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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think SOME people that live in period houses are pretentious twats

133 replies

carriedababi · 09/02/2011 15:44

i find it weird how people in small victorian terraces are snobby about new builds, someone i know who lives in a really small 2 bedroom victorian terrace,

complains [frequently] that new builds are built too close together, and have small gardens..

when their victorian terrace has no garden only a yard, and its in a row of about 20!
they couldn't have packed in more houses!

the stairs are really narrow and steep
theres no where to park,so its parking wars with the neighbours, everyone has wheelie bins in the front, well, yard bit that about 2-3ft deep.
so the whole street looks scruffy all you can see is bins everywhere

so, i can't really see how someone can complain new builds have small gardens and are built too close together when they have no garden and the house are built 20 plus in a row!

i can understand people that live in fabulous detachted georgian house etc being a bit snobby, but it seems to me the ones in the small terraces that are most pretentious

OP posts:
lessnarkypuffin · 09/02/2011 16:32

You'd definitely need a spacious hallway for that Hullygully.

Ormirian · 09/02/2011 16:33

I have no buffalo.

I do have 2 cats who roam and two rats who don't, unless someone leaves the cage open.

Original poster
carriedababi · 09/02/2011 16:34

it just makes me lol that its usually the ones with the small terraced houses that are the most pretentious, not the ones with the really great houses

anyway i find it highly ironic that
someone complain new build have small gardens, when they themselves have NO garden, or that new build are built too closely together when there house is is in row of 20plus all built alongside each other

but as you say an englishmans home is his castle...

OP posts:
bupcakesandcunting · 09/02/2011 16:34

"You can feel less hemmed in in a terraced house than on an estate of new build detatched houses where they've been thrown in at all angles, so when you look out of any window you see another house only a few feet away."

That's the other thing. I don't really like the Brookside Close element of new build streets. Victorian terraced streets look very nice and uniform.

Hullygully · 09/02/2011 16:34

there's a tiny house, by a tiny stream

NinkyNonker · 09/02/2011 16:35

I live in a Victorian terrace that isn't huge (does have a very long garden, parking, garage etc) but I wouldn't say I was snobby about it. I wouldn't buy a new build though, I just wouldn't. I rented a room in one for a year so I'm completely ignorant to their attractions, but I like the solidity and quirkiness of old properties. Bar that year, I have never lived in a new, or modern house...some of them sap my soul a little!

DH and I have often said we'd like to build a house ourselves though, but I guess that is different.

bupcakesandcunting · 09/02/2011 16:37

So if you live in a small house you must have no standards because you're so scummy to be living in a small house?

We could have had a new build for the same money with bigger rooms/driveway but chose a house with some longevity/feature over room size. All of the gardens in our terrace are big too. Ours is three-tiered with bags of lawn-space so they're not all pokey grief-holes.

bupcakesandcunting · 09/02/2011 16:37

Hully you rock my world.

GwendolineMaryLacey · 09/02/2011 16:37

So what you're really asking is how can someone who has no garden and lives in a terraced house be smug about the plot that a new build is on? That's a different thread to your op really.

I live in a small Victorian semi. Yes it's small and bloody freezing but, the walls are enormously thick, Motorhead could move in next door and we wouldn't know. We have a massive garden, most of the new builds I looked at had postage stamp gardens. I love the ceilings, fireplaces etc.

Having said that, I would move into a new build tomorrow because of the heat issue. Our house is just too cold and a new build would be toasty.

There are plusses and minuses to both.

theexample · 09/02/2011 16:37

Ewww. A period house? There would be blood everywhere! And it would stink.

gordyslovesheep · 09/02/2011 16:38

I like the character of Victorian houses - I grew up in one and I always disliked new builds - our last home was NB and it was failry boxy and dull HOWEVER I recently got a new build (moved in 3tmhs ago) and I have to say it's lovely - really well liad out, quirky, huge hall and nice touches, hugh celings and warm (no neighbours so can't comment on thin walls) but I don;t hear street noise etc

I think builders ARE making new builds better and nicer - redrows herritage ones are lovely :)

But I actually agree with whoever said pretentious people can live anywhere!

lessnarkypuffin · 09/02/2011 16:38

Brookside Is a way better than some of the recently built estates I've seen. Teeny tiny turning circles only really suitable for an original mini and houses with a drive in front and about three feet between their walls and the next house.

gordyslovesheep · 09/02/2011 16:38

High celings - sorry sick small person pulling on my arm

mummiehunnie · 09/02/2011 16:38

I lived in a house that could be described as a new build, it was built in the 1990's it had the plasterboard walls, that you couldn't put nails in which was the only downside. I didn't find any of the problems that people claim to find with new builds, there was nothing wrong with noise internally, floors, plaster, heat or building standards etc, I actually had no problems with it at all. I would like to know where people are getting the idea's about noise and badly built from? I liked the fact it did not have a very big garden, it was not as much upkeep and easy to change features in the garden.

I hated living in the old Victorian Terrace. A cottage to me is a lovely detached character property somewhere in the country with lots of land, not a coronation street type row of terraces. It was cold, badly designed, full of long narrow halls, and the garden was long and full of long established weeds, once you had a path in it, there was precious room for anything else, and if kids want to play footie, normally rotten/mismatched low fencing with a nosey old parker living next door nosing at your every move, the garden is so narrow that the ball goes over the fence more than in a new build with a wider square garden.

The only fall down in new builds for me is the plasterboard walls personally, and that is only a problem when wanting to hand something, unless you live with someone violent or clumbsy, then paper plasterboard walls should not be a problem.

gordyslovesheep · 09/02/2011 16:39

oh and I have a drive, garage and two off road parking spaces Grin

CaptainNancy · 09/02/2011 16:39

Ceiling heights.
New builds have ceilings at about 7' 8".
Victorian terraces have ceilings at 12'- it's a whole different feeling even in a room that is just 11' by 11'

Also- victorian terraces are not pretending to be anything other than terraces- new builds all seem to be pretentiously named 'mews houses' (when they are not proper mewss by any means!), 'town houses', 'link detached' Hmm etc

mummiehunnie · 09/02/2011 16:40

Blush hang not hand something!

Blush also the bit about balls going over the fence should have gone in after if the kids play footie Blush

usualsuspect · 09/02/2011 16:42

I was brought up in a drafty ,damp,poky Victorian terraced house ...I couldn't wait to move out to a shiney brand new warm house Grin

figcake · 09/02/2011 16:44

Not sure why you would compare a Victorian house to a Georgian one anyway, and class them as "period"? You sound like a person who does not really know much about period property and would be happy to live in er... a new build(?)

MardyBra · 09/02/2011 16:46

I want to live in Pagwatch's house. Do you think she'd let me have the cupboard under the stairs, like Harry Potter?

JamieLeeCurtis · 09/02/2011 16:48

Home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than magician ever spoke, or spirit ever answered to, in the strongest conjuration.

JamieLeeCurtis · 09/02/2011 16:49

Oh Yes, wondered when we'd get on to pag's blardy house

bupcakesandcunting · 09/02/2011 16:49

Pag's house is a HOVEL compared to mine, so is Fellatio's.

Ormirian · 09/02/2011 16:52

I think what I hate most about the majority of new builds is the way they don't cut the coat to suit the cloth. They have a tiny space to build a house but they do stupid things that use too much space:

1 Insist of it being detached even though it takes up garden space and leaves a tiny sterile no-mans land between the houses that can't be used for anything.

  1. Insist on having 3 bathrooms so that all the other rooms have to be smaller. Why? An en-suite is lovely but surely not at the expense of a reasonable sized third bedroom?
  1. Horrid and inappropriate little 'period' details like Georgian leaded lights and carriage lamps. At least 60 and 70s houses has their own character, didn't try to purloin some from older buildings.

They need to stop pandering to people's pretensions and build solid, ergonomic, well-insulated, eco-friendly houses - not pretend Georgian mansions.

JamieLeeCurtis · 09/02/2011 16:53

Can I just have a little rant?

Property Shows - the NORMAL people on them, looking to buy a house/flat, calling them "properties". It's not a "property" - it's a house. Or it's a FLAT

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