Things that annoy you about your house

[MBV]

My list:

A lot of the rooms are cold due the house being poorly insulated.
The kitchen is very small and dated now
Lack of storage space.

I do like that my garden is south facing and there is a downstairs loo plus a main bathroom upstairs.

 

[jontz01]

It needs so much work doing. Ideally a new roof, new roof on the stable, new windows, a rewire, upgrade the central heating, remodel the main bathroom. Then complete the gardens.

I'd like to remodel the outbuilding, make it a studio or gym. I'd like to turn the stable into a small, one bedroom house.

Inherited a large, very old house is very challenging.

I can relate to this....

When we bought our house, it was quite cheap really... it's old and the gardens are huge. We're incredibly lucky to have it and I'll never forget that but it takes ALL my time. Can't turn your back on it for a second. I spend around 2-3 hours a day on just keeping it, the gardens, the fruit, the lawns. That's on top of keeping it clean. Today's mission is planing down all the doors and refitting after having new carpets. I've got 8 doors to do and it's supposed to be my day off.

 

[baldrick]

The ensuite is over the front porch and is noticeably colder underfoot than the rest of the house - I do an awkward shuffle with the bath mat between sink/shower/toilet so my feet don't get cold

 

[Humberto]

moat needs cleaning

 

[UnderOpenSky]

My house is more or less perfect I have very little to complain about. Some of the disadvantages are also advantages (for example my back garden slopes as the house is on a hill, but this allows a small garden to feel bigger I think. It also means the front garden slopes which means added privacy)

A couple of small niggles.

No extractor fan / hood in the kitchen despite there being space for it and the kitchen not being that old. Not a job I can do myself, not really worth paying for it, just keep the back door open when cooking, probably won’t do anything about it until I get a new kitchen tbh

Garage roof leaks, so can’t store anything in there, which makes the storage I do have in the house and my shed cramped. It’s in a block 30 metres from my house so not the most convenient of places to store stuff anyway so not a big deal really.

Make a hole in no time with one of these.

 

[Elpenor]

View attachment 411288
Make a hole in no time with one of these.

A hole where? Ah any extractor would need to be for a recirculating one I think not a venting to outside one. Anyway not a problem I have to worry about for years until I redo the kitchen

 

[xenon]

Apart from the service charges, they are high, and the old thermostat timer, it’s crappy and I can’t really use it, everything else is fine. Quite good in fact.

 

[xenon]

Although I have got a sloping shelf above the toilet. Which is annoying. It’s bolted into the wall, there’s no bracket.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

Not saying all European bathrooms will especially if old, but say when I’m staying at my friends place in Germany, they have sockets in all the bathrooms so it’s easy to plug in a hairdryer or a washing machine or something

Americans, in particular, are baffled about how and why we have washing machines in our kitchens. Although tbh in Europe washing machines are often in bathrooms.

 

[Epona]

No outdoor space
Leasehold

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Small kitchen in disrepair. Carpets need redoing, windows need replacing. Some weird electrics, some odd decisions throughout by previous owners. Biggest problem is I don't know how to approach DIY house issues (beyond plumbing) without money. . .

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Americans, in particular, are baffled about how and why we have washing machines in our kitchens. Although tbh in Europe washing machines are often in bathrooms.

In Japan they are toploaders that usually sit outside. Makes a lot more sense to me.

 

[Artaxerxes]

In Japan they are toploaders that usually sit outside. Makes a lot more sense to me.

Yeah I like the balcony washing arrangements a lot

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I've got my washing machine with the tumble dryer stacked on top of it in our downstairs loo. Prefer to having it in the kitchen with the noise. There's actually plumbing in place in garage to have it there, but fuck that in the middle of winter.

 

[Orang Utan]

Plug sockets have to be at least three metres away from water sources in UK homes, so you’d have to have a massive bathroom to fit washers and dryers in one .

 

[Elpenor]

My mate built a cupboard in his bathroom when he redid the bathroom for them.

While a separate utility room with laundry machines and a sink would be good, especially if it led to the garden, my house isn’t really big enough for one.

 

[zedr]

Get it off your chest, however small. Maybe someone will suggest a simple solution...

In my bathroom, the medicine/bathroom cabinet was installed directly over the toilet. It's too full, so sometimes things fall out. Luckily I'm a good catch, but ocassionally things have fallen into the toilet

we have this too. have been to get new toothbrushes before and lost them to the toilet! fortunately my partner has managed to get some time off work and is redoing the bathroom so this will be gone soon. no idea what the ppl before us were thinking.

 

[ska invita]

Plug sockets have to be at least three metres away from water sources in UK homes, so you’d have to have a massive bathroom to fit washers and dryers in one .

I've got two right by the kitchen sink

 

[cesare]

I've got two right by the kitchen sink

Same

 

[Epona]

It's not 3 meters from water sources, otherwise most of us who lived in cities wouldn't have anywhere to plug in kitchen appliances actually in the kitchen.

And having washing machines or dishwashers would be nigh on impossible.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

My house is more or less perfect I have very little to complain about. Some of the disadvantages are also advantages (for example my back garden slopes as the house is on a hill, but this allows a small garden to feel bigger I think. It also means the front garden slopes which means added privacy)

A couple of small niggles.

No extractor fan / hood in the kitchen despite there being space for it and the kitchen not being that old. Not a job I can do myself, not really worth paying for it, just keep the back door open when cooking, probably won’t do anything about it until I get a new kitchen tbh

Garage roof leaks, so can’t store anything in there, which makes the storage I do have in the house and my shed cramped. It’s in a block 30 metres from my house so not the most convenient of places to store stuff anyway so not a big deal really.

I'm the opposite, in that there's a massive fan in the window next to the kitchen sink, but I haven't used it in 21 years I've lived here (on and off). I mean, why would I faff about with a fan when I can just open the kitchen door, which is right next to the fan, if I burn a pan of rice/pasta or it gets too hot/steamy?

I read something about how extractor fans are obligatory now, and the thought irked me that I might have to have one installed, but then I read that it's only obligatory for new kitchens or like-for-like replacement, you don't have to retrofit.

 

[Epona]

Just to clarify...
There is a technical standard which is not law
This suggests that sockets should be installed more than 3m away from baths or showers - which means you won't usually have a socket in your bathroom unless your bathroom is very big.
This is to put a hurdle in the way of people balancing a mains powered plug in appliance on the side of the bath or taking it into the shower, which could be hazardous.
It does not apply to kitchens or other parts of the house.
And it isn't illegal, it just means reputable electricians won't install sockets in a bathroom.

 

[8ball]

The fact that it needs a bunch of stuff doing to it, and I don’t know how to do any of it.

 

[jontz01]

My mate built a cupboard in his bathroom when he redid the bathroom for them.

While a separate utility room with laundry machines and a sink would be good, especially if it led to the garden, my house isn’t really big enough for one.

A laundry room is a lifechanger. Ours has a ceiling line on a pulley and it's 10 steps to get to the outdoor one... Still, I reckon if the washing machine was in the bathroom it would save so much time. I could just throw all the clean stuff through the window, wander round and hang it out.

 

[oryx]

About twenty steps up to the front door. The house is already up a hill.

The upside is that the view is phenomenal.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

I can relate to this....

When we bought our house, it was quite cheap really... it's old and the gardens are huge. We're incredibly lucky to have it and I'll never forget that but it takes ALL my time. Can't turn your back on it for a second. I spend around 2-3 hours a day on just keeping it, the gardens, the fruit, the lawns. That's on top of keeping it clean. Today's mission is planing down all the doors and refitting after having new carpets. I've got 8 doors to do and it's supposed to be my day off.

This is why I've been putting off getting the flooring done in my flat, because I know I need to take several steps backwards, I'll need to replace the doors and door fittings, and that's going to cost a lot.

 

[Epona]

This is why I've been putting off getting the flooring done in my flat, because I know I need to take several steps backwards, I'll need to replace the doors and door fittings, and that's going to cost a lot.

They likely won't need replacing, just taken down and a few mm planed off the bottom edge of the door then rehung.

 

[Dystopiary]

It's not mine and it's hundreds of miles from where I want to be!

 

[iona]

The plumbing and electrics and windows and doors and insulation and fencing and roof and gutters (which are pointless atm because the downpipes just empty straight into the ground) need to be fixed or in a lot of places replaced entirely.

And the washing machine is in an outbuilding where the water is off atm in case the pipes freeze again.

And it's basically a shed in someone's garden and I have no official tenancy or anything like that and will probably have to move soon, which is annoying because despite all of the above I do actually want to stay here.

 

[shakespearegirl]

Nothing is finished! Hardly any storage and way too much shit!! We are waiting to extend so Mrshakes keeps using that as excuse to not do anything