreciate brown furniture give me light and modern any day. As they say good job we’re all different in our likes and dislikes.

M0nica

Norah

Our home has brown furniture. Fashionable or not, it was my grandparents and great grandparents. Boring NeoClassical - Hepplewhite and Sheraton. Plus nice Ercol purchased for a song, painted white.

We're without style and nobody cares a bit.

Actually Norah, although you may not think of yourself as fashionable, your style is one people respond to very positively.

It sounds very similar to ours. and, as you know, our house is for sale at the moment, and viewers, always tell the estate agent what a lovely house we have, referring to its presentation.

We went to look at another potential house purchase last week and the young man showing us round, said he had been surprised we were looking at this particular house as a down sizer, then in a sudden rush he said once he had seen the house we were selling and how beautiful it was inside, he understood why we were viewing the house we were standing in.

I do not say this from any sense of self congratulation, I am as puzzled as anyone, but it shows that younger people, actually like houses with brown furniture, but they know so little about it, and have only ever experienced buying new furniture, so they do not know where to begin. One potential buyer as actually asked us whether we would be prepared to sell any of of our (brown) furniture with the house!

Our home is quite old (my grandparents and great grandparents) extended, modernized. Old brown furniture of the slim variety, suits our old home well. As does old brown furniture painted white. We like what we like, I don't know what others think - haven't asked. We're not typically on trend or stylish.