Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3

Original poster

aibu to buy a terraced house

60 replies

mattsmadmum · 22/01/2014 17:58

Living with family with 2 dc. Will have enough to buy a house with no mortgage by april. Happy to live anywhere but dsis and dm are furious I will consider a mid terraced as think I will have terrible problems with neighbour's. Cant afford anything else as sp could borrow but dont want to.a . Something at the back of my mind thinks they could be right, aibu to ignore this and stick to a v tight budget

OP posts:

yonisareforever · 22/01/2014 21:14

Ours is victorian opal and the walls are pretty thin.

bonvivant · 22/01/2014 21:16

I once moved to a house in the country to have no neighbours and ended up with terrible neighbour issues. Now I live on a lovely estate with nice neighbours.

Notcontent · 22/01/2014 21:16

Ha, ha - you are obviously not in London!!!
Around where I am people pay nearly a million for even a tiny crappy terrace and feel pretty lucky to be able to buy a house, rather than just a flat!

yonisareforever · 22/01/2014 21:17

I have found most london terraces are not only policed better in terms of hot EH teams to deal with noise but they also tend to be more solid and far better sound proofed its elsewhere you need to check.

happylittlevegemites · 22/01/2014 22:16

"Oh they don't build them like they did in the old days".

Pah. PAH. P A H ! ! Thank fuck they don't

If I had a pound for every time I heard that, I could have paid for the renovations on our Victorian terrace!

We've just moved to a 20 year old detached house. Yes, the terrace was very cute, yes this little new estate is a bit dull, but I love not being woken up by next doors hair dryer.

Just like now, old houses could be built by good or bad builders. Ours was built by ye olde worlde Barratts.

(Disclaimer - terraces aren't all bad, I have friends who love theirs, we did make a tidy profit on ours and - most importantly - do what suits your family not your dsis and dm!).

wonkylegs · 22/01/2014 22:24

We had a lovely terraced house, we could rarely hear the neighbours (in 10yrs we heard a few drunken party renditions of the Sound of Music on one side and one or two teenage staircase meltdowns on the other but that was it) we had more problems with people on the other side of the street. We loved our neighbours either side and we were very sad to move.

My dad lives in a cul-de-sac of posh detached houses and has neighbours from hell on one side.

Unless you are moving to the middle of a field on your own (which has it's own downsides) neighbours are going to be there. Whether or not they are good neighbours is less predictable. Whether or not your house is soundproof - check when you buy. Some houses (terraced/semi/detached) are flimsy others solid as a rock.

NotYouNaanBread · 23/01/2014 06:31

It would never cross my mind that it would be a problem! We live in quite a middle-class/crunchy area (lib dems, allotments & babywearing!) and we all live in Victorian terraces.

There's a 1200 sq ft terrace not far from me on the market for £725k right now (and I'm not in London) so the idea of buying a detached house anywhere around here is just hilarious!

Of course, my American in laws assume we live in a slum.

NotYouNaanBread · 23/01/2014 07:08

I should clarify that my terraced house is not worth anything like 725k (!!) - just that the concept of holding out for a detached home in my city would be a but loopy when some (equally loopy) people are paying that much for a mid-terrace.

TheRaniOfYawn · 23/01/2014 07:32

I've always lived in terraces. I don't really understand the snobbery as although I'm currently in an ex council terrace with lovely neighbours I have also lived in a terrace with a spin doctor on one side, a retired headmistress on the other side and an actress who is the type the papers calm a national treasure across the road. It's just a house.

jamdonut · 23/01/2014 07:48

I live in a terraced house,that has an alleyway to the back garden every two houses. It is ex - council. When we moved here 11 years ago, both neighbours were lovely,elderly lady one side and a family of grown-ups the other (council house).

Unfortunately, the family moved out 3 years ago, and the council put in a young family. Our lives have not been the same since!!! The kids scream and yell in the garden and their bedrooms ( I can take children playing, I'm a TA - this is more than playing) The parents yell at each other and the kids and smoke weed, which seems to seep through the walls. Disgusting!

If I could afford to move,I would. But then....you don't know what your neighbours are going to be like elsewhere.It is a lottery. Very depressing.

Flip

1 2 3

Swipe left for the next trending thread