Construction work in residential areas

The point being that you do not like people buying houses then renovating them to be what they deem suitable?

I understand that this can be annoying when multiple houses do it.
But on an individual level these people are looking out for themselves. In the next year I may buy a house.

Key points for me are location, school, open areas, near clubs etc.
Then comes the housing criteria.
We need 4 bedrooms. But if we happened to find a 3 bedroom with a big garden that could hold an extension that’s great if the other stuff was perfect.

It may inconvenience the neighbours. But if it makes us happy that’s all I care about.

You will make someone a very lovely neighbour.

What is your suggestion bewitched, that you are put in overall control over what other people do with their own homes?

I actually get on wonderfully with my neighbours. During maternity leave I told them all I was home constantly so to tell Amazon etc to drop around to me. Which they all did. We exchange gifts, chat constantly. Lock down street bingo was brilliant!

But overall in the decision between a stranger And my families security and happiness there is zero contest.
As far as I’m concerned a few months of building work is nothing.
The fact someone else starts before or after me isn’t my problem.
I will always work within the law so that’s all I need to worry about.

Again. Housing prices are a joke now. To get the good location, good school and right house is more than some people can ever dream of. Two of those are non negotiable but it’s cheaper to part build the perfect house and it’s much easier.

Beswitched I think you must live near me! We haven’t been able to enjoy our garden for the past five summers or so because of building works at various houses around us. The last straw was last summer when we and another neighbour complained to Environmental Health about builders cutting paving slabs into little pieces with a petrol driven angle grinder for weeks on end to lay a path. I should also add that the home owners around us often move into temporary accommodation to avoid all the noise and disruption leaving the neighbours to suffer. It seems to us that building work these days seems to take so long.

Galaxy

What is your suggestion bewitched, that you are put in overall control over what other people do with their own homes?

Yes, that is of course exactly what I'm suggesting

When we planned an extension I felt so guilty about the noise. The work seemed to go on and on and all I could do was keep apologising to all who were affected. Luckily my immediate neighbours were away for 6 months.

The house across the road from my mother was sold recently. It's a lovely old pre war house. The new owners are completely tearing it apart. Out are coming original fireplaces, cornicing, floorboards etc and a sleek new interior is planned.

The neighbours are shaking their heads and wondering why, if you don't like period features you would buy a period house.

There are lots of more modern houses in the area up for sale at the moment that are cheaper to buy than this house.

I would imagine it's because the home owners have different opinions and tastes to the neighbours.

It’s always sad to see original features ripped out, but we have to accept that what to us maybe beautiful features, are just a load of out dated old rubbish to someone else.
I know a family who did exactly this, they totally gutted a lovely pre war house. They had a stunning stained glass door, now UPVC.
But it’s their choice, one day people will probably be despairing about families ripping out period UPVC doors.

Wow. That's awful.

Beswitched

Wow. That's awful.

No, it’s not. It’s a matter of taste and priorities. Clearly you think it’s awful, but they would not have spent good money doing the work if they didn’t think it worthwhile. The leading in stained glass panels can easily be melted with a blow torch to allow an intruder or burglar to gain entry without any noise. Modern uPVC doors are way more secure.

Pre-war houses suit some people, but a lot of space is lost by having a hallway with doors off, and if you have small children, you can’t easily see what they are doing. Knocking rooms through might work better for a family, and there’s more scope for an uncluttered living space. They also tend to lack a downstairs loo, and have small kitchens, whereas most families would choose to have a larger kitchen with some dining space and either room for a dishwasher, washing machine and freezer or a utility room.

1930s houses tend to be built on larger plots than modern ones, so there’s usually room to build an extension. The ceilings are higher than many modern houses, too, so once the rooms have been knocked through, there’s a lovely feeling of space.

So I can see some very good reasons why a family might prefer to buy and renovate a pre-war house than to buy something newer. The real down side is that some pre-war houses come ready-equipped with curtain-twitching, whingeing neighbours.

1930s pre-war semis:

Two nice sized reception rooms, a kitchen you couldn't swing a cat in. Not at all suitable for the way we live now, to quote Trollope.

But substantially built and, as geekesse said, higher ceilings, on larger plots etc.

We saw MIL's old house after it had been thoroughly renovated and the layout was far better.
I've seen the small house I grew up in online and it looks totally different although they lost one bedroom in the process.

The people who bought the first house that me and dh lived in completely gutted it. It looks a thousand times better.

It’s not realistic to think things can stay the same, the house we live in has passed through many hands, each family making additions and changes, at some point, half the garden was sold off to build another house, long before our time.
What was originally a small farm cottage has evolved into a spacious family home.

The lady that lived in the house next door to us loved her garden. It was laid to lawn with beautiful borders and unusual shrubs. The young couple that moved in after she died have ripped it all out and laid concrete slabs.
Their house, their choice of course but it still makes me sad.

Not sure why I can't quote Galaxy's post at 17.24. Gransnet won't allow it for some reason.

But I suppose it illustrates democracy in action. S/he /they are perfectly entitled to their view that old houses should be ripped apart and anyone who objects is a curtain twitcher who should move on and mind their own business.

Others are perfectly entitled to their view that those who rip apart beautiful old houses and throw away the original features that are part of the story of the house are crass cultural vandals with no sense of history, taste or artistic empathy.

It takes all sorts I suppose.

But what's beautiful to you is not beautiful to others.
Your taste is not the 'right' taste it's just your taste.

That's my point. I might think you have uncultured taste and no artistic sensibility. You might think I'm totally impractical and a curtain twitcher.

I seem to remember that ripping out period features - cornices, dado rails, fireplaces etc. was a very big Thing in the 60s and 70s, but by the 90s older houses had become fashionable again and people were busily putting them back. Not far from here there is a whole shop dedicated to such features.

Tiny kitchens (largely used by the skivvy in larger houses) were never going to be most people’s preferred cup of tea though, so it’s no wonder that kitchen extensions are so popular now. Ditto bifold doors - I was a bit dubious when dd proposed having them, but they do make the most wonderful ‘picture frame’ for the garden, make the room very light, and are very practical with very little ones in and out.

We live in an area filled with Victorian villas. Massive houses. Many have been pulled down. Some have built nice apartments on them, others not so nice.

I prefer the original features. To me the removal of an original door with stained glass for UPVC is an abomination, but it's true, that's just my opinion.

As Witzend mentions, in the 60s and 70s, picture rails were being pulled down, fabulous fireplaces ripped out etc etc. It's just fashion. When we bought our house we were thrilled to discover beautiful spindles on the staircase that had been covered with MDF. Many people decided to knock through the 2 reception rooms but now that fad appears to be changing. A builder friend of mine is inundated with requests to convert back to 2 rooms.

I'm not sure it's the individual's taste all the time. I think a lot of people see other doing things and feel they have to do it as well.

Yes that's sort of the situation when you live in a world with other people, you have to accept that people will have different views to you and unless they break the law, there is nothing you can do.

Not sure if that's directed at me, Galaxy, but I've never said I don't accept people doing things differently.

I'm very lucky to live in an area where beautiful homes have been maintained and it hasn't affected me.

But if a neighbour suddenly decided to rip everything out ... c'est la vie!

But I'm as entitled to my opinion as is everyone else.

Sometimes the very nice original doors are not robust enough, though.
We have a rental maisonette, one of 2 in a purpose built Edwardian ‘house’ with 2 adjacent original front doors.

While we were renovating it (from a sadly neglected dump) a tradesman working next door said, ‘I hate to tell you, love, but anyone could kick that door in, in seconds - it’s happened around here.’

It’s not in a particularly high crime area, but we weren’t going to take the risk. The navy composite door, with a nice ‘stained glass’ fanlight looks very nice, and more importantly, it’s much more secure than the old door - 5 bolts that shoot out into the frame when you lock it.
The other owner has since put in an almost identical one.