Does your house feel like home?

[ToastedSmores]

Just pondering today as I have been off work so I have been pottering around the house!
Previous house was a large end terraced property, ideal on paper for a family of 4, 3 huge bedrooms, massive kitchen diner, epic ceiling height etc. Lived there for 15 years, redecorated every room multiple times and it never felt like it was 'my home'.
I couldn't take it anymore and rather than redecorate (again) we decided to move. We bought a mid terraced property with exactly the same floor plan as the old house but it is much smaller (most would see this as a downside!?) The kids still have their own rooms but they are about half the size of the old house and we are now on a main road. Sounds awful right?
I absolutely love this house, from day one it felt like it was 'mine'! Like I have always lived here, I didn't need time to settle, I never pined for the old house - in fact I couldn't wait to get out and move here.
I never even think about my old house, the amount of money and sodding hard work we put into the place and it's like my brain has just blocked it out!
I was wondering, as there are a few threads about people that move and miss their old place if there are others like me that have moved without a backwards glance to their 'real' home?

DH inherited our house while he was a student; it felt like home from the minute I set foot in it. We've been here over 30 years and wouldn't want to live anywhere else (although I never say never).

Home for me, is where my heart is. So basically, DC, DH and the dogs! I’ve felt at home in tiny, shitty damp rentals and massive detached. Any that we’ve owned, I’ve always knocked the shit out of (fortunately always made money too!) to make my own. We’ve recently moved again and I am knocking shit out of said house. Again 🤣 Will be fabulous when it’s done though (she says from a lime green bedroom with purple swirly carpet and a navy blue bathroom suite 🤦‍♀️) and honestly? I think I’ve peaked! I love it and this will be it for us until age/health/finances say we need to downsize.

You don't know when a house is your home, a gut feeling and confirmed when living there. I absolutely loved our last home, didn't want to leave, we have a bigger house. I still hate it after 3 years whereas the first night in our last home I was fully content. Xx

@Getamoveon2024
Home for me, is where my heart is. So basically, DC, DH and the dogs!

Oh no. I'm pretty sure I would fight my husband to the death for my house, like Kathleen Turner in War of the Roses. We would definitely come to blows over the studio pottery collection.

Been in this house nearly 20 years and have done various things to it but since the divorce and buying him out (and moving lovely DP in) I’m very slowly making progress on making it feel more homely. It’s always been my home, which is why I fought so hard for it, but I have ebbed and flowed on how homely I’ve made it. Currently putting all of my energy and money into it as we both WFH a lot and stay in a lot so I’m really enjoying it. But the main thing that makes it feel homely are the inhabitants and the general warm and calm atmosphere.

Yes, ours is definitely home. We moved in 30yrs ago and never intended to stay more than 5 yrs but it is in a perfect location, rural but not isolated, a modern build so cheap to heat and maintain and since we were unable to have anymore children after DS its a perfect size.

I always dreamed of a larger house but when we inherited a much larger house in the lake district I realised that working full time size really matters. When we spent time in the lakes I would be cleaning all the time. Our home takes a couple of hours if that. The garden is better than most new builds and I’ve recently remodelled it to make it easier to maintain.

I think the fact that DS would be really upset if we moved says everything. He’s grown up here so it’s his home. It smells of dog and fabric softener from drying clothes on the radiators. It’s full of a lifetimes junk that we can’t bring ourselves to throw out but it’s loved and well maintained.

Im glad you've found 'home' now! Sometimes smaller is cozier, that could be it.
We are a family of 4 (young kids) plus a large lurcher, so 5 really. We moved out of our 50m² home in July. It was my first home that id bought before I met my husband. It was so ridiculously small but it had felt like home. The kids still miss it. We are now renting a huge farm house. Its a temporary solution while we wait to move into our new build. I do love the space and I have not looked back. Looking forward to moving into our forever home this year though 🤩

@Setsquares - I'm really interested to know where you would consider 'home'. For me it's always a feeling, very driven by my childhood holidays and experiences.

Love my home. Love the cosy smell when I put my key in the door. No place compares x

Yes I love our house, it’s the perfect size for our family and we won’t have to extend or move as our kids grow. We’ve spent a lot of time making it perfect for us, lots of trips to second hand shops and vintage shops but it finally feels like ours.

No . I only bought it last year but I bought it to get onto the housing ladder. It isn’t my forever home or dream home. The plan is to do it up we are slowly doing and out onto the market next year. Need a new bathroom and some carpets first but it’s do able. The area isn’t what we wanted either but obviously didn’t know it at the time. It’s a shame as it’s a semi detached with a nice garden and a drive etc and amazing neighbours but the wrong area and a 2 bed.

I have moved many times around the UK. But nothing feels like home.

Went somewhere abroad (business trip).

I knew as soon as I got out of the airport I was home.
It was a very rough area, it wasn’t a safe area. Witnessed a gunfight.
Despite everything I saw I still couldn’t shake the feeling that this was where I was meant to be.

Still think of it as home.

Not my house, but your post reminds me of my parents having downsized in a similar way about 20 years ago - from the 6-bed detached 1930s house I grew up in to a 4-bed semi from the same era, about 5 minutes away. Although I've never lived there, it feels just like the house I grew up in, just on a slightly smaller scale.

I've lived in many houses but only two felt like home. My favourite house because I bought it on my own, remodelled it and I had 15 happy years there.

Then eventually this one. I've again bought on my own, it needs a lot of work but eventually it will be stunning.

I think you just know as soon as you see it whether it's home.

Loved my last home but downsized last year to my 'heart' home. Was a massive emotional family as i'm very attached to my home wherever I am, bit this place; I walk round and just go 'wow' nearly every day. It's not bigger, it's got its quirks, but the way the light falls in it, the garden, the views and the coziness of it just make me feel like i'm on a permanent holiday. Sooo happy - bit that could also have something to do with being free from emotionally abusive marrriages x 2 for EVER and moving on in peace.

Yes, my little cottage on the North Norfolk coast feels like home. Not overcrowded, but furniture from my late parents, photos of my adult DCs. Lots of books in nooks and crannies because I’m the ultimate bookworm. Painted in my favourite colours, shared with my lovely cats. I’m sixty five, and I’ve had a lot of homes over the years. My first flat I owned at twenty five was special, because I put my own stamp on it. And forty years later I feel the same again. The ones in between I shared, and I never felt as at home as I do now.

Keeping to OP's question, does your house feel like home? I think it has to do with a lot of things. For me, it's the amount of natural light, the layout, who's lived here before, and whether they were happy. Does the house have good bones? If it does, no matter what state it's in, it can be fixed. My old house always felt sad — I thought I could fix that with a renovation, but I could never shake the house's bad feeling." The house I'm in now felt like home immediately pre-renovation; it just felt 'right'

Yes. Yes it does and I’m very grateful to have my own front door.

Yes.

we relocated from London to Somerset almost 2 years ago. Our London home felt very much like home…..we just wanted to retire/semiretire somewhere different and live in a small town.

we lived in rented for 9 months and that was definitely our ‘for now’ home. We then bought the house we’re in now and love it and it feels like home.

ive lived in a few places over the years. The ones I’ve felt at home in were my 2 childhood homes (well except the flat we moved from when I was 2!) , my London home and my current home. I’ve lived in 10 addresses.

I am happy in my home and it does feel like home but i still miss the old house i brought my 3 babies back to ,that really was a 'home'.
We had to move as it was too small , it was tatty when we moved in but it had such a good feeling straight away, i have fairly regular dreams of visiting that house.
It's funny really as it's just bricks .

I think it feels like home, but I don’t quite love this house. If anything happened to dh, I think I’d move once the dc were ready. I’d wait until they’d finished school, or college if they went locally. Its a house that requires a lot of upkeep, and I’d rather something simpler especially as I get older.

Yes, even though I will never own it, as it comes with my job. It feels much more like home than the previous one where I lived on-site in a different part of the UK. It isn't perfect, it is a constant work in progress (we are allowed to do whatever we like to the houses, providing that we don't knock them down!), but it is my home and I am very lucky to live in a very beautiful, rural area. Some people dismiss it as being in the "a*-end of nowhere", and yes, you have to drive anywhere that isn't on one of the nearest farms, but it's nice to leave the busy town/city world and come home to the countryside. Short of moving to the tiny island off the UK mainland that I fell in love with, I will not be moving out for a long time.

When I was younger, I always wanted to live in a detached Victorian/Georgian property, but I will make do with my 1930's house (sadly, with none of its original features, but that's part of the work in progress!).

Only moved in 3 weeks ago. It feels like home. I really thought I would long to go back to my home of the last 30 years, I don’t.

I have lived in my 50s/60s 3 bed semi for 20 years and it very much feels like home.
My previous house had been DHs before we married and always felt like his even after our children were born I was so happy to move here.

When I was in primary school I went to a friends birthday party and she lived in a Victorian house, we lived in a terraced 2 up 2 down. I think it was at that moment that I fell in love with Victorian houses. Always yearned to live in one.

I’m in SH and was exchanging roughly every two years because nothing ever felt like home. Until I finally managed to get a swap into a Victorian house. I’ve been here 20 years now and it definitely feels like home. Even when I was walking along the street when I first came to view it, I remember thinking I want to live here.

It was a total state when I moved in but I’ve done a lot to it over the years. It’s still got a lot of original features which I love. The area is really nice and quiet but also close to everything I need. No issues with the neighbours (noisy neighbours were a problem in a couple of places I lived in). Nowhere else I could move to would tick all the boxes this place does.