To think a great big semi or detached house must be SO lovely?!

[NeverYouMind123]

Terraced here. It's okay most of the time but I dream of living in a house with no fucking neighbour noise whatsoever. These walls are so thin I can hear the microwave next door. I dream of buying a semi detached in a few years with hallways next to each other separating the living rooms or when I'm really feeling ambitious I dream of a detached house, which must be the mother of all awesomeness. I know there is still 'area noise' but I'm not really a garden person so kids playing outside and lawnmowers etc don't phase me so much. But oh to wake up with no 'house noise' and to know I can sit in the lounge or lie in bed and have PURE SILENCE all day and not hear a dog bark or a door slam or an argument or a television. Is it as great as I think it is?

I lived in a big five bed detached house. I've just moved into a little terraced cottage.

When the kids all moved out the big house felt incredibly lonely. I worried that, should I have an accident, nobody would hear my shouts for help. During big storms or gales, I felt very isolated.

My terrace is old, so the walls are thick and I never hear my neighbours at all, but it's reassuring to know they are there.

Were in a semi and years ago (before kids) my neighbour knocked to ask us not to have sex so loudly as we were keeping her up. Don't think I've ever been so mortified before or since and for ages after I wanted a detached house, beside the point now though since we have 4 kids in the house anyway

Yes is nice, I’ve lived in various detached houses for the last 22 years and it’s lovely. Before that I lived in a 1930’s semi which was great inside for noise but we had a shared driveway which caused issues. Before that I lived in 4 different flats with my DS and often noise was an issue but I found a flat layout worked well as my DS’s bedroom was like a playroom in the day and I always felt safe as just one way in and one way out.

We have a detached 30s style 4 bed home .It is lovely and I am grateful.If you have a terraced property at present ,maybe you could stretch to a large semi or smaller detached property in the next few years ?Saving and also maybe consider a "doer upper"!

Yes it was a barking yelping puppy that inspired this thread, the horrible little twat.

We moved from a Victorian mid terrace in a large town to a small detached house at the end of a cul de sac in a rural- ish villiage and the difference is night and day when it comes to noise. Its really helped clear up my OH's asthma too.

More expensive to run and a smaller garden than before, so there are trade offs, but this is a much better location for lockdown. We had shouty neighbours who seemed like they were on the verge of divorce when we left ( could hear everything through the walls). God knows how they are coping in lockdown.

We moved from a terraced house where the bath would shake (while you were in it) when the kids nextdoor ran up or down the stairs to a detached house and it's bliss. I don't have to worry about our DC making too much noise.

Yes, it is. We live in the middle of very rural countryside and sometimes I wake up to birdsong, so many different voices and songs. Some nights I fall asleep to absolute silence, with the stars twinkling clear in the dark night sky.

Other mornings, I wake up to the tractor ploughing/drilling/fertilising/cropping in the field opposite, any number of my neighbours' dogs (min. one per household in this village), the helicopters flying over to the military base three miles to the west, or farm machinery being driven from one site to another.

I wouldn't swap it though!

I’d love a great big semi

I feel very lucky to live in a semi, hardly hear the neighbour, elderly on her own, dreading her leaving. Sometimes hear her phone ring or when she walks across wooden flooring but that's only when my house is silent.

Quiet in gardens too as mostly elderly folks around here, so really appreciate the peace and know how lucky I am.

Lived in flat for a while and couldn't cope with the noise, hear neighbours music, arguing, kids, tv, flushing toilet, plus the smell off weed coming from flat below so couldn't open windows.

I don't know how people are coping with living in flats during lockdown.

The majority of new build ‘detached’ houses share a garden fence and are so close to the neighbouring houses they may as well be semis.

It’s heaven. Having lived in a maisonette made of frigging paper for 5 years my lovely semi with thick walls and nice quiet next door neighbours is incredible.

Used to be able to hear upstairs neighbours pissing.

I have made my sacrifice at the alter of neighbour noise and now I’m being rewarded.

I'm with you OP.

Right side neighbours recently moved out - they were lovely and quiet and I'm dreading who moves in.

In contrast, left side neighbours watched Grease on Sunday and had a lovely singalong, then listened to the Grease soundtrack straight after and had a lovely singalong.

Depends on the type of semi, and the type of neighbours. My walls are paper thin too as in I wake up from next doors snoring despite end be ijng as far away from the joining wall as possible.

Neighbours also have a lovely habit of playing their (loud and shit) music via their tv out into the garden so you can't get any escape either in or out of the house.

As you say you probably need a well designed semi with thick walls or a detached for real sound isolation!

It was always our dream to have a detached house and now we do and we love it. We live in a very peaceful area too so right now stood in the kitchen with the French doors open all I can hear is birds. This crazy situation has reminded us how very very lucky we are to live where we do.

We went from pokey terraced house where we could literally hear the sound of our neighbours switching the light on/off to a 4 bed detached and I have to admit it's lovely.

Our first house was a little terrace. The neighbours complained about normal kid noise and when we sat out in the garden (yes I know we were lucky as lots of terraces have just a yard) the smoke from next door would drift over. The fences were only about 5 feet so if they were out as well you felt like you were out with them and their bloody barking dog.

Now we have a semi with a big wrap around garden (we have the end house) and it is truly amazing. It's a link semi so only joined by the living room and the master bedroom upstairs but it's an old house so we barely hear the neighbours as the walls must be thick.

Semis round here are only about 40k more than small terraces so I don't know why you would buy a terrace.
My mam has a big old Victorian terrace with a small garden and she can hardly hear the neighbours either due to the thick walls but again when you go out her back you can see the neighbours constantly.

We have an eight foot hedge blocking our neighbour from us which suits us both fine.

I'd LOVE a detached house with no neighbours noise to hear...Building noise and family noise... it drives me insane. middle of a Victorian terrace here with floor sanding by neighbour to start imminently ... Building noise has been intolerable .
A friend sold his house and moved to a small detached place in the country... he LOVES it.

There are big houses such as you describe which are in grotty, crime filled areas and you can still have difficult neighbours.

However in a decent area it is nicer than living in a terraced - generally - quieter and more private. I live in a semi and rarely hear my neighbours except if they are talking in the garden and that's not loud. It's very private too.

I must tell that some years ago when husband was working in a different part of the country, we rented a one bed terraced cottage with small back garden. You could not hear people either side, the walls were so solid and it was a charming place.

I grew up in a terraced house and you could even hear the old man yawning through the sitting room walls, it was awful and quite embarrassing.

We are in a semi. The ndns can be noisy - especially the dad and the little boy. And they play music in their garden and pre lockdown had frequent noisy get togethers. Could be worse though.

Grew up in a detached house, huge garden at the end of a cul-de-sac in a semi rural area. It was idyllic growing up but not so good for mum after my dad died and children left home. She would not move because she valued her privacy so much. But I'm sure her mental health suffered from living somewhere so isolated especially after she gave up driving. She got dementia eventually.

Detached houses are lovely, but now I’m longing for ten acres all around and possibly a moat. Quite fancy an island to myself.

I’ve lived in a terrace, semi and detached, we had a nightmare in the terrace. Our next door neighbour moved out and overnight 15-17 of his relatives/friends moved in (a tiny new build two bed), they were on some kind of “holiday” we were told, so were up all night, kids running up and down stairs constantly banging walls and screaming, adults smoking and hanging around outside at 3/4am talking loudly on their phones. They didn’t speak English so every time we tried to discuss it with them it went nowhere as they understood virtually nothing we said, they started going into our back garden and stealing our wheelie bins to put their rubbish in and throwing their rubbish that we had removed from our own bins into our front garden.

I posted a letter through the door threatening to report them to the police for antisocial behaviour and suddenly our old neighbour appeared apologising saying they don’t understand “local customs” begging us not to call the police and they disappeared three days later.

I know we could the same issue in a semi, and the area was the main problem, but it’s put me off terraces ever since.

I've always lived in terraces, ranging from grotty to very posh, and I think I would feel a bit uncomfortable without an adjoining neighbour. I would worry that nobody would hear me if I needed to call for help, and that nobody would notice intruders.

Yes, I very much appreciate it. It took us a good few weeks to stop tiptoeing about in this house, so used to living in a flat with people downstairs.

That said, terraces can be lovely in terms of social interaction, depending on your neighbours, of course. And a detached house can still have arsey neighbours quite close by.

Aiming for my own private island, next move.

It’s heaven. Especially at this time of year. But our place is a small holding too so nothing but countryside noise or kids playing half a mile away with their voices carrying on the wind. I am so happy here during lockup. I miss nothing so far.