Which was the best house you visited as a child and do you live in a house like it know?

[ShrikeAttack]

I had three houses I visited as a child that I thought were the best. The apogee of glamour and mystery. And I always coveted their life.

No 1) Indian friends of my parents that owned a 1970s bungalow built on a hill in the Hope Valley. It was the most exotic house I'd ever seen. The best bit was where one stepped downwards, parted a beaded curtain and went down into a 'sort-of' conservatory. That had a pool with a waterfall 'AND TERRAINS LIVED IN THE POOL'. Amazing.

No 2) My violin teacher that lived in a Jacobean manor house. Also in the Hope Valley. So very atmospheric. All worn stone floors, huge fireplaces, linenfold panelling , everything had a patina. I used to pray that every I went to the loo I'd fall through a wardrobe to another world.

No 3) My paternal grandparents had a mid-century split-level house. It had a sunken sitting room with built-in seating and huge picture-windows. My grandfather wore a silk cravat and my grandmother smoked cigarettes with a holder. I felt like I was on a Bond film-set whenever we visited.

I live in a 300 year-old farmhouse on a hill. It's lovely, eclectic and homely but I'm constantly searching for Jacobean manor houses to bugger off to when that children have left home!

Know? NOW!

Blimey. Nothing so exotic but my favourite house from my childhood was my grandparents. It was an older house up steps with a tiled floor . It was up a steep hill with shops at the bottom.
And yes if I live in a similar house. Old character property with steps up to the front door and Minton tiled floor etc.
It is even on a hill with shops at the bottom.
It felt like home the minute I stepped into it and I still love it and I often think it is because of my lovely childhood memories of my dear grandparents !

I lived in a tower block, council flat as a kid. A girl in my class invited me over a few times to her 5 floor Georgian town house. It was amazing. Like living in a dolls house. It was very boho but fancy too - they had a lodger in the basement, and a music room on one of the floors. The kids had their own play room and their mum collected all manner of recycling and old clothes that they could get creative with. It was messy and fun. To me in my little council flat with no extra space for such libertarian freedoms it was a wonderland!

Oh, forgot to add, no my house is nothing like the Georgian town house, sadly. Way beyond our means.

I don't think I noticed houses as a kid? Certainly didn't have the privilege of any like the ones you've been in. I do remember going to a tutor when I was 17 who lived in accommodation at a private school and my mum commenting this is how the other half live.

We are renting a 3 bed ex-council house with a slug problem. So no, we haven't made it to the "other half", yet.

My friend had a dad who was a GP and they lived in huge house that harked back to a time when GPs practiced from their own homes.

To this end every bedroom upstairs had a sink in it (from when people were admitted), two stair cases and a massive garden. I'm sure as a grown up it wouldn't feel quite so massive now but as a child it was the best house in the world...

Tinkers we have two staircases and any visiting children love them, they do endless circuits!

(It keeps them entertained...).

When i was young the majority of houses where i lived were terraced which housed quarrymen and their families or farmhouses/small holdings.

A few new houses were built but money was tight and only doctors/solicitors lived in big houses.

I remember visiting my friend who’s dad was a builder and he had a detached 4 bed hone and a great kitchen with a breakfast bar! Id never seen one before and that was the type of house i wanted.

But then i realised that new builds are boring, characterless and all the same so i now live in a 300 yr old vernacular on the Welsh hills which is wonky, full of stories and passion.

I love a bit of Welsh vernacular Sheknows!

Oh I'd have loved two staircases as a kid.

The most exotic house was my friends which had wooden floors everywhere and a skandi look (not a thing in the 80s). I used to love sliding down the stairs on a cushion.

One set of grandparents had a chilly Victorian semi, no desire to live in one of them.

The other set had fab big farmhouses, and at one stage lived in a watermill. I only remember their house after they stopped farming though, characterful, big, and modern.

Generally I'm a creature of comfort. I adore old houses, but wouldn't want to live in one unless I had the money to maintain and heat it.

I fantasize about a medieval timber framed house surrounded by a moat, with a crown post roof, interesting doors, and a brick floor in places. And a lovely chimney (inserted at a later date than the crown post roof).
The reality is I'd be worrying about damp, mice and death watch beetle, and permanently cold and broke!

None that stand out. Although my grandparents all lived in large detached houses, but nothing other than fairly normal. We grew up poor though in a council flat.

We live in a very old listed building so our home is nothing like those and I was never in a place like this growing up.

Had a friend who lived in a beautiful pink house in the country, in her living room was a round pillar and behind it was a tiny staircase, if you were in her room you could be transported downstairs by the “secret hidden staircase” it felt very magical to me, I guess the rest of the family used the regular stairs I remember thinking how lucky she was to have her own

Funny you should mention two staircases. My favourite house as a kid was a Victorian villa (actually 2). They had a staircase for servants and a grand staircase that took up half the hall. I really wanted a house like that. I now live in a flat and have zero staircases.
(Where's Hope Valley?)

What are terrains?? I need to know who lived in the pool

DH is Welsh, we lived in Wales when the children were small and had a farmhouse that was medieval with a later Georgian extension. I loved that house, but deeply rural Wales didn't work for us as life evolved.

We're now living in what I consider to be a pragmatic house, it's lovely, but not dreamy!

I quite fancy an apartment in Edinburgh's New Town as an adjunct to my Jacobean mĺanor house.

A friend of my brother lived in a house over looking Derwentwater lake. It had stripped floors throughout and slate worktops - this was in the 80s. I thought it was amazing.

I live in an arts and crafts house now with stripped floors but not similar really.

This is a terrapin, Going.

(My OP is full of typos, apologies).

Friend of mine had a sink in her bedroom.

Her family was definitely one of the most well off in the area, only child, her DM was a teacher, dad did some sort of office/business job, childcare provided by live in grandmother, her mum could drive and had her own car, which was also unusual.

Most other families were miner or factory worker dad, SAH or PT cleaner mum, 2-4 DC in small houses with shared bedrooms, sometimes even mixed sexes to quite a late age, so even having her own bedroom was quite unusual, but the sink was obviously unusual as I can remember it 40 years later.

I don't think it posted my picture

Oh, it did!

The Hope Valley is in the Peak District Sometime.

The joy of two star cases. My sister is much older then I and she had some beautiful homes when married. The most enchanting was an old farmhouse. Old stables and an old emptied stone swimming pool. It had been empty then not looked after for some time but It had been a grand farmhouse... There was a posh front, staircase, parlour, drawing room.. Then the huge farmhouse kitchen with back stairs, and a cellar and a stable door!

Everything higgildy piggly, and empty old servants rooms at the top. In the middle of rolling Country side. Old gardens etc. So much to explore I loved that house. I remember watching daily Thompson in the Olympics.I still have dreams about it!

Aunts house in Spain. Half a castle. Amazing terrace over looking an orange Grove with the scent. Close to the sea, gorgeous! Again its the unusual aspect, nothing uniform.

So many other houses but I'd have to add the most charming cottage with leaded light windows, cottage garden, friends grannies house. She had her bday there once and it was like a storybook.

Live in nothing like these houses but I do try and shoe horn my bog standard terrace into something different 😂😂🏘️

• stair cases, but star cases good too.

My cousin's grandmothers house in Edinburgh.

It was a beautiful Victorian end of terrace with high ceilings and amazing windows. It had polished floorboards that were slippery when you ran on them. It smelled amazing and always felt like a happy place to be. Her husband was a ww2 hero and there was a 'shrine' to him with medals and pictures - that amazed me.

Maybe I loved her house so much because both my own grandmothers dies when I was young and she was so caring and maternal.

She died a few years ago but I often try to find the house on Rightmove so I can 'visit' again.

I live in a Victorian terrace with varnished floorboards and high ceilings - it's by far my favourite style of house. I never made the connection before, but maybe that's it!

I was brought up in a very drab 1970s council estate... and all of my friends were the same. No one else in my childhood ahead a remotely interesting house.

My dad’s cousin had a country cottage up in Dumfries and Galloway. His workshop was just across the lane. On one side was an imposing pine forest and on the other was woods full of oak trees where we would go foraging for chanterelles for lunch. As a child I’d have happily allowed my parents to leave me there.

Nowadays I live in a 30 year old 4 bed detached. Nothing at all like the cottage and even though people express shock at us not wanting to be here forever, this isn’t the house we’ll grow old in. We want land next time around so maybe next time I’ll get somewhere similar!