Neighbours should not look into my home?

[Happygonotlucky]

We have huge glass doors in our back extension. We got them to allow us to enjoy the view. My husband thinks we should have curtains as our neighbours can see into our kitchen/diner/family room, especially when lights are on in the evening, when they are outside in their gardens. He feels exposed/vulnerable to being watched.

I feel our neighbours should do the right thing and not stare into our home. Am I being unreasonable to not buy curtains for privacy and expect neighbours to do the right thing. One of our neighbours is a bit unfriendly and from time to time we have seen her staring and analysing our house.

Do you have curtain treatment for your glass doors? Do you care if your neighbours can see you living your life in your home? Do you think they should just do the right and polite thing and not stare and analyse what you have and are doing?

One of our neighbours is a bit unfriendly and from time to time we have seen her staring and analysing our house.

Meh what exactly is ‘analysing’? Your cooking techniques? Choice of slippers? How often you do the washing up?

I really couldn’t imagine caring.

Make voile curtains yourself. It's really easy.

So you got huge glass doors so you can enjoy looking out.

Now you are complaining about people looking in.

Hmmm.

If your room looks like a stage when the lights are on what do you expect. If course people are going to look.

Curtains or blinds are your solution, regardless of whether you want to or not ( if you want total privacy that is).

Maybe they think your extension is not eye pleasing and wonder why you built it.
Buy curtains or a few trees to put between you and neighbours.

You and your other half give them a shock one night walk around nude, might scare/embarrass them not to look again.

I often sit and stare towards my neighbours lounge from my lounge.

Fortunately for them it is two external brick walls and not a huge window that seperates us 😉

First of all, you cannot police neighbours looking at your house, so if you dont want them to see in, close the curtains! We have wide patio doors that our neighbours can see into at night, and we have external wall lights on either side of the doors which we put on when its dark - they are quite bright so if the neighbours stared in, they’d get blinded!

Yes, time to get some voiles or blinds up onto your huge light polluting eyesore that is irritating the neighbours

I'd hate this! I'd feel like I was living in a goldfish bowl. Perfect without the neighbours though!
You're not going to be able to stop them looking in. It's the human condition. So I'd go ahead and buy the curtains.

Rooms with large windows are perfectly normal and yes people like to sit in them. At night when the lights are on, it’s usual to close the curtains or blinds, no?

If it's dark outside and you're in the house with lights on and no curtains, you won't know whether somebody's outside looking in (unless they come right up to the window), so why worry about it? Personally, I'd have curtains or blinds.

I think you should just acknowledge your husband’s request and get some blinds.

Can you position screens in the garden to block their view in but still allow you to see out?

I don't think you followed. Op purposefully built s large room with huge windows that look into her neighbours garden.
Now she mad that said neighbours can see her. Of course they can, that's how she designed it!
She doesn't want to close the curtains, she wants her neighbours to go away so she can look at her view. ..

Bizarre.

Unless you’re doing something you wouldn’t want others to see 😉 I would ignore them. If their lives are that boring they’re that interested in what’s going on at yours, poor them 🙂

@Happygonotlucky - I have a suspicion that, even if your neighbours weren't staring into your house, your dh would still feel exposed, with that big window and the lights on. To be honest, whilst I don't mind having the curtains open in our front room, when the lights are on, it's a fairly small window, so I don't feel stared-at - but in a room like yours, with a big picture window, I'd feel as if I was on stage, and I wouldn't like that at all.

I think a fair compromise would be for you to put up curtains, and have them open in the daytime, so you can enjoy the view, and closed at night, so your husband doesn't feel so exposed.

Absolutely. I meant I was on team DH (who wants curtains) for exactly that reason.

You both need to stop overthinking this and enjoy the view you wanted. Get a grip.

Next time you catch her staring, just drop your kecks and pull a moonie. That'll show her!

@RobertaFirmino , not a bad idea! :)

We've decided to get curtains. There are some wild imaginations about the extension being unsightly, about building in a way that looks into the neighbour's garden, etc. The neighbour's house is level to mine and in fact, they are building an extension that will protrude out 2 metres more than ours. The windows are face on with brick wall to both sides.

I don't assume any one is deliberately looking at me, but you can still as a human get twitchy at the thought of being over looked. If it bothers your husband get curtains.

Zombie thread

Weird, don't know why that was on the active page for me!