How do people relax in huge houses?

[mrsbeeton999]

It’s probably something I’ll never need to worry about but I’ve just been looking at a bit of property porn - huge houses with indoor pool, gym, cinema room. I think I’d never be able to have a relaxing swim in the basement or shut myself in the cinema room as I’d be worried about security in the rest of the house. In my house I can pretty much see all the house from the lounge and it’s easy to check front and back door are locked. I know some people have staff but not everyone in these houses would. I don’t think I’d feel confident swimming or watching a film if I was home alone.

We live in a large house and I’ve never felt unsafe. We have CCTV that is manned 24/7 so if they see something amiss they action it. We’ve got panic alarms all over the house and a bewildering main alarm system. I paid extra for a fob that just had 2 buttons “close and arm” which locks all of the doors, windows and garage and the other button “open and disarm”. Because I have to unlock the house with the fob I’ve never accidentally set off the alarm.

Where i live they record a lot more break ins in apartments and small houses.
The big ones are usually a bit more secluded, have a tall fence with a gate and cameras.
Its more work to break in, so robbers choose the easier targets.

We have several loud dogs as security. Anyone in the courtyard and the digs go mad. As for cleaning, someone else does it, obviously. If you can afford a huge fuck off house you can afford to pay.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-78430900.html

fenced in

@ivykaty44

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-78430900.html

fenced in

If I was spending £3.5million I’d choose a house made of something nicer than old pallets. Hideous 😂

I have a friend from a family of six children in Cambridge. Boarding school, father a chartered surveyor so we’re not talking McMansions here.

He remembers the time when the family discovered a “local tramp” living in a part of the home that clearly had been unused. He’d been there 10 months.

How does one not notice that?

Never crossed my mind much when I did live in houses big enough that you couldn't hear someone come in from some rooms.

Not an issue now I live in a tiny hovel filled with dogs.

We're lucky enough, or stupid enough, to have two old homes. I am not at all "woo" but far more important for me, than the basic security of the place, is the "feel" of it. I guess I am sensitive to atmosphere. I didn't like sleeping overnight in one of the houses until a priest had blessed it. After that, it became calm. The other house has always had a very benign atmosphere and I've always felt safe there right from the beginning.

BIG dogs

I usually remember to lock the doors when I go out. But not always. Locally, DH feels more vulnerable to burglary or robbery than we do at home.

My uncle lives in a big house in Manchester - 7 beds, bar/games room, gym, cinema room etc. It has lots of security - big gates, cameras etc but they are selling as loads of people on their road have been broken into whilst they’ve been in and robbed.

We've always had big dogs, when I was a teen we went a couple months without any dogs for various reasons and I found myself more paranoid, I dont think I could sleep properly without my dogs.

I don't live in a big house unfortunately. Live in the middle of London with 3 XL dog breeds. My back door is always open at night and one sleeps upstairs on the landing, the other 2 at the bottom. The thought of a house fire scares me more. In a big house how do you know everyone has got out? You would have to go back in searching. Il stick to my 3 bed

@MrsSnowWoman. Similar happened to some neighbors- the Dad and son were watching football on TV. Someone snuck in and grabbed phones and wallets from the kitchen. No one heard a thing!😯

Until recently I lived in a big house in London - not huge but 6 beds, 3 receptions, large garden, 2 internal stairways with bedrooms in different sections.

Couple of years ago someone tried to kick the front door in and ex P didn't hear a thing as he was at the back of the house, though I did as I was sleeping in the bedroom over the door. He only realised what had happened when I ran in telling him.

Whenever he worked away I use to close off and lock a large section of the downstairs because it made me feel vulnerable. We had a lot of glass at the back that meant it was easy to look in if you had got into the back garden without being seen. I often didn't sleep easy, particularly when alone with a small baby.

Plus the cleaning and maintenance!! could never go on Mumsnet and read the spooky threads when alone in that house.

Currently feeling very cosy and relaxed in a much smaller house!

If anyone is interested, Adele's previous property is currently for sale in Partridge Green, West Sussex, it's got a walk through camera, it's just massive, you could so easily get lost in that place...go and have a nosey, it's fascinating, a bargain at £7 million!

Dogs. There's a reason countryside dwellers all have dogs. This is the first house we've lived in with land and it still freaks me out that the kids can wander off in our own garden and I can't see or find them straight away! I can see or hear out nearest neighbours. I really don't love it when DH is away. 2020 sorted that issue! When we lived in the US we had a fairly complex alarm system that was monitored by the company and they'd come out if something wasn't right. I always felt safe there. Here there's one cop for about 40 miles around. In the UK countryside you're fairly on your own if it all goes wrong.

You cannot get into our house from the outside day or night eg front door is very thick and when I am out the mortice lock is also on. If I am in I also lock the back door to the garden if I am in the house so no one could just walk up to it and go in. The other doors to the outside are kept locked. There are 6 or 7 doors to the outside form the downstairs including integral garage doors but I don't feel at risk.

Also my neighbour says she sees everything day and night (!!) and just about everyone in in the nearest houses are old and just about always in so I feel pretty secure.

I don't find maintenance too bad. I like working in the garden and on the trees so that's a hobby not a chore.

I don't really worry about fires either as we have a smoke alarm, extinguisher and are quite careful. I never light candles for example.

It's not so much the house size but those houses in the country all by themselves. That would terrify me!

If you can afford that sort of house, you can probably afford an excellent security system.

If I was spending £3.5million I’d choose a house made of something nicer than old pallets. Hideous

It is an' all! Not cosy or welcoming - not my sort of place.

I don't think it would bother me. I'm very lax about locking things up and in the hot weather we sleep with the back door and all the windows open.

It would be a splendid excuse to have lots of dogs though. I'd have a whole pack of terriers to raise the alarm and nip intruders' ankles, a guarding breed, maybe a Giant Schnauzer or a Rhodesian Ridgeback, to be properly scarey.

I might be tempted to have motion sensor lighting, but I suspect that in a rural area it would be triggered by wildlife so often that I'd end up turning it off.

How about this one? www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-83473391.html

The ghosts would scare the burglars off in that house!