To hate people going on about how beautiful my house is

[DyslexicScientist]

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?

*the

YY very serious. Serious Sparkling today on very serious thread.

I disgree MadamCroquette....those instances you gave were very amusing and entertaining. It's the "shutting down" that keeps it interesting.

"Oh poor you" "I agree wholeheartedly" "How awful" over and over again......now that would be dull!

You are winding us all up, aren't you Sparkling!! You did actually have me for a moment there...!

LOVE homes under the hammer!

Presenter: "Let's go back and see how much of a pigs ear Mike has made of the renovation."
Mike: "I couldn't be arsed to change the kitchen units after all, so I spray painted them gold."
Estate agent: "In an area this shit, I estimate a depressing 2-bed flat in this condition will bring in approx 20p per week"

We lived in a 1900s mid terrace with single walls and no loft hatch. It was damp and fucking freezing. My gas bills were 200pcm in the winter. We had to use the heating from 6am until 10pm on days like today just to be able to sit in socks, slippers, jeans,t shirt, jumper and a hoody!

We eventually got the landlord to put a loft hatch in so we could have loft insulation in and it made a big difference. But people still commented how cold it was.

We moved last year to a 2011 ha eco house. We have sweated an awful lot. Unless the temperature outside is below freezing we have our bedroom window open all night. I very rarely put the heating on and when I do I have to turn it off after 20 minutes.

OP just sell the fecking house. Everything is bearable if you are warm!

Yes Madame
Presenter: here's another dick who bought without a survey
Monotone property developer: I went to auction and bid on the wrong loy. I was after a self contained garage
Presenter: where are you going to park your car Dave?

I grew up in a Victorian house, really beautiful with loads of original features.

It was fucking freezing. All the time. I was bought a clock with the temperature on it and one Boxing Day I woke up in my bedroom and it was 7 degrees. As I said to my DM when I went downstairs - that's actually only 2 degrees warmer than a fridge. And the heating was on!

It's the price you pay for having such big rooms, high ceilings, interesting architectural features, original wooden sash windows etc. And people love them, they do, they talk about the original double glazing and the beautiful marble fireplace and the massive ceiling rose which only once fell down and almost killed someone. But there is a price to pay for living in them, which is either astronomical heating bills, or frostbite.

I'm extremely hardy now. I have a 1920s terrace with double glazing throughout and a loft you can actually insulate... And walk around flinging windows open in December because I'm too hot :D

I also lust after Victorian houses for our next move.

Madame

sparkling you bold thing! i believed you!

Our house is lovely and bloody freezing! Fortunately I can make curtains so all the windows have curtains that have been interlined with thick fluffy stuff and a thermal lining. All the chairs and couches have throws on them to snuggle under. I've also lost some weight so this year I can fit leggings under my jeans!

I love the house in the summer so much that I just grin and bare it. When I visit friends houses and use their loo I get very envious, going to the loo in a warm room...bliss!

I live in a beautiful old house but not listed so we have done everything to insulate it and modernise inside but without the two wood burners we installed, it would be freezing.

We have oil fired central heating which is expensive to run, so the wood burners are vital.

Ok op, I apologise my my share of the snippiness. I can see how such comments would start to irritate after a while. As someone who can only dream of having a nice-looking home and who has NEVER received compliments on the one she's got, I'm not capable of empathising with you beyond that point though!

I could probably make it nice but it would take such a colossal practical effort ('cos DH doesn't care and the kids just mess it up anyway) that I have officially given up.

At least it's warm

Our house is freezing too, I'm currently holding a cup of tea just to keep warm and am in my coat and the heating is on. People go on about the lovely proportions of the rooms but in truth they are huge and cold. So true that they are like interesting exciting men SonyaAtTheSamovar seriously tempted to move back to the tropics.

Just to echo what Mrsgreyoldlady says. I live in a Georgian terrace - and it's really warm. The fact that it's a terrace helps - and that it's actually quite small so the changes required were manageable and there are no huge rooms to heat. Plus it was derelict when I bought it so there was no option but to make changes and I took the opportunity to put in lots of insulation. It's insulated from the inside on the external walls as well as loft obviously. Brand new central heating system, double glazing (expensive as had to be bespoke and timber framed). This all obviously cost a lot at the time and we are fortunate in a way that the house is not listed. But the net result is that all my energy costs about £100 per month. And I hate being cold so I keep the thermostat at around 22.

I did actually look into a new form of double glazing that councils are accepting in listed properties - I saw it on Grand Designs! But it turned out I didn't need it as we are not listed - just conservation area - so I could get away with the ordinary double glazing. It turns out the council would actually have accepted UPVC windows as they have done for the neighbours but they look dreadful and I'm quite annoyed that they have permitted this in a row of Georgian houses.

Funnily enough, I don't even have any period features! These were all ripped out long before I arrived. But I do like living in a handsome house I must admit.

Er, flog it? Assuming it's pretty and structurally sound it can't be that hard to sell can it?

Ours is listed and the kitchen is only warm when I'm cooking, but it s beautiful.

I too live in a beautiful old C16 listed house. It's bloody freezing. .
My solution is to wear thermals and go to bed early.
Think of the summer when those lovely damp stone walls keep the house cool.

Have you got wood burners and a range op ?

My cold house improved immeasurably fitting in the wood burner. It was on all day and was lovely

We had a lovely old farmhouse for a while. I remember one winter morning, we opened the kitchen door to let the warm air in. I,was minus 2 outside...

We had to put all our food in the fridge, to stop it freezing!

Soon learned how to make decent fires in the lounges.

Sitting about 6 inches from them in the coldest times...

And it wasn't even pretty...

Edinburgh tenement flats are only warm if they have central heating/ some south or west facing windows/neighbours who put the heating on. Coldest place I've lived was a flat I rented with none of the above. Had to hold a fan heater over the toilet to heat the seat and melt the ice.( it was a cold winter )

It's a little known fact, but the event that actually prompted the French Revolution was when Marie Antoinette was overheard commenting that the gilded hallways of Versailles could be somewhat chilly in the winter months. And I believe the last Tsarina was heard to have objected to the Winter Palace being a little too … wintery.

OP, when they come for our heads, it will be ALL YOUR FAULT!!

Snap varicose but we have just replaced an ancient boiler and we're warmer even without the wood burner on.

The PPs who have said put in carpets downstairs obviously haven't heard that in flooded areas they are all putting in flagstones.

Our house is in France and was (renovated) effed up in the 70s so they, no doubt removed beautiful flagstones and put in tiles all over the ground floor BUT not ones we would've chosen. So I'm still wearing leggings under my jeans and 2 pairs of sox. I don't mind I think about the environmental cost to highly heated homes.

did you engage your brain/sensitivity chip before posting this OP!!!!!

Peri they're bloody freezing. The coldest I've ever been (when inside) was staying at my friend's flat. I was like a block of ice.