What is the best home improvement you have made?

R

ribena

Registered User
Messages
359
I'm just curious to know what is the best home improvement that anyone has ever made, whether it be changing an old fashioned bathroom suite, updating the kitchen or building on an extension.
 
We moved into an older house mid 2005 with only one toilet - from 8 year old house with 3! Immediately put in 2nd toilet.

The best feature left behind by previous owners - a "Staire" - not sure how to spell. Stairs for attic - absolutely excellent.
 
Four improvements which we made which we rate highly are:

1. Timber deck in garden (south facing)
2. Water softener system
3. Folding attic stairs
4. Burglar alarm

Smaller ones include:

1. Outside tap
2. Outside power socket and security lights
3. Replacing old radiator valves with TRVs

If I was trading up I'd definitely consider a solar panel for water heating in the summer months.
 
We also rewired and put in Gas and burglar alarm.

On the wish list - convert garage, build out into garden combining dining room and existing kitchen and making one big living area.

Oh yes - we got rid of some trees in front and back gardens that were blocking an awful lot of light. That alone transformed the look of the house.
 
I can remember as a child my parents spent years on trying to improve our house, two new rooms added and a garage, driveway, new kitchen, central heating and eventually gave up and built a new house.
I learnt from them and decided to build my dream home as soon as finances would allow.
In my opinion you simply cannot make a silk purse out of a sows ear.
Apart from small modifications to suit your lifestyle there is no way I would live in a house which was being rennovated and changed significantly.
I have so many memories of being without heat, light, a bathroom, a kitchen etc 'temporarily' while the latest changes were made.
 
Bamhan as somebody who's in the middle to trying to improve my old house I agree that the renovations etc are a right pain and i sometimes wish i had just bought new because every time i do one thing, i discover more hidden horrors. However i do feel in another way i am helping to preserve a bit of our heritage and history. Lets face it Ireland doesn't have that many old buildings and alot especially in the country are too small to be practical hense they are knocked down to make way for the increasing large almost american style houses. I feel in years to come we will regret the loss of the older buildings. Answering the original question I do feel that a big home improvement to any property is making the most of any outdoor space. Even if you're not really green fingered a really nice garden or patio is a selling point to alot of people. We may not really get the weather but its nice to think on the occassional evening in the spring and summer we can sit out after work , eat alfresco, have a barbacue etc.
 
I'm the total opposite.

I moved from a new house to an old house and it has been really great (although a bit challenging at times and I moved out for days here and there when things were really messy). I am a lover of old things in general though and like to be tinkering/dreaming up new schemes for my home. I think it's partly personality or aptitude related because I've often found that I'm far better completely redesigning someone else's botch than I am at designing the same thing from scratch. I love the idea of all the people that have lived there before and wondering what they were like and what possessed them to do some of the things they did.

The house I used to live in was so well designed that there was very little scope for improvement and it was boring. I also find brand new houses (including the one I owned) a bit soulless in their perfection.

I'm also rediscovering my childhood love of gardening and it's great that there are plants turning up in the old garden that I've never seen before and that the trees and hedges are well established and I have loads of privacy, which just doesn't really happen in a new house.

Best thing I've done since arriving; central heating (bit obvious), adding a proper stone patio (and general reclamation of a garden turned to meadow) and adding a bathroom (and especially restoring the old bath properly).

Rebecca
 
Thankyou Miss Ribena you've just reminded me of several other reasons why i prefer old houses. Lose sight of the reasons a bit when you're trying to correct someone elses botched job. I've taken up gardening as well and its just so nice after Christmas to see the green shoots and the buds forming. i'm waiting to see what flowers are coming up.
 
It is cavity wall insulation. Pumped in the first month we lived here. Void before that. Instant improvement.
 
A "Sliderobe" type wall-to-wall and ceiling-to-ceiling thingy in the sitting room, to take all hubby's books, CDs, videos/DVDs, maps, atlases, stuff and nonsense. The finish is painted glass (creamy) with horizontal and vertical mahogany strips (1.5" or so) every now and then. Looks very furnished and not at all like sliderobes. Hides a multitude and we've been able to throw out 4 book cases! Hubby is still here though .... somewhere!
 
Electric shower (no more waiting for immersion to heat)

Putting pebble dashing on outside walls and therefore not having to paint every few years.
 
In order

1) Power shower: I'm reminded of this every morning. It's nothing too fancy, just some added pressure. But it makes a huge difference

2) Stira : I'd agree with previous posters, this makes the attic useable (coupled with some cheap chipboard flooring)

3) Patio : I'll get to the decking in a few years, but the cheap concrete patio has made for many fun summer's evenings in the meantime
 
Yes Miss Ribena I do love old houses but when you have lived most of your childhood in a house which was never finished it would just seem like mental torture to go through it all again,.
I designed my new house from scratch and I think I will enjoy filling it with all the things I love.
We have spent four years working on the design and planning side of things and hope to be able to move in there by May and far from souless I think it contains as much of my heart and soul as is left over after bits taken by hubby and kids.
It is on the most perfect site with mature trees already there and glorious unspoilt countryside......
Perfection in my eyes and I hope future generations will think we were not afraid to put our stamp on the Irish Countryside......
Sorry for getting carried away but I dearly love this place every block and stone and cannot wait to create memeories there for me and my family.
As regards home improvements well I think it depends on whether you are doing them to increase your family's pleasure in using the house or to add value to the house itself.
What may be the ideal home improvement for your family may not necessarily add value and vice versa.....you have to be clear in your decisons for making alterations sometimes.
 
Good luck with the move Bamham and hope you have many happy years in your new home. Sounds like you put loads of thought into it. Did you find it much of a challenge marrying the unpsoilt countryside and environment with a new build?

I have a wish list on my computer of ideas that I'd like in a mythical "perfect home" of mine and heaps of sketches, some from when even I was a kid. I have a site which I could potentially build on of about 26 acres but (aside from a new-build not being old and me loving old things) could never come up with a way of designing a house that would give me exactly the features I woud like while at the same time preferably improve, but at the very least, leave as little impact/imprint on the countryside as possible, aesthetically primarily (although i would also be concerned about energy/pollution issues and initial impact on flora and fauna). Maybe if I had millions and millions or if I was an engineer myself I could work it out to my satisfaction.

Rebecca
 
I decided that we should be proud of our new build.
I am a huge fan of large country estate houses and the way they dominate the countryside around them.
I think if you design a house you are proud of and which suits the site on which it stands then there is no need to try to hide it or try to make it look like it has always been there.
While our house site comfortably in a hollow surrounded by native Irish trees and does not impact hugely on the surrounding countryside this is merely a fact of us falling in love with this particular site and then designing a house to sit comfortably within the site.
I relish driving up to it and around a sweeping drive and then there is the house.
It cannot be seen from the road but that was not a priority for me either.
I think if a house is planned well and designed with passion and personailty that it should have an impact on the surrounding countryside.
Take for example a period house I simply love in DOnerail Park County Cork.
It stands on an elevated site, planting was designed so as to allow the owners an unspoilt view of their estate.
It is a beautiful construction, perfect in my eyes and I would see no reason or logic in trying to conseal it.
It sits in perfect harmony in it's surroundings.
Likewise I beleive we have designed and created a house which in time will do the same.
We have not removed any native trees, nor knocked the native hedgerow which exists as a boundary to our site.
We intend creating a garden to compliment the house and the countryside.
Parts of this garden will hopefully be dramatic and spectacular, at least in my eyes and I would hope they will impact on the what is already there.
We should be encouraged I think to develop a style of architecture which we can be proud of and hope that in hundreds of years that some family will be thinking of the life history of my now new house as you are of your house which was brand new one day too.
 
I was torn between building or buying a second-hand house. I have been planning my dream house for about 4 years, have a lovely elevated site with beautiful views but something just kept me from going ahead and building. I always felt that if I decided for example to put the cooker in a certain place and discovered it was completely in the wrong place when I moved in, I would be so mad with myself and would be too stubborn to move it, whereas when you buy a second-hand house, if you don't like where the cooker is, you don't mind moving it. Like Rebecca, I like constantly updating and improving on the previous owner's ideas. I bought a house that is now 18 years old and really only needs cosmetic updating. I have a big long wish list and while I'd love to change the whole house, I have to be realistic and practical and change things on priority. The back of my house is tarmaced but I would love a proper patio area, the front of my house has a tiny bit of grass which to me is stupid to be lugging the lawnmower around to so I would like to pave or cobble-lock it. Inside I have a pink bathroom suite and 10ft fireplace which has actually grown on me now. I bought a Dolle attic stairs yesterday which I'm getting installed next week along with coving in the hall and sitting room. I'm beginning to wonder if I should think about my dream house in the country again......
 
Sometimes when you add up all the money you spend on trying to convert someone else's home into your dream home you realise you could have designed and built excatly what you wanted in the first place.
Often I think people are daunted when they face the challenge of creaating something from scratch....it's the oh I can suddenly have anytthing I want now I have no idea what that is syndrome.
But if you are methodical about certain things while allowing some sope for just pure luxury then the correct mix can be achieved.
For me the chance to have a master suite was the clincher....having always shared a room as a child and teenager and then as a student and living in small pokey houses with a tiny wardrobe I simply wnated the sheer luxury of a dressing room and a bathroom all for me.......
 
I bought a house two years ago in the neighbourhood where I grew up my parents still live there two blocks away, the houses are about 28 years old and are all solid block construction with good sized rooms I could easily fit a double bed in the smallest of the three bedrooms it's was a hectic first year renovating but thank God just the kitchen to go but luckily Dads a builder so we are planning on extending across the back of the house to provide a good sized kitchen and dining area I bought my home for 155k currently new three bed homes in the surrounding area are being sold at between 190k - 200k thats a lot of money for a house that is smaller than the one I have. As it is I know my neighbours a long time from growing up there and they know me so I'm happy enough to be there but to be honest there were times when I thought that it would have been a better option to buy a new home, then I see posts about people complaining about shoddy work done in new homes and being able to hear everything that goes on next door and I think well I'm lucky and happy to have what I have. The list has been long in improvements, new wiring, sockets, switches, extra sockets, smoke alarms, new radiators, valves and plumbing changed in the attic completely new doors, frames, architrave, skirting, dado rails, stairs, semi solid ash wooden flooring running into both sitting rooms, carpets in three bedrooms, landing and stairs, new bathroom suite and bathroom fully tiled, stira stairs fitted and attic floored, new double glazed pvc windows, front door and double opening patio doors installed in sitting room leading to back yard.
There is probably more but I can say that everything has been and made a major improvement for us, this year it's all about getting the kitchen started and hopefully then I can put my feet up I wouldn't trade what I have well not yet anyway ;)
 
1. Kids
2. Power shower
3. Insulation - walls,windows,attic
4. Stira
5. Moving PC from "computer room" to sitting room and making it more a family asset
6. Cheapo carpets that get replaced every 2/3 years instead of longer term alternative
7. Toungue&Groove of sitting room walls, such a difference on heat
8. Back boiler
9. Sensor light out the front
10. Outside tap out the back
11. Drainage in gardens
12. Converting garage
13. Front porch to block winter wind
14. Doing virtually all the above and making mistakes/learning along the way
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top