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!

A friend of my sister lived in a Victorian (possibly Edwardian) house near Richmond Park when we were kids. I loved the high ceilings and larger rooms than I was used to.

There was a farmhouse we used to stay at in Hertfordshire as children. Don't know how old it is. There were two staircases. Upstairs there were two steps down into the back bedrooms and two steps up into the front bedrooms from the central corridor.

In my thirties I lived in a very old cottage with a huge open fireplace on the ground floor and a spiral staircase. Bugger to heat though.

Forgot to say where I live now. A small twenty year old semi. But I can see the sea from my living room and it has a second loo.

I had a school friend whose dad was a vicar. The vicarage they lived in when I first met her was a huge Victorian building over 4 floors. It was so huge that her parents hadn't furnished the top 2 floors so when I went over to play we had run of them.

As a little girl I loved my friend's house because she had a snack drawer that we could reach and raid!

I don't have one now. Definitely couldn't be trusted!

At A-level, we often stayed at each others houses and one that sticks with me is a 16c beauty.
Huge grey blocks and single pane windows.
The kitchen had a snug off it and the stairs were rickety with a library nook half way up?! There was a ladder at the top of the stairs with a squeeze through hole to reach a tiny mezzanine type room full of books.
The garden looked normal, but if you squeezed through the bushes at the end, it felt magical. Huge leaning tree covered in tea lights in jars.
I adored that place.

Have lived in a character house and it was lovely, but chilly!
Now in a 1950's semi!

As a primary school child I had a friend who lived in a few rooms of the most enormous house. I remember she told me at the time it was two rooms short of being officially a mansion. It belonged to a relative and she and her parents and siblings lived in just one tiny corner of it. There was room after room of furniture covered in dust sheets, a big pond in the garden, and best of all, in my opinion, a dolls house replica of the real house that I was allowed to look at when my mum went there to clean. It stood in a huge dark wood, mostly fir trees, and there was a dogs’ graveyard in there, with tiny headstones.
Looking back it was creepy as fuck, all my memories of it are really dark coloured, and it was always totally silent. As a kid I thought it was incredible and couldn’t imagine why they’d buy a normal house in a normal (but pretty nice) street, and move away. As an adult I don’t think I’d want to live in it either! Particularly as my dad told me years later that a previous owner had killed himself there and supposedly been seen in ghostly wandering up the drive on foggy nights

Oh, and I now live in a 2 bed flat in a converted mental hospital, so in some ways (apart from size and luxury) quite similar!

I used to love staying at my cousins. The house was nice but they had a barn full of hay and a tyre swing so that we could swing down and land in the hay.
I now have a barn conversion.
I never considered before that it might have influenced my choice.

My aunt had an amazing apartment in the city in the 70s/80s. I loved going there. She had an enormous walk in wardrobe with loads of expensive clothes. I think that's wear I got my love of boots-she had lots of pairs. I especially liked a pair from Italy, they were over the knee, purple with embroidery all over them. The apartment was really funky but posh and she wasn't a bit precious.

Ohh, that sounds lovely Leslie.

The first house I owned with my first husband was many people's idea of a 'dream home'. A large Georgian rectory with a walled kitchen garden, original Victorian glasshouse and orchard, but I was desperately unhappy.

I was much happier in the tiny cottage DH and I owned when our first DC was born. It was a really golden time, I have very happy memories of sitting in the garden by the stream as the sun rose at about 5am, having a cup of tea with DH after an early morning feed.

It was absolutely tiny though, a very small sitting room with a big fireplace, kitchen with a table, an off-shot loo and shower and a tiny staircase with about a square foot of landing that opened into two bedrooms.

I remember it very fondly.

When I was a teenager I had a friend who lived in a three storey country house with a tiled entrance hall and two staircases up either side, a huge kitchen diner, at least two living rooms and probably a few more that I never saw. It was surrounded by walls and had a sweeping drive that led to a stable yard round the back. I would have killed to live there, it was so grand and private. Sadly my house is nothing like that, in today’s money it’s probably worth £1-2m.

The3rd I have friends who live in a stately home, but their day to day living quarters are in a smaller apartment on the first floor. If you're visiting at night and want to nip out for a fag you have to traverse the entirety of the dimly lit house to get out. It's bloody terrifying!

My childhood friend had a modern detached house, with a playroom with French doors that opened out onto a garden down the side of the house away from the main garden. Despite living on a large farm building rafts on the river, riding our ponies every day, walking to the beach in the summer holidays, camping on our land etc it was her house I coveted because she had a dedicated playroom
I now live in a modest cottage so nothing like either but I love it.

I grew up in a council flat in quite a rough area, so we didn’t have much to envy!

My mum was a bohemian type, so we had scruffy, mismatched furniture, lots of books and an ancient scratched piano. I hated our house! 😆

My idea of ‘glam’ was a friend who had a massive TV, black leather sofas and a glass coffee table in her front room. Their flat was spotless and the epitome of 1980s style. Looking back I think her Mum had OCD, as she literally spent all day cleaning and would clean the coffee table before and after setting down our drinks (on coasters).

Forgot to add - my home, while a house not a flat and in a nicer area than where I grew up - is scruffy and ‘bohemian’. Never did achieve that spotless, minimalist look .

Yes, growing up bookish and boho Victorian house I always thought that modernity was very covetable, I remember being agog at a friend's smoked glass dining room table (they also had a mynah bird that had full run of the house which was also a point of extreme envy).

I had a friend who had a DOUBLE BED at primary school, I considered that to be extremely racy!

MrPanks Similar to you, I grew up on a HA estate, my best friend from secondary lived in a 4 bed Victorian town house and 3 reception rooms.
We live in a very average 2 bed rented flat.

I'm only 32 though so there's still time buys euromillions ticket

My friends grandparents lived in an old vicarage with a few acres, there was an amazing marble statue at the bottom of the staircase and a huge walk in pantry. My aunt lived in an enormous Edwardian house with a huge staircase a bit like the one at the end of Gone with the Wind. I grew up in a very large just Victorian house that had six bedrooms and servants quarters attached, staircase was not grand like the other two though.

As much as they were beautiful houses the cost these days for them will be over a million easily . They were incredibly grand but too cold so I will never live in a house like any of those.

I dream of a cottage with the door in the middle and a beamed ceiling we did look at some but DH is really tall and the ceilings are low, should have married a shorter man. We live in a 1920’s built house, it’s cosy which I love and does have one original stained glass window left in the upstairs hallway which is very pretty.

The house belonging to an elderly Quaker couple at our local meeting, we went there for a Christmas party one year.
It had rush matting instead of carpets and an amazing sense of calm.
Looking back think they were an old Quaker family, quite well off, and it was probably very plain with white walls and plain inherited antique furniture.
I haven’t managed to capture the vibe and don’t think I ever will because DH likes bright colours and lots of pictures!

I grew up in 70s semi my parents had from new, mum still there now. My grandparents had a classic 30s semi also from new.

I vowed never to live in a "modern" home, I wanted a Georgian "dolls house" or an old higgeldy piggeldy place with history and character. Our first house was an old terrace but then we we had a 20s semi same lay out as my dgp's and now a 60s detached which might as well be a victorian pile for all the work that needs doing!! We'll be here for a while whilst the dc are young but I haven't given up my dream of an old character house yet, although don't fancy DIY anymore, I can see why people buy new now...

As I child I also remember going to friends houses that were decorated in the most modern style and extremely clean and tidy and being a bit agog at people living like in the pages of a magazine or like on the TV. Our house was chaotically untidy with mismatched furniture, some handme downs, mainly in us kids rooms!

We have a breakfast room Pam! I'm rather fond of it. One thing I do like about our house is that it's on lots of different levels as it's built on a hill, there are eight different levels on the ground floor. I always loved that in houses as a child. As an adult it's a bit of a bugger as it means I can't have a robo-hoover!

Aunt and Uncle lived in a 16th century cottage in rural Essex. Lovely. Loads of rooms and nice garden. Inglenook fireplace. I loved the log fires. Antiques. Lovely country kitchen. Conservatory with exotic plants and a pond with fish in it. Gorgeous. I don't live in a house like it. I live in a viccy terrace

We were brought up in vicarages. Cold dark damp frost on the windows in winter frozen toothbrushes and flannels no heating.

So when I was married we bought a brand new house hated it no character thin walls hideous

No in my happy home very like a childhood friends. At least 400 years old barn conversion. 3 foot thick walls. Fires. Aga. Reclaimed wood floor. Land stables. There is also evidence king Richards army was here before one of his major battles.

Never moving.

I was brought up in a three bed new build semi in the eighties. My friend had a large Victorian Semi final in the middle of town with a larder, basement, attic, out buildings and a river that passed through the end of the garden. I now live three doors down on the opposite side of the street in a much smaller version. I'm saving up and waiting for the current owners to move on 😁

We moved house in my early teens. Pretty much all the houses we viewed were Edwardian/Victorian terraces with three stories and converted attic bedrooms. I really wanted an attic bedroom with a dormer window. My parents ended up choosing a 1930s semi, so no attic bedroom for me.
The family home DH and I ended up buying is very like the houses I wanted as a teen (though in a different area of the country). DD2 has 'my' bedroom, filled with books and a window seat to read on, and is basically living my teenage dream.