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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To hate people going on about how beautiful my house is

261 replies

DyslexicScientist · 15/01/2016 09:03

When its absolutely freezing inside, costs a fortune to heat and its still not particularly warm or comfortable! This is for about half the year. I've done lots that I can do but it is listed.

I dream of building a modern but boring house. I've packed my suitcase and am staying in my friends modern house this weekend and I'm really looking forward to it.

Anyone else suffering in an old house and having to deal with people just commenting on how nice it looks despite bing very impractical?

OP posts:
MorrisZapp · 15/01/2016 09:46

That's the one SirChenjin :)

Seriously, the OP should tape a sign to her bay window:

'THINK before you comment. What is beautiful to you may cause others great hardship. I can't get a Habitat three seater in here. Please show some sensitivity'.

Maybe we need a Twitter campaign? Edwardian tile chill factor awareness week?

Original poster
DyslexicScientist · 15/01/2016 09:47

Hmm at some people! I get bad comments when I put lighthearted in the title so instead I made a title that obviously shows I'm being s bit lighthearted! You really can't win. I know people have woorse problems, its just a vent on a cold day.

OP posts:
Sgtmajormummy · 15/01/2016 09:47

15 years after moving out of a stone-built 150yo house which rarely got above 18 degrees in Winter, I still appreciate coming home to a cosy warm flat!!
Take the compliments as they're meant. Your guests will soon realise how cold it is...

FankEweVeryMuch · 15/01/2016 09:48

My Edwardian terrace is beautifully warm.

You should move if you hate it so much, new build are generally cheaper where I live too so that would be a bonus. Then you'd be warm and no one would tellyou how beautiful your house is.

BillBrysonsBeard · 15/01/2016 09:48

I hear this so much about big houses! My MILs and mums houses are lovely but uncomfortably cold. I have been in one warm big house but it was an expensive new build. Sitting here enjoying my small, cosy flat..(we need some perks to living in a shoeboxGrin)

Original poster
DyslexicScientist · 15/01/2016 09:48

Period homes are like "interesting" and "exciting" men.

Yes! Grin lesson learnt

OP posts:
Sparklingbrook · 15/01/2016 09:49

There is no way on earth that thread title is lighthearted. Hmm

SirChenjin · 15/01/2016 09:49

I'm with you Morris.

Chilly and damp Edwardian home owners - MN salutes and supports you in your quest for supportive and understanding friends who are sensitive to your feels.

GeraldineFangedVagine · 15/01/2016 09:49

I was about to start a thread about my diamond shoes pinching, but I've thought better of it now.

Doilooklikeatourist · 15/01/2016 09:49

We are the same
People say " oh you're so lucky living in that beautiful house "
If only they knew
It was 8c one morning in our bedroom .....
Dreams of insulated , double glazed central heated new build boxy house

Catpants123 · 15/01/2016 09:50

Buy an electric blanket. I put it on for ten minutes, go to bed early and read, switch it off to sleep. It's changed my life.

iPost · 15/01/2016 09:50

Well I don't mind them saying it's beautiful.

It's a centuries old Lombardy farmhouse. Its beauty is what will help me off load it to an unsuspecting city dweller when I can take the winter discomfort no more.

I love my house in the Spring, Summer and early autumn. But we are coming up for 12 years here and my envy of those in so called "soulless modern boxes" (as I swear at the fire and shudder in the kitchen now that minus temps have arrived) is at a new high.

I want to move to the smallest, most soulless modern box possible. There are only so many spiders with Olympic records in web making that can fit in a soulless box. And only so much floor that needs hoovering and mopping.

SirChenjin · 15/01/2016 09:50

Pull the other one Dyslexic, it's got bells on.

Lighthearted indeed. Pah.

Original poster
DyslexicScientist · 15/01/2016 09:50

*I know what you mean, having grown up in a beautiful, freezing Victorian money pit.

I then went through various lovely warm, hassle free new builds.

Now I live in a 1930s ex council 3 bed. It's also a freezing money pit....but no one tells me it's beautiful.*

That does sound like a quandary, however if its not listed could you do something to both make it beautiful and warmer? Sort of like changing rooms?

OP posts:
Wolpertinger · 15/01/2016 09:51

I do like people complimenting me on my home. I just smile though and say it's a moneypit to live in.

Work men are funny - some clearly panic at the sight of it and don't want to the job. Some start saying the 'lovely house with lots of character' thing and regret it five minutes into the job when everything is going wrong and they've hit their head 10 times on the beams. You end up with 1 or 2 people you get to do everything.

myusernamewastaken · 15/01/2016 09:51

I sympathise too....i live in a 1800 semi detached cottage....it has oil heating which is cheap at the moment but im a single parent and my ex husband left over 2 years ago....since then nothing has been done in the house and it is gradually getting worse and worse....my son currently has no door on his bedroom and the upstairs loo is broken....my parents died years ago and i have no one else i can ask to do these jobs and cannot afford to pay anybody x

ateapotandacake · 15/01/2016 09:52

I feel your pain OP! We bought our 'project' last March. Yesterday I had the heating on full blast for hours and couldn't get the lounge above 16 degrees. Had run out of logs too. Damn you mild spell for making me think I wouldn't need them.
We don't have cavity walls: we have 3 ft stone walls. We don't have double glazing. The previous owners put a conservatory in that's more of a plastic lean to which has double doors onto the kitchen and lounge so despite thick curtains the droughts are bitter. You can see the wind blowing!
I love it and I don't want to be ungrateful and I completely see it's only a middle class problem but when it's cold I still get stroppy about it! Next house will be a new house!

MrsGradyOldLady · 15/01/2016 09:53

I live in a period house too and it was absolutely freezing when we bought it and had a "g" raring on the epc certificate. We've done loads to it and it's now lovely and warm and us rated a "c" which is probably the best we can achieve. I don't know how much you can do with it being listed but we've installed new boiler and central heating, wood burner in the cellar, kingspan roof insulation, solar panels, new windows and doors. We couldn't have cavity insulation for some reason I forget but it is finally warm.

Noofly · 15/01/2016 09:53

I will happily swap houses with you! I grew up in a fantastic massive old house. It was very cold in the winter (New England) and we usually shut half the house off to get through it and bundled up in sweaters. Grin

I'm now in a soulless but warm roasting, thanks DH new build and I long for a cold period house.

Wolpertinger · 15/01/2016 09:54

Frequent discussion in our house is how cold is it outside and what sort of coat will we need - only to go outside and discover it's warmer than inside and we are actually taking jumpers off Shock

MorrisZapp · 15/01/2016 09:56

I live in a tenement flat in Edinburgh, it's over a hundred years old and has high ceilings etc. it's pretty cosy, we have central heating and double glazed windows. We have traditional sash windows to the front, these are modern and double glazed though. At the back, anything goes so we have 'hideous' sealed UPVC units which I love!

Also we've moved on from stripped floorboards - carpet throughout makes it so cosy and keeps the noise down too.

I love it here, it's cosy and beautiful!

RudeElf · 15/01/2016 09:56

Are your diamond shoes too tight as well OP?

Owllady · 15/01/2016 09:57

Who wouldn't like to live in a tenement flat in Edinburgh? Envy

Goldenhandshake · 15/01/2016 09:58

My mums place is over 200 years old, full of wonky wooden beams etc, looks charming but is an absolute bitch to keep warm, so you have my sympathies. It is also listed, so trying to get anything done to modernise is a ball ache too.

MadamCroquette · 15/01/2016 09:59

Oh FGS. OK OP's wording may have been slightly insensitive and Morris your sign is funny :o – but can't people have a first-world moan if they feel like it? Moaning is a universal human right IMO.

So fed up of threads that go like:

OP: Shall I buy this dress for a wedding?
Preachy MNers: Our family could live for 4 and a half years on lentils for the cost of that dress.

OP: Argh I just stood on sharp lego!
Preachy MNers: Some families can't afford lego, you insensitive cow

OP: I'm upset that neighbour has thrown rubbish into my garden.
Preachy MNers: You have a GARDEN!? You snooty bitch. I live in a 340-storey high rise and I'd give my right arm for a garden, rubbish or no rubbish. We grew up in a shoebox on the motorway blah blah di blah...

If people are shut down for saying anything negative about anything they are fortunate to own then it all gets very dull indeed.

And anyway threads like this are useful - I wish I'd had this insight into Victorian houses before we bought ours.