Has your current house made you reconsider any interior wants/needs?

[caddywally]

Not the catchiest title, but have any of you really wanted a house with a certain feature ... until you actually live in a house with that feature and realise it's a pain in the arse?!

For me it's wooden floors - they're cold, I've had more than a few splinters in my feet, and I find carpets so much easier to keep looking clean. It seems no matter how much I clean, my floors always look tatty because of the old wooden floorboards. I wanted "character" before I moved into this house, but now I just want an almost clincal white/grey box that looks neat with minimal effort.

I was desperate for an open-plan layout.... had visions of me cooking while the children played. I hate it though. The mess just merges all into one, it's cold and it's noisy.

I think if we had a separate living room it would be so much better.

Sash windows.

Beautiful but rattly and draughty as fuck.

Similar to you! Wanted wood floors, got them, hate them, currently in the process of getting them replaced with tiles and carpet!
Also loved the idea of a wood burning stove, bloody hate the reality of it, it never gets used!

ISmellLikeCalamineLotion An open plan layout is currently on the list of things I want, but now you've said that I'm wondering if it'll just end up driving me mad ...

CoffeeShortbread Same! They look pretty but the house is always cold and the condensation during autumn/winter is something else.

Merila I would 100% get the floors replaced if I owned this house, but unfortunately I don't. At least I know what I don't want when the time comes to buy.

My (tiny) kitchen is down the end of the hall and no where near the living room so when cooking dinner I have no idea what my 4 year old and 2 year old are up to.

I bought my house from my mum, I literally grew up here so you wouldn’t think this would be annoying to me but now it’s MY house it drives me bat shit crazy.

icebearforpresident The house I was born in had a (very passé, so I'm told) serving hatch looking in to the living room from the kitchen. My mum wanted to get it filled in/removed/somehow sorted out until she realised it meant she could always keep an eye on me from the kitchen. 25 years later I want a house with a serving hatch but I doubt I'll be able to find out!

I would make sure we had the bathroom upstairs!

Current bathroom is downstairs with a separate toilet, also downstairs!

Pain In the arse during the night if you need a wee, and the kitchen has become the dressing room as nobody can bothered to walk through the entire house to go upstairs to get dressed, drives me insane!!!

Sunstrokecity Downstairs bathrooms are a pain. Nothing like a walk to the bathroom on a chilly night at 2am to wake you right up!

We rent, so can't change stuff, but I would never have the following again:

Kitchen in small unheated extension, at back of house with weird dining/through area to eat in.

No downstairs loo - I hate having to traipse upstairs every time and I hate (lazy) having to clean upstairs and down for visitors.

Paved yard no grass - can't have slide/climbing frame etc. Sucks.

Navy blue carpet. Shows EVERY SINGLE bit of fluff. Impossible to keep looking nice.

Heated towel rail, biggest mistake was putting one in, the towels might be toasty but the bathroom is bloody freezing, it doesnt help that i had the whole bathroom tiled in extortionate stone tiles. It looks lovely but in reality its freezing cold.

HereBeFuckery Yes to navy carpets! I'd have to hoover about twice a day to keep them looking decent.

Redyoyo Do heated towel rails not warm up the room like a normal radiator? I've always wanted one but not at the expense of a freezing bathroom.

I love my heated towel rails. Towels don't live on them, just pop them on when you get in the shower/bath.

I have no regrets about our period home but I utterly underestimated how much it'd cost. We basically treat having a house with character as our main hobby/interest given we obsess over it.

I really thought I wanted a big house, so we had a four bedroom one.
It was too big (there’s only the two of us and the cats) so this time round we got two bedrooms and I’m much happier.

Upslidedown How old is your house? I prefer older houses because new builds (at least ones within my budget) can be a bit pokey by comparison, but I worry about the upkeep.

When ee bought our house the estate agent kept mentioning the balcony. Obviously he thought it was a major selling point. I wasn't majorly impressed but liked the house. 14 years later we have never gone on the balcony. Its small and really serves no useful purpose. Maybe if we lived in Spain looking over the ocean but in rural lreland..no!!

junebirthdaygirl I have visions of myself spending my morning sipping coffee on the balcony, but in reality I think it would go the same way as yours.

I dream of a sturdy 1930s ex-council house tbh.

I felt like open plan would give us so much space but forgot about things like renegade toddlers attempting to scale the stairs themselves- had I been in a living room, kitchen, hall at least a door would have been in the way.

I loved our big, knocked through living/dining room when we viewed the house. Now, I wouldn’t mind turning it back into two separate rooms, just to have one blissful, toy-free space.
On the other hand, we do have a serving hatch! Horribly dated, but so useful for keeping an eye on DD while I’m cooking.

ISmellLikeCalamineLotion Some of the ex-council houses around here are really nice and seem much better value for money than more modern houses. 3 good sized bedrooms, decent garden, semi detached. Unfortunately they're not particularly cheap anymore!

SomethingNastyInTheBallPool I'm hoping for a serving hatch resurgence soon!

are open plan hard to heat/expensive??

i admit i like a cosy front room though

I'm moving from one rental to another soon, so limited scope to change things. But DD and I have discovered our pastel sides, and we are going to be decorating with pastel accessories.

I've nearly finished some lovely bunting, and I've got plans to paint some canvasses in pastels (I do like some of those Japanese and Chinese pictures).

I'm moving due to several things in this house, including a teeny, tiny kitchen in a 3 bed house. New house has a kitchen 2-3 times the size, more storage space (have very little right now) and an increase in floor space for just a little more in rent. Just little things, I guess, but will make a lot of difference.

Period front door.
It's like having an open window in winter.

MulticolourMophead Storage space!!! I completely underestimated the importance of decent storage space before I moved in to this house. We have no storage space except one small cupboard under the stairs that was already half full of previous tenants' crap. I get a bit excited when I look at a floor plan and see lots of storage space.

We've bought a 'project'. I look at the horrible new builds going up near us and think 'but we've have no work to do, we could just live our lives...' But I know within a week I'd be wanting a bigger garden and the size of rooms we currently have.