Talk to me about 60s/70s houses

(48 Posts)
StainlessSteelBegonia Sun 22-Sep-13 11:41:27

DH and I have been house hunting for a while, and we are coming to the conclusion that the best way to tick all the boxes on our moving list AND still be able to afford to buy in our preferred area will mean buying a 60s/70s house.

It's a bit of a serious mindshift for me. I tend to like the big, square rooms and fairly high ceilings of 30s houses. (I got over the Victorian thing around a decade ago after our first Victorian flat needed non-stop damp treatment for 2 soul destroying years.) Most of the 60s/70s places we've seen online have looked like they're in pretty dire need of modernisation (coloured bathroom suites, manky bathroom carpets, ancient kitchens, and so on) OR have that slightly strange Victorian-repro-fireplace-in-a-60s-house look.

Any MNers out there with a lovingly updated/redesigned 60s/70s house? Any good/bad points to keep in mind?

Yama Mon 23-Sep-13 14:01:32

Yes to big windows. Apart from getting the dc a blackout blind, we have kept the previous owners as they would cost a fortune to replace.

One of my favourite things is our enormous from garden. Feels like we are so far away from the road. The very quiet road. I have never felt such love for a house. And to think what my first impressions were when I saw it on Rightmove. I thought it looked like a Scandinavian jail. grin

exexpat Mon 23-Sep-13 14:06:41

If it's 1960s and looks like it hasn't been modernised or altered much over the years, be aware of the possibility of asbestos lurking in the ceilings etc. Friends have just had a nightmare dealing with asbestos in a 1960-ish house they just bought, and which wasn't picked up in the survey. They had to move out for weeks while it was removed, and it cost pretty much all the money they had planned to spend on a new kitchen and bathroom.

newgirl Mon 23-Sep-13 14:08:57

My friend did an amazing job with her 70 house - amtico flooring throughout modern bathrooms fab kitchen - it's light and spacious and I'm very jealous!

Mefisto Mon 23-Sep-13 14:09:58

Something else to consider - have lived in a couple of 1960s builds and both had warm air central heating. I got on really well with this and found it very economical. I dislike radiators so was great having all that extra wall space but this type of system isn't everyone's cup of tea.

TediousFool Mon 23-Sep-13 14:14:22

Mefisto, they always have warm air central heating in horror movies. Move into a home with fancy little grills in your walls and you are going to be possessed by the spirit of some witch from the 1800's TRUFACT.

Barbabeau Mon 23-Sep-13 14:21:46

Our 1960s place did have forced air but the previous owner ripped it out. All the other houses around us had their systems ripped out as well.

I think a lot of the original forced air heating systems weren't that great. The technology has come on since then but they don't seem to put it in houses over here anymore.

I hate having radiators taking up space on the walls.

I love the modern house website. There's also modernist estates tumblr which focuses on flats.

Mefisto Mon 23-Sep-13 14:28:31

Shhhh tedious- we don't want to put off the OP although all that ductwork did give me the creeps just a little bit

Quenelle Mon 23-Sep-13 14:33:08

Please everyone stop encouraging people to like 60s houses. Let them keep paying a premium for Victorian character so hopefully one day I will be able to afford a 60s house of my own.

Mefisto Mon 23-Sep-13 14:43:07

Apologies Quenelle you are right. Just that this thread has made me miss my old place even more <sniff>

DisappointedHorse Mon 23-Sep-13 16:19:00

I've just thought of another plus.

I get hardly any house spiders. 4 a year, tops.

frankie4 Mon 23-Sep-13 16:31:36

We have got a 1970s house that was completely unmodernised so we redid the whole house.

Took out the warm air heating and put in radiators where we wanted them. This also freed up a lot of cupboard space that had been used for the flues etc for the heating.

We replaced all the internal doors and blocked up the warm air hearing grills. Replaced all the carpets downstairs with wooden flooring and knocked through some of the rooms.

We had to buy some new, more modern furniture as out old house was 1920s and the furniture did not go with the new house. Now all decorated in white and oak, so really fresh and airy.

Sixtiesqueen Mon 23-Sep-13 19:47:45

We swapped a 1931 house for a 1961 house almost three years ago. I miss the architectural detail of the old house but we have stripped this one back To brick and replaced everything from the roof to the skirting boards. There is literally only the original brick of the original part of the house left.

I'm a fan of Edwardian houses so we replaced the skirting boards with much deeper (though plain) versions and also added plain coving to the ceilings. I had a cast iron fireplace in the last house so we added the same here but were careful to go for the plainest design possible and a white limestone surround. We've used farrow and ball paints and the overall effect is (IMO) tasteful and yet somehow in keeping with the plain design of the house.

We knocked out the original small kitchen and enlarged it to about 6 times its size, adding a pitched roof, velux windows and 5 metre bifold doors. This is now a living room/kitchen with a utility room and a playroom directly off it. Having a large garden to the rear and the side really allowed for this - the side of the house was about 7 metres from the boundary.

I don't miss the old sanded floorboards, they looked gorgeous but were cold in winter and let the spiders in. We now have amtico, which looks great.

I do like the big windows but they have been expensive to replace and to buy curtains for. Also, there isn't much wall space somehow so it's been impossible to find a home for all of our pictures.

We can get 6 cars on the drive, we are about 12 metres back from the pavement and the houses are wide apart. I do love this house, but I must admit I'd like to downsize it for an Edwardian house with a smaller garden when I'm older. The garden takes a lot of mowing!

Mandy21 Mon 23-Sep-13 21:25:28

We had a 60s house, 1969 I think. As everyone has said, beautifully light, massive windows, really square big rooms. Large plot size.

Cons : Ugly from the outside, maroon bathroom suite although it was huge (with double windows) when we knocked through between the bathroom and toilet. Formica kitchen, carpet in bathroom, kitchen etc and my main issue, electrics were hopeless, only one plug socket in each room!

We just modernised it to our taste - pretty contemporary but it was our home. Didn't really matter what era it was from, the space suited us. If I'd have been able to pick it up and move to our current location, I would have.

Lagoonablue Tue 24-Sep-13 09:08:57

Get lots of g plan furniture in. Keep it simple. I love that era, even the coloured bathroom suites and wacky tiles!

I don't think you have to be a slave to the decade of the house but some influence is good.

tb Tue 24-Sep-13 13:11:38

Our last house was a 70s one, and the main problem was with curtains for the windows. The house was built in 71, so before the first massive hike in oil prices, and all the windows were 8ft wide. So for curtains, this meant 5 widths of fabric, and it was absolutely impossible to buy ready-made curtains. Godd job I could make them, otherwise it would have cost a fortune.

Teapot74 Tue 24-Sep-13 21:01:45

We had a 70's house. We were looking for a knock down and rebuild. My heart used to sink when we drove up to it. After 2 years of living in it I loved it! They are roomy and bright and you get alot more bang for your buck than pretty period properties. The people who bought it from us are currently re facing it.

Awks Tue 24-Sep-13 21:11:25

We live in a 1972 detatched house perched on the top of a hill. The pros are many; the light, the airy rooms, it's easy to keep warm, the nice garden, massive garage and amazing sea views. Cons are no 2nd bathroom and elderly neighbours.

We have thought about moving many times but actually love our house and have decorated (removing 20 years of woodchip) in F & B neutrals and it looks lovely. My heart doesn't sink when I drive up to it, I think home - thanks god.

echt Tue 24-Sep-13 21:39:35

Why are elderly neighbours a con, Awks?

didireallysaythat Tue 24-Sep-13 21:49:13

I'd rather a 60-70s house than a 80-90s house. They usually have ok sized rooms and they didn't try and cram 50 of them onto a postage stamp.

Oblomov Tue 24-Sep-13 21:56:06

Huge rooms
Very light with loads of huge windows
Cool in summer, warm in winter.
Upstairs bathroom and also downstairs toilet.
Loads of cupboards and nooks and crannies.

But, boxlike and characterless.

serin Tue 24-Sep-13 22:42:19

We bought a 1969 detached 2 bed dormer bungalow.
Complete mess.
But with a gorgeous half an acre garden.
We got rid of the blown air heating that sounded like a hairdryer was blasting whenever we switched the heating on.
We put in a new kitchen and bathroom downstairs and then added another 2 bedrooms and a shower room upstairs.
Out of the all the work we had done though the most worth it was pitching the dormer so now the house looks like a Swiss chalet rather than a house with a caravan stuck on the roof.
One draw back is that the neighbours are elderly and DC's have no kids just popping round but the upside of this is that we are never disturbed by wild parties, it's very peaceful and actually we love our neighbours.

Sixtiesqueen Wed 25-Sep-13 14:16:07

We also have lots of elderly neighbours. On the whole this is a positive, though they are a little bit gossipy and the neighbour opposite mows his lawn at 8am on Sundays because I don't suppose he needs the lie in.

I wish there were more children for the kids to play with but then I wouldn't want noisy teenage parties or crying babies for hours on end either. I think we are quite respectful of the peace and quiet, I am always telling the kids to keep the noise down in the garden in the summer.

We have an extended 70's Dorma bungalow and I really like it.
We haven't started to change the decor yet, we have a bathroom to pull out and lots of pink to get rid of, no artex and no woodchip paper anywhere. But the kitchen was done, the windows are all double glazed and the central heating has a new combi boiler. So we can live with the pink a while longer.
The schools are excellent, the neighbors brilliant, and the location is the best I could have hoped for.

Join the discussion

Join the discussion


Register now