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.

@bluntness100 could you lift the floorboards and insulate underneath?

The people we bought our house ripped down all the ceilings and floors. Our house is 200 year old stone and it makes a huge difference.

This is a great thread, it's made me realise that I love my house, even with its enormous garden and there is nothing is change. Except a few dodgy decorating decisions of the previous owners, but I'm getting round to that

Sorry that should say ripped down all the ceilings and floors and put loads of insulation in.

As to the cost of upkeep on older homes, do not buy solid wall houses unless you have deep pockets! Bloody freezing in winter. Sellers lied on the property form but there's no comeback (they also lied about subsidence again legal advice was nothing could be done as they could say they didn't understand the question). Be wary of homes beguile before 1939 unless they have been insulated

Living/dining room. I'm sick of it, I'd rather go with kitchen diner and separate living room. There would be more chance of us eating at the table than on the sofa in front of the tv from sheer laziness, and I crave a truly peaceful space that isn't cluttered by all the crap that seems to get dumped on the dining table. Plus it would be nice if the kitchen was bigger, which I think a dining kitchen would be.

Flooring - tiles in the bathroom look great but are freezing.
Kitchen floor - wish we'd been able to afford underfloor heating as it's directly onto concrete and cold in winter.

We have a large open plan kitchen/diner - it's great but wish we'd had more radiators put in. We have glass doors from kitchen in living room space to make it seem more open plan so can keep an eye on kids while cooking etc but let's you separate the space if needed.

I'll never regret having the utility room or the downstairs bathroom.

Open fire in living room - such a pain to clean. DH really wanted it and I agreed - he never cleans it and it drives me mad. Wish we had installed gas like in our last house.

Period front door - hall is always cold.

Original wood floors. I need wood due to
Asthma but when we can afford it
I will insulate and install engineered wood on top with no gaps.

Belfast sink - has broken so many china cups and it stains so easily. Never again.

No loo downstairs - a real pain.

I hate ensuites too - the smell and the noise when DH gets up at night or early. Ugh. Why did they become popular???

Ooh get a wood Burner, a doddle to clean and they are way more efficient than an open fire.

love my real fire,used every night in winter and clean every 3rd day

Heated towel rails are great! You just need a radiator as well and then it isn’t a problem. Also, have an electric heated towel rail so that it can be independently controlled from the heating. We have underfloor heating as well as a radiator and electric towel rail in our bathroom, which in hindsight may have been overkill...

We had open plan in our last house. Created the most wonderful circuit for children to pelt round at enormous speed. Never again. Also, hate when you are cooking that you can’t shut the smells or the noise off. Really not for me!

Lovely glass sliding doors in our extension in the same house. Really looked fantastic, over 4 m wide and a lovely view. But south facing house meant it turned the whole thing into a greenhouse. Literally unusable in the summer.

Also, engineered wood. Dented when anything was dropped on it, creaked like hell (because DH decided that it didn’t need to be glued - it does) and changed colour over time which I know is natural but really annoying when you change the front door mat and there is a very noticeable change.

Have Amtico in this house and it’s so much better. Though not as nice underfoot I suppose.

It's nice that a couple of you have said that you've realised there's nothing major you dislike about your house. Hopefully I'll feel like that one day!

anniehm I haven't got a clue how I'd go about de-splintering these floors. No idea how old they are, but they're OLD. I'd worry huge chunks of the wood would crumble away if I started sanding them. The edges of the floorboards are all splintered and there are already centimetre wide gaps between some of them (I once dropped a fork and never got it back) so I think I'll just grit my teeth and bear it until I eventually move.

We had a rental house with carpets in the kitchen and bathroom. Used to really annoy me especially the kitchen as I was always having to scrub food off the carpet.

Fairypiggy That sounds really impractical. Soggy carpets in bathrooms are a bit grim.

I live in a new build and I'm pretty content with the house (I suppose I'm used to it).

But I would like a bigger garden. I have a tiny patch which is basically the "side footprint" of the house if you tipped it over -was told this is the minimum they can get away with now?

On the plus side I have bloody loads of private off street parking to myself (multiple cars worth). Now private parking is non negotiable for any future homes I may have.

I also have separate kitchen and living room. I don't know anyone who's gone from open plan to separate and not rejoiced forever more.

Open plan, mess every where, no privacy. Thankfully it's just rented.
On the other side we have a wall bookshelf with wheeled ladder, I love it and now want one in my next owned house.

I want a downstairs bathroom with walk in/sit down shower. At the moment we just have what is euphemistically called a 'cloakroom' which has been absolutely fine for years. However a few weeks ago I had a nasty accident which meant I couldn't move around much, certainly not go upstairs. I'm better now but it made me think, who knows what will happen in the future.

Unfortunately it won't be possible to have a new bathroom installed downstairs in this house - unless the whole place was remodelled. So moving is the only way to achieve that. Might consider moving if I can convince my husband.

I would like a walk in wardrobe. I'd prefer that about 1,000,000 x more than an en-suite, so my bedroom can be a lovely zen area and all my messy clothes on the floor can be hidden.

I'd love some doors! Where we are (not UK) its really common to not have doors on the rooms downstairs - we don't have a proper open plan layout so its a bit pointless, cold and all the bloody noise travels straight up the stairs to the bedrooms!

I'd also give my right arm for a proper coat and shoe cupboard - the one that was here was turned into a downstairs toilet

I’m moving into a little bungalow and I’ll be living on my own. My current house is newish and has tiny windows and seems very dark. In the bungalow the main bedroom is at the rear of the house and I really want to build a little conservatory/garden room to use as a snug full of slouchy settee somewhere I can curl up catch some sun and read. Just somewhere for me. Visitors will be ‘entertained ‘ 😉 in the lounge. Or garden in good weather obviously. Is that a stupid idea? Or what would you do?

Heated towel rails are a bug bear of mine, they heat my bathrooms beautifully but my god they are dust traps and show every finger print, I am forever dusting and polishing them, each and every rail......it’s purgatory.

caddywally there are things I’d like to change, but I aspired to have the house I have.

The bathroom needs done up. I was going to change to a towel rail, instead of a radiator.

How warm do you all need a bathroom to be? I don’t spend a lot of time in it.

I'm in a 1930's semi with wooden floors. Dh wants to carpet everywhere downstairs because they are noisy (not cold tho; we have huge radiators and a loft full of insulation). I agree about the noise but with two young kids there's no way we're ready for carpet yet, and I love that any spillages can be dealt with quickly with a wet wipe. I'm not precious about the floors so relax more when friends are over with littlies. We have a big fluffy rug in the lounge.

We had our bathrool redone recently and had Amtico flooring put down (it's like Karndean). Absolutely love it. It's Welsh slate effect tiles with silver grout effect strips. Also love the dual-fuel massive heated towel rail. Went for a matt graphite grey one so no issues with fingerprints. In the summer I switch it on with the separate fused switch, and now the heating is coming on in the mornings it also kicks in then. Keeps the bathroom toasty (I love my baths).

My mate recently knocked her kitchen wall thru to make an open-plan kitchen living room and I think it was a big mistake due to everything everyone else has said.

But yeah, on the whole, happy with the decision to buy this house! We have a living room-diner and a kitchen-diner so best of both worlds.

Oh, regret spending £7k on a conservatory which just gets used as a laundry room and bike storage area !

I've never understood open plan! All that noise on one room, it would drive me mad. Friends have it and kids are watching tv or playing on x box loudly, it's impossible to hold a conversation or have our own music on at the same time, or talk about stuff without kids possibly hearing something you may not want them to.

We have open kitchen/diner but separate living room and that's the most I'd ever want. Even then I hate it if I'm cooking and OH has internet radio/music on as I'd prefer to listen to my radio.

All the usual issues that go with an old house, like draughts, creaks and odd shaped rooms I can live with, but losing a bedroom because you have to walk through it to get to the bathroom, loo and another bedroom is a pain.
We have used it for storage instead, by building an enormous cupboard and floor to ceiling expedit.