Weirdest thing a house seller has got upset about you changing?

[CruCru]

I’ve just been doing some gardening and was thinking about a woman who dropped by our house a few years ago. We were on our way out so didn’t ask her in. She told us some of the history of the house (interesting) but got quite upset when she mentioned some tiles she’d put in and we had no idea what she was talking about. Presumably the people before us had ripped them out.

We didn’t like to mention all the stuff we did to fix the dodgy electrics.

Another friend had some people get very cross when she changed some things in the garden (not concreting it or putting in that plastic grass). Just putting in some different plants.

What about you?

Yes he did - it took a few days. From memory he had a lot of stuff and had massively underestimated how much work it was going to be to move house.

Lived in a house from the mid 90s , we renovated it putting in a lovely new bathroom , the bath alone was £600 even back then.
Sold it in 2010 , then saw it up for sale about two years ago . They had put it a cheapie new bath , but the funny thing was the curtains were still the ones we had ( including pelmet curtains ) wallpaper the same , and conservatory furniture ) all modern in the late 90s , but in 2020 . Nope ! 😂😂

I remember a new neighbour butchering a beautiful magnolia bush in her front garden - ripped it clean out. I was gutted. It always looked and smelt beautiful when in bloom. Had I known she was planning - I'd have asked to dig it up and try and replant it.

We had similar. When we moved in, our neighbours thought our garden consisted of lovely bushes and trees. I suppose if you only look out of an upstairs window, that’s what you see - the tops of nice plants. But underneath it was just like the bloody tip! The people who owned our house before us did not use the garden - broken rubbish and rotting food was just chucked out into it. The plants had grown up through a rotting dog kennel. There were broken bricks, all sorts of random shite. All covered by “nice greenery” that looked lovely to the neighbours. We cleared the main part of the garden and left trees and bushes round the edges. We made the grass nice so we could use the garden. The woman next door came round and shouted at us for the destruction of her view of nice bushes. I mean screw me for wanting to be able to walk out into my own garden?!

the thing that made me sad was that they replaced that lovely front door with a shiny white PVC monstrosity

Slightly off-point, and it's none of my business what people do with their own homes, whether recently purchased or not; but when did the trend begin for these grey/brown front doors with a big long bar handle that look like they belong on the front of a big office block or hotel? I've no idea why you'd want one of those on your private home, any more than you'd put up 'no smoking' stickers in each room or Corby trouser presses throughout!

Not even an owner - when we'd been in our (rented) house a year or two the bloke who had rented it a couple of decades ago came round and told us it was where he brought up his family and could he look round the garden for old times' sake? We said fine, and he proceeded to criticise every single thing, tell me in horror how 'in his time' there wasn't a weed in the place, he grew all his own veg, it was all perfect, nothing was messy, everything was perfect.

I had a very small child and a very busy job and after the first few minutes I was really tired of hearing how shocked he was.

We discovered later he was the person who'd done all the dodgy DIY (clearly without running it past the landlord first).

I'm still upset about a mature magnolia tree that the people who bought our old house removed because "we have better taste than that". They also removed a beautiful arts and crafts fireplace, that we had offered to buy from them but they insisted they loved and would keep, but then skipped.

Unfortunately we are still very close friends with the neighbours either side, so see the house and garden regularly!

We bought a very old house and knocked it completely to rebuild…they were not happy at all!! I needed to be done though!!

the bloke who had rented it a couple of decades ago came round and told us it was where he brought up his family and could he look round the garden for old times' sake? We said fine, and he proceeded to criticise every single thing, tell me in horror how 'in his time' there wasn't a weed in the place, he grew all his own veg, it was all perfect, nothing was messy, everything was perfect.

That sounds to me very like somebody spending his every spare moment at his gardening hobby, whilst somebody else indoors was run ragged actually bringing up the family.

I’m Not sure that’s fair at all. My friends have a perfect garden, they are retired now and he spent a huge amount of time making his garden perfect. With his kids and was a hands on father.

some children do run you ragged. But not all. Some are actually quite easy and happily spend time with a parent in the garden.

trying to start some weird gender war because some bloke spent time in his garden is bonkers.

I’m Not sure that’s fair at all. My friends have a perfect garden, they are retired now and he spent a huge amount of time making his garden perfect. With his kids and was a hands on father.

some children do run you ragged. But not all. Some are actually quite easy and happily spend time with a parent in the garden.

trying to start some weird gender war because some bloke spent time in his garden is bonkers.

I'd have said the same if it was a woman who had boasted about her perfect garden in that same sneery way.

I was only surmising and I may well be wrong. Maybe it is possible, but on balance, it is interesting that the vast majority of people with complicated immaculate gardens tend to be retired, child-free and/or of independent means - as they take a huge amount of your time (unless you employ a gardener). Also, the fussier you want to be, the more time-consuming jobs you can always find that 'need' to be done.

Yes, kids like spending time out in the garden with their parents, but I reckon most of them would prefer to be playing games there with their parents rather than just entertaining themselves whilst Mum/Dad is spending hours obsessively pruning, clipping, trimming and weeding to keep the garden looking perfectly manicured.

My dad got ott annoyed when the buyers didn't keep the greenhouse he installed. They apparently told him they wanted it.

I was annoyed to see the buyers had removed our spirea bush from the front garden. It looked v nice in the spring. They did in fact gut the whole house which surprised me as I didn't think it was in too bad nick.

This was it exactly. Thankyou for that 🙂
I wonder what happened in the end with that.

Through the power of Facebook I'm in contact with a guy around my age who has brought my childhood home. He sends me photos of wall paper that he finds as he strips the walls and tells about what he's doing to the house. In return I tell him about the history of the house as my family built it. It's quite a unique house that I love so much and love seeing this guy put his heart and soul into improving it.

That's really nice!

The house I grew up in was a 1930s semi and it was recently demolished as part of a regeneration project for the town. They moved all the social housing tenants and bought almost everyone out who owned their homes, and they were extremely aggressive about it. The spot where I had my first kiss is now just a road. The spot where our Christmas tree always was is a drain now. The bottom of our old garden (which is now a couple of rows of parking paces) has a massive tower of flats built on it.

We were sent a video of the big claw type machine literally snatching chunks out of the house and breaking it to pieces. You could see the wardrobes my dad built splintering and some of the pieces of wall were purple and lime- my choice when I was finally allowed to paint my bedroom in the 90s.

I actively avoid going past it whenever I'm in town, it makes my heart hurt. My siblings and I learnt to walk in that garden. Our beloved family pets were buried there. My grandmother planted the apple and pear trees. All gone now.

I can understand feeling miffed that the garden you invested time in hasn't been maintained or that the wallpaper you put up wasn't liked, but I can't understand feeling like you've lost something integral to your being when the house is still there and you chose freely to leave it.

I remember that thread well - what the buyer had to put up with was horrendous. There was a sudden escalation and the police got involved and the OP pulled the thread because it became a legal issue.

I think that the doctors and family got involved as well , seemed like some MH problems in play with those neighbours.

A few years ago I saw some aerial photographs of the large Edwardian house I grew up in. I was really upset to see they had completely ripped out what was the most beautiful garden, including the ornamental pond. The garden was a labour of love and had been lovingly cared for by the previous owners who had lived in the house for 60 years. It was quite upsetting! Of course the new owners had every right to do that and they also made some excellent improvements to the actual property but I felt very sad that my happy memories of the garden were now just that. Daft really.