AIBU to hate my new house

[Newhousesad]

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.

Keep looking for another house. Look on the bright side, you are free to move. Even if it is a years time when you find something else, you can move, you are not a tree stuck in the ground, you are FREE!

All the best x

We didn't have a bath when third child was born. We stood a baby bath in the shower and she bathed in that. She loved it and continued long after she was old enough to have a shower.

@DifficultBloodyWoman

I am a long, relaxing bath person too.

Google collapsible bathtub, camping bath, and canvas bath.

And extension cords are not expensive.

OMG! Well you learn something new everyday on MN! Genius.

@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.

So helpful!

@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.

She chose it under pressure. She had to move quickly and missed out on 19 others properties.

Don’t worry, with the recent energy price hikes you probably won’t be able to afford to heat water for a bath or to use electric in the bedroom or anywhere else anyway. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Meant to add, enjoy your new home anyway.

Hi OP. It always takes a little while to settle into a new home. For now, you could use extension leads for the plug socket. If you want a double socket installed, it's a really quick and easy job for any qualified electrician. I should know, I stressed over this same issue when I moved into my house. A local electrician fitted a double socket in what seemed like minutes and it wasn't expensive at all.

Put a paddling pool in the shower to use as a bath for the kids

Hi - when mine were little we lived in a rental with a cold bathroom so I used a large tub in the living room. It was good actually as it used much less water so was cheaper. I put down a plastic mat, a big towel and then put the tub on that.

When things are not as you would wish you just have to find a solution and try to stop thinking about it, so that it doesn't get you down.

Very hard when you are renting, so stressful trying to find somewhere new especially in a rush. for you.

You can run an extension from one socket, that’s fine. If an electrician came in to add a socket he’d run the new socket from that existing one. It’s basically the same thing but the cords are in the wall.

Please don’t use the cube type extension though. They aren’t safe.

Look up tubble op. It's a blow up bath. We have had one for 4 years and it is fantastic. We use it for dc but it is big enough for an adult (I am 5ft3) too. It takes less water and stays hotter for longer and with slightly squishy sides its so comfy. We do have a 160cmx90 cm walk in shower to put it up in so it is easy to fill and drain.

Does the house have a recent electrical safety certificate? I'd be more concerned about that. If you want more electrics in the kitchen, the main circuit board might need updating.

And seconding the comment about soon being glad of only having a shower. Heating water is expensive, and those prices aren't going down.

I understand the no bath issue. When we moved into our house it had a lovely big shower that 4 family members loved but our two year old hated. At the time I’d never heard of collapsible baths and used to persevere with showering her. She didn’t grow to love it and I said to my husband we needed a bath. He disagreed. I started insisting he showered the toddler. After a few weeks of her screaming he agreed we should get a bath installed and that problem was solved. But we’d bought our house so changing things in it was up to us. Our daughter’s nearly 5 now and still won’t put her head under a shower at the swimming pool or anywhere. She loves a bath though. My friend has a child the same age and also no bath and still manages to bathe her in the kitchen sink. But her child is very petite whereas mine is very tall and sturdier so a. wouldn’t fit and b. is far too heavy for me to lift as high as the sink to get her in and out. I do sympathise as I understand it’s not as simple as just putting the kids under the shower if you don’t have a bath.

Do NOT use the cube type electrical plug extensions. They are a huge fire risk. Even the bar type ones are iffy. You can use the ones with a flexible lead though. Definitely agree with asking your LL if they'll consider allowing an electrician in to add some more sockets. I wouldn't imagine it would cost too much.

We have 3 children and no bath by choice, we pulled it out. The smaller ones use a baby bath sat into the showers, the older one has a shower. Us adults don't really like baths so aren't fussed (which is obviously why we got rid of it).

We also have few sockets, it's a pain in the sitting room and we do have one extension set there for the TV, but in the bedrooms it's fine. Socket for lamp, socket for a charger, don't need much else.

We had a large shower and could fit a large baby bath in it.

There is also a Dutch folding deep bath but I can never remember the name of it 🤦🏼‍♀️

Have you thought of buying an inflatable jacuzzi from Argos for those end of day bathing moments? It’s not long until summer. Might help with the psychology a bit.

I think getting permission from your landlord to add new sockets is the best bet. They may even pay for it. But please ensure the work is carried out by a qualified electrician.

Rent has gone up a lot recently and you may have been looking at more than £700 for the old house. It sounds as if you’ve got a much larger place for not that much more money. When dh and I rented in the past, we preferred larger houses, which were not as modern as the smaller ones and made the odd improvement ourselves. It sounds as though your new home is in that sort of category.

By the way, my offspring had the single socket problem in a rental house. We have added a few high quality extension cables with multiple sockets, which you can usually attach neatly to the wall with Velcro or screws, just be careful to turn them off when you are not using them and not to overload with loads of high wattage appliances. Also don’t plug in even more extension cables into them! If you are just plugging in, say, two lamps and a mobile phone charger, that should be fine.

We have a house with only 1 socjet per room and we use extension cables. Ours is a 1960s semi and they probably weren't needed as much back then. On the plus side the walls are much more solid than the new builds.
Its a pain about the bath but think of the £££ you can save having showers.

We only have one socket per bedroom and it’s fine - we own and haven’t felt the need to add any more. The socket that is in each of the childrens’ rooms is unused - they don’t have anything electrical in their rooms. We use an extension lead in our room as we have a landline phone and WiFi router in our room.

Oo, found inflatable bathtub for just over £40! amzn.to/3KnQ9z0

@greylace

We only have one socket per bedroom and it’s fine - we own and haven’t felt the need to add any more. The socket that is in each of the childrens’ rooms is unused - they don’t have anything electrical in their rooms. We use an extension lead in our room as we have a landline phone and WiFi router in our room.

But that suits you, but clearly not OP!

I'm not sure why you'd tell OP you don't need sockets?

Maybe she had bedside lamps, children have

You have had good advice here about the practical stuff. The flaws in your new house are annoying but you will be able to work round them.

It sounds like this is as much an emotional problem as a practical one. You were content in your imperfect old home and then your life span out of control and a move you didn't want was forced on you. And not only that but the process was incredibly difficult and stressful It's no wonder you don't like the new home. It represents a very upsetting phase of your life.

Can you try to look in this as a temporary thing while you look for somewhere more permanent? Make it as comfortable as you can for now whilst keeping your eyes open for somewhere better?