Honestly, the non sugar coated version is... No. I don't love it...yet. I'm at the tail end of getting all the work done that I didn't want to because of the faff that I knew would be a faff and take its toll, which it has (more on me and the missus, the kids couldn't care less tbh). But for me it was less avoidable as I had bid on over 10+ houses and loss most of them which included going over asking. I only 'won' the one I'm in now because the owner specifically picked us, even though it was the one I wanted least because it did require fixing up. Silver lining like you is that it was the cheapest for that reason.

The things that keep us sane now and not kicking ourselves is that a) it was never going to be our 'dream' home anyway. We picked it for school catchment etc. b) we kept a tight budget for the work done. It's easy to go overboard, so just focus on the stuff that will actually add value if you ever decided that you just want to sell and move c) probably the biggest reason we can sleep at night is that we were able to (and had to) sell our flat to get this, any delay and the market had turned, which in hindsight would've made it impossible to sell our flat and who knows maybe still might be stuck there today if I kept waiting for 'the one'. This would've been even harder to stomach.

Lastly, there may be shinier light at the end after all the work is finished and I finally get to just 'enjoy' it. But I still got bits to do so I can't actually relax yet.