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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Following on from weird house rules...

22 replies

ateapotandacake · 21/09/2016 19:43

AIBU to ask: what are the oddest house things you've seen?
My example: my IL's have glass doors on every room. Every. Single. Room. Bedrooms, bathrooms, EVERY ROOM. There's a curtain system upstairs but not for the downstairs bathroom (so I've never used it). They also have movement sensor lighting in bathrooms and corridors which drives me insane: the light goes off if you sit on the loo too long! They recently redid one of the spare rooms and haven't replaced the curtain. We were given that the last time we went to stay: lights flashing on/off all night through the glass whenever someone went to the loo was horrendous I didn't sleep a wink!

So: yours?

OP posts:

BummyMummy77 · 21/09/2016 19:53

My in laws have an unfinished house so there's a four floor staircase with no banister and none of the electric outlets have face plates on so have bare wiring exposed.

Fucking brilliant with ds being 3 year old.

Original poster

ateapotandacake · 21/09/2016 19:54

Bummy that sounds terrifying! Fourth floor as well!

OP posts:

BummyMummy77 · 21/09/2016 19:55

It's awful. I try not to go there so much!

duskonthelawn · 21/09/2016 19:57

A family who are friends with my parents have a curtain instead of a bathroom door. It's a bit like a shower curtain, doesn't even touch the floor. Really freaked me out.

JenLindleyShitMom · 21/09/2016 19:59

My friend has no bins in her house. She even asked me for a kitchen bin I was getting rid of years ago and when I was next there the bin was being used to stack shoes/coats on top of and rubbish was still just "where it was let fall" I've sat open mouthed as her DCs opened wrappers and literally just let them fall to the floor. Friend made no attempt to pick them up. I find it extremely teeth itchingly odd not to put things in bins.

Original poster

ateapotandacake · 21/09/2016 20:01

JenLindley No bins! So odd! How do people live like that!
And dusk I wouldn't be able to stay in a place without a bathroom door! I've a total horror that someone will walk in on me. Awful!

OP posts:

MadHattersWineParty · 21/09/2016 20:02

My Great Aunt and Uncle lived in an old house that still had the servents bell-system. He had it reinstalled, and would sit and read the papers upstairs and ring down to the kitchen and she'd bring whatever he wanted up to him. It was never the other way around.

They thought it was brilliant

JenLindleyShitMom · 21/09/2016 20:03

As a child, the loo in the house where my childminder lived had no lock. Her husband walked in on me once while I was on the toilet. Never used that toilet again! To this day I won't use a toilet without a lock.

FrancisCrawford · 21/09/2016 20:09

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TaterTots · 21/09/2016 20:12

My friend was lodging with this 'eccentric' woman and I went to visit. The landlady ĺ had decided at some point that she needed an extra bedroom - so she'd ripped out the bathroom and had installed one in the cupboard under the stairs instead Honestly, a tiny cupboard barely big enough for a loo, never mind a shower. Yet she had this big extension thing that just had junk in it.

Yet it got even weirder when I went to my room. It was full of life-size child dolls with weird starey eyes All night I felt them looking at me.

I wasn't entirely surprised to learn that she was a little over-fond of

CruCru · 21/09/2016 20:23

When I was a child, I had a friend whose family lived in a flat ... and it was filthy. They would just let rubbish fall to the floor and leave things like dirty nappies on the sofa.

Another friend had a house that was so clean, it was peculiar. Whenever I put my school bag down on the floor, they would tense up (I don't think that they had a special place for bags, it was just that my bag didn't belong in their house).

StickyProblem · 21/09/2016 20:27

We looked at a house that was described as having "ensuites" in every room. Not quite...
Every room had fitted wardrobes, not fitted by a professional although not too bad, and the last wardrobe had a loo in it. No sink, just a loo, in a wardrobe, on the carpeted floor.

LifeIsGoodish · 21/09/2016 20:42

I had a friend whose mum had a thing for interior design.

Their bathroom was thoroughly weird: she had 'tiled' it with homemade, padded, leatherette-covered, 50cm square tiles. The toilet seats and kids were all covered in the same padded, brown, leatherette.

All dustbins were covered in the wallpaper of the room they belonged to, but had to be kept in the wardrobe or other storage.

Several ceilings were gilded. Literally. She had coated them with artists' gold leaf. Actually looked quite good, but the reflections made everything look disco-balled.

And she boasted so much about her amazing ideas.

TippiNoodlegruder · 21/09/2016 20:45

We went away for a dirty weekend, and the place we stayed in had loads of exciting features, like that Bluetooth music system that follows you from room to room. However it also had motion sensor lights up the stairs, which sensed motion WHEN THERE WASN'T ANY. So, deep countryside, pitch black and deathly quiet. Lights click on suddenly. I may have screeched and woken my husband...

NoFuchsGiven · 21/09/2016 20:51

The toilet seats and kids were all covered in the same padded, brown, leatherette

She covered her kids the same as the toilet seats?

MadisonAvenue · 21/09/2016 21:07

I once stayed at a friend's cottage and there wasn't a lock on the bathroom door. It was a huge bathroom so it wasn't even as if you could push on the door to hold it closed should anyone try to come in as the toilet was on the other side of the room.

SistersOfPercy · 21/09/2016 21:46

I remember a friends house (mid 80s) had this bar in the living room that completely dominated the entire room. It was stained brown with pumps and everything. The thing was so huge there was only room for two armchairs and I never saw friends dad anywhere other than stood behind the bar.

I'm closely watching for someone to mention the oddity of my house now with a stormtrooper in the dining room.....

NotMeNo · 21/09/2016 21:52

Wait.

the rubber nozzle was very tempting and I often had a wee sook of gas

whatthefuckingfuck????

NotMeNo · 21/09/2016 21:53

lol at the leather padded kids

littleprincesssara · 21/09/2016 22:08

My flat (converted loft) was built by an eccentric. There are all sorts of weird little bits and nooks and crannies.

Wall to wall cream carpet even in the bathroom and kitchen.

Everything in the kitchen built into the walls and covered in wood paneling, so replacing anything, even the microwave, involves major work.

The bed is on a kind of 10ft high platform with a little spiral staircase going up to it.

In some places you need to be a hobbit not to bash your head, in other places the ceiling is 50ft high.

No overheard lights, just a million spotlights everywhere, all with their own light switch, and all with dimmer switches. So you can have sexy mood lighting in the kitchen if you want! I still haven't figured out what all the switches do.

AgentProvocateur · 21/09/2016 22:25

We had a gas poker too! I'd completely forgotten about it until now.

Rainbunny · 22/09/2016 20:21

Not very exciting perhaps but deeply stressful to my repressed self is the fact that my inlaws don't have any bathroom locks on any of their bathroom doors. Presumably it dates back to when their children were young and now there are grandchildren on the scene. It's amazing how fast I can do my business and shower/wash hair etc... when we go stay there!

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