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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to hate my new house

89 replies

Newhousesad · 10/04/2022 02:40

DH and I recently moved to a new house. We were in a situation that meant we absolutely had to move as our previous landlord was selling. There was nothing special about our old house - in fact by all accounts the new house would be seen as better.
The old house was in a high crime rate area, had three small bedrooms and just a Living room and kitchen. It wasn’t really big enough, in fairness, for DH and I and our 3 DC. (DS1 is 4, DS2 is 2 and DD is 7 months) and I didn’t ‘love’ it or anything like that. I just tolerated it as our home. It costed us £700 PCM in our area (I live in an area where rent prices aren’t too bad)

Anyway. To cut my rambling slightly - we’ve now moved to a bigger 4 bed house with a separate dining room and living room in the country side. The rent is unfortunately more expensive at £950 pcm but there was nothing else we could do. We kept applying for cheaper rental properties and got literally nowhere due to current high demand.

My main issue is - this house doesn’t have a bath and I don’t know how to work around it. With 3 young DC it is especially difficult. I also used to enjoy bathing at the end of a rough day. Is there any way to work around this?

Another issue is - there are barely any plug sockets in each bedroom. I genuinely don’t know how to safely ‘work around’ this.
All 4 bedrooms are double bedrooms, however there is only one single plug socket per room!

DH thinks I’m just being dramatic but it’s bothering me and becoming taxing. Has anyone else had similar issues? How did you resolve them?

Thanks.

OP posts:
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Original poster
Newhousesad · 10/04/2022 02:45

Just wanted to add to this post as I can’t figure out how to edit the original one! Oops (new to mumsnet)

We absolutely had to move urgently and it wasn’t a matter of waiting it out to find a house with more plug sockets and a bath. We applied for 19 different rental properties before being accepted for this one and if we hadn’t accepted it we likely would’ve been homeless. I just thought for £950pcm the bedrooms would have more than one plug socket Confused

OP posts:
Finfintytint · 10/04/2022 02:48

Do you really need more than one socket in a bedroom though? Extensions can be used if need be. The lack of bath is a pain but the children can still be washed!

Original poster
Newhousesad · 10/04/2022 02:53

I have lots of extensions that apparently have something called surge protection?? Technology built in (I am soooo stupid with stuff like this) but I was worried about the safety of using them to entirely power a bedroom Hmm maybe I’m just being too cautious! Grin

OP posts:
HirplesWithHaggis · 10/04/2022 02:56

Welcome to Mumsnet - you can't edit. :)

I live in an older house with too few plug sockets, we use extension bars which can be bought for not a lot in any hardware store. It's a pain in the proverbial but hey ho.

Lack of a bath is also a pain, but your youngest can be bathed in either a baby bath or the kitchen sink (as in days of yore!) and the other two can be showered. We do have a bath, but my grandson loved the shower from a surprisingly young age. It's not the same as relaxing in a hot tub but it is what it is.

I hope you learn to love your new, bigger home in time.

rolllan · 10/04/2022 03:00

If you want plug sockets get a quote to sort it. Either your landlord will help or not but doubt they'd say no if you are paying for it. It's just somewhere new will take a while to feel like home x

notangelinajolie · 10/04/2022 03:12

Why are you even stressing over the number of electrical sockets in a house you don't own?
And no bath? You chose the house.

HirplesWithHaggis · 10/04/2022 03:16

@notangelinajolie

Why are you even stressing over the number of electrical sockets in a house you don't own? And no bath? You chose the house.
Because she's living there? Hmm

And it's a pain to have only one bedroom socket if you want to plug in two bedside lamps. I mean, what a freak, eh?

Sorry, OP, some folk can be less than helpful.

Moody123 · 10/04/2022 03:21

Our bedrooms have more than 1 plug, however they are in the oddest place so we use extensions ... the surge protectors are the best ones !
So long as you don't daisy chain them and jus have say one 6 plug one to your bed that will be fine :-)
Regards to the bath that is annoying , for the kids they will adapt, for you, maybe get a really nice shower head, I've seen some really good ones, it will never be a bath, but may still be relaxing x

GraceandMolly · 10/04/2022 03:35
  1. Get a big plastic bath, look up Stokke flexi bath. My 3 year old easily fits in it, and it should be big enough for another 2 years.
  2. Extension cables. We’ve used them in every room for years.
DifficultBloodyWoman · 10/04/2022 03:39

I am a long, relaxing bath person too.

Google collapsible bathtub, camping bath, and canvas bath.

And extension cords are not expensive.

MrsTerryPratchett · 10/04/2022 03:42

I won't live in a house without a bath. Sorry that's not helpful.

Summersolargirl · 10/04/2022 03:45

Just shower the kids, you will get used to it quickly. The baby can be bathed in the sink.

Original poster
Newhousesad · 10/04/2022 03:46

Ooh I’ve had a look at the collapsible baths and I honestly might get one. Has anyone else ever used one? Are they any good

OP posts:
JennyForeigner · 10/04/2022 04:04

You can buy small/inflatable baths on Amazon. I think some of them are designed to fit in a shower base for kids.

I can't remember for the life of me why we were looking at them.

Sunshineandrainbow · 10/04/2022 04:12

We had same with plugs so got socket changed to a double and use extension lead.
I have seen a patient of mine use an inflatable bath in a flat floor shower and it was pretty good. You have to be able to fill it though from shower head.

marvellousmaple · 10/04/2022 04:24

It will take an electrician about 10 minutes per socket to change the outlet to a double or quad plug. Easily worth the money.

HoppingPavlova · 10/04/2022 04:29

We had a bath but rarely ever used it for any of our kids. They had showers with us. Once too big for baby bath someone would take them in when they had a shower, wash them with baby soap and hand them out to the other waiting outside the shower with a towel.

Once they could stand up we just took them in the shower with us, did them to start with and either scooted them out to other parent to dry off if both home, and if not just gave them measuring cups and things to fill up and sit and play with in the shower while we cleaned ourselves. Very rarely would we ever put them in the bath as such a faff, had to fill it and just sit there wasting time while they played around in it while getting clean, shower system was much more efficient.

WalrusSubmarine · 10/04/2022 04:41

I think we had a stokke plastic bath - it just needed a bath mat to make it a bit less slippy. Currently we have a big shallow plastic storage box with a bath mat (For DS not for us!)

If you don’t want extension cables you can get cubes that double the plug space but it’s pretty rare kids have many items on charge at once. You might get away with a battery powered night light or similar for them.

Our last rental was a shocker - one plug socket per room, dodgy uncoverable lights in the hall and it all looked like it was untouched since the 70s - it was always at the back of my mind that it wasn’t that safe somehow.

LoveSpringDaffs · 10/04/2022 04:45

Welcome to Mumsnet. We don't have an edit function, mainly to stop people posting nasty shit & then editing it out.

Sorry some posters are still obtuse or nasty, just learn to ignore them!

You sound a bit like moving was quite traumatic. It's difficult even when the place was too small etc it was still your home & not your choice to leave! With so few rental properties available there's often not much choice! Your new place sounds nice though, other than the bath/plug sockets. Do you drive? Are there busses? Rural is pretty, but not always easy!!

Have you spoken to your landlord? Is there room in the bathroom for a bath? If there is, they might not mind putting a bath in / it's actually not that expensive if there's space.

Sockets, in a family home, one socket per room is ridiculous. They may not realise, and might be happy to get more put in.

Do you really need more than one in the kids bedrooms? Do not plug one extension lead/socket bar into another. (Surge protectors stop the power if there's a surge on the line protecting things plugged into them (like laptops)

Ask nicely, if they say no, ask if they are ok with you getting the work done. Then find a local electrician that charges a reasonable price.

Good luck

BaffledMum22 · 10/04/2022 05:44

We’re currently in a rental wile we wait for our new house and there’s no bath. I bought the Shnuggle toddler bath for my DS (17 months) and it’s huge! Would definitely fit each of your kids 😊 I just bought a hose that fits on the sink taps from Amazon and use that to fill it 👍🏻

My DS sleeps with white noise (plus in) and has his monitor so 1 plus would be an issue for us too. Use of an extension bar is absolutely fine as long as you’re not overloading it 😊

Doggirl · 10/04/2022 05:44

We've gone long periods without being able to use the bath. Once it was not having hot water. More recently it was because the overflow pipe split - apparently it's an obscure gauge that's impossible to find. The bath is an impractical shape for a young child anyway.

We did learn to appreciate the possibility of having a bath when staying with othern people! Also in hotel rooms. I'm obviously not saying you should book a hotel stay just to have a bath; but my DD talked for ages about her 1st stay at a hotel, when she was 5. We tacked a night in a Premier Inn on to the end of a barebones holiday. DD enjoyed the jumpabable beds and the bath she could almost swim in.

Currently looking into a collapsible bath. Re the idea of using a large plastic storage box- I'd personally be wary of using any kind of plastic not intended to take warmth, as it may well soften.

Allaboutyou222 · 10/04/2022 05:51

Not worth stressing about. These are small things. Ask your landlord to change the sockets or use extensions. It’s simple. As for the bath….showers use less water anyway! It’s just a compromise. When you rent you have to compromise a bit I have found.

DropYourSword · 10/04/2022 05:52

@notangelinajolie

Why are you even stressing over the number of electrical sockets in a house you don't own? And no bath? You chose the house.
Sometimes I worry about the intelligence level of the average mumsnet user when I see utterly stupid questions like this Hmm
TigerLilyTail · 10/04/2022 05:56

We live in an old house and have only one plug socket per room, so every room has extension cables in it. We haven't had any problems.

I was going to suggest a paddling pool for the shower, but the collapsible bath looks better.

I think it takes a while to settle into a new house.

FortunesFave · 10/04/2022 05:56

I only have one socket in most rooms and in one, none at all! It's a weird, old house and they never put electricity in one room. I use extensions. Not sure what you mean by "power a whole room" on an extension...I mean...you have a ceiling light and all you need then is maybe a lamp. Sometimes you might want a radio or computer...perhaps a hairdryer now and then. A charge lead...they don't all happen at the same time.

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