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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask if you love your house and could imagine staying forever

143 replies

valianttortoise · 19/10/2025 20:55

Or if various bits of it endlessly stress you out and you want to escape one day

And is this what you expected when you moved in?

OP posts:
RosesAndHellebores · 19/10/2025 21:30

Love it. We moved here from our "forever" home ten years ago. We are only about 16 miles from central London, yet have lots of space around us and aren't overlooked. It's a traditional Arts & Crafts house and I love It's oakiness and stained glass. We have the original bell pull at the front door and the tinkly bells are lovely. A million miles away from a ring door bell!

PermanentTemporary · 19/10/2025 21:35

I adore my house, it’s in a beautiful, convenient location and it’s as future-proofed as we can make it. I fell in love with it the moment I laid eyes on it. But I know it’s not forever because unless I win the lottery, I won’t be able to afford to run it when I’m on my own. So it goes.

DramaAlpaca · 19/10/2025 21:36

Yes, love mine. Mainly because it was a self-build designed mainly by me with input from DH. It's not perfect, I'd have loved a bigger house but the budget didn't allow that, but I love where it is. After 24 years it's still not completely finished though, and it's in need of some maintenance along with the finishing touches, but the mortgage is paid off and it's ours.

OhOneOhTwoOhThree · 19/10/2025 21:37

Our house makes practical sense for now - it meets our needs and is in the right location but I don't love it. We'll move when we retire and no longer need to be within commuting distance of work. It's grown on me since we bought it, I had huge buyer's regret when we moved in eight years ago and thought we'd made a big and expensive mistake.

Peridoteage · 19/10/2025 21:40

I love my house but we are moving, we've found another one we also really love.

I think you have to be a bit flexible and appreciate lots of things. If anything happened to us financially and we had to downsize we'd be okay, we'd find something small & cosy and home is where your family is.

MrsSkylerWhite · 19/10/2025 21:41

Yes, yes, yes. Love it.
Just retired to top floor flat with lovely terrace, beautiful views, a lift, shops, theatre, cinema, gp, hospital all within 10 mins and plenty of room for visiting family.
Selling the family home, which husband and I were never particularly fond of, meant we could help set the adult kids up too.
They’ll hopefully be carrying us out in our boxes (not to soon 😁!)

Ultravox · 19/10/2025 21:44

We made a few compromises when we moved to our current house…it’s on a main road, doesn’t have a great view and the back garden loses the sun quite early. But it’s in a brilliant location; close to amenities in a lovely town, on the edge of the country and a short train journey to a decent city, and it has a really flexible layout which works for us now with teenage kids and will work for us when we’re old.
I don’t adore it but I’m certainly happy living here so I don’t think we’ll move for a long time unless we need to downsize to free up money or can’t manage on our own any more.

WannaFOffOnHoliday · 19/10/2025 21:45

I hate this house. This town. The people.
Everything

CatHairEveryWhereNow · 19/10/2025 21:46

Yes but we won't be work will move us on when kids are gone.

Kind of worried TBH as house is really well laid out and location has many positives - only a few negatives- not sure we'll find something as good next time - first house we bought was terrible money pit and terrible neighbours.

RandomUsernameHere · 19/10/2025 21:46

Absolutely love it and yes, we bought it as a long term home. Extended and renovated it so it’s exactly what we want. We’ve moved around quite a lot before this so it’s nice to be settled.

ShodAndShadySenators · 19/10/2025 21:49

Love ours but would love it far more if I could get the work done on it that it needs. It's been owned by a terrible DIY bodger and needs things putting right. It's been suggested that we sell it as there's so much needing doing, but we love the location - near the centre of the village, a minute from the shops, dr clinic, library, bus routes to town, loads of lovely restaurants. Plenty of great walks nearby, our neighbours are all lovely, crime seems very low. Wouldn't want to move.

Besides, who'd buy a doer-upper now? Nobody with any sense. I wanted to extend and refurbish ten years ago and the money was used to pay off a huge chunk of the mortgage. Now building work costs twice as much <cries>

Pharazon · 19/10/2025 21:53

Yep. Rented and moved around for a bit after uni and then bought a cottage in our family village when we were 30. No mortgage and no need to move anywhere else. Lots of niggles, but that’s par for the course for any 200 year old building and it’s all we’ve ever known really.

DiscoBeat · 19/10/2025 21:55

We're definitely in our forever home now. Possibly could downsize in the future but would more likely reconfigure the house to make it more suitable as oldies

MissAmbrosia · 19/10/2025 21:57

I love love love the apartment we are currently living in - 2 bed, 2 bath, utility room, 5th floor with a terrace overlooking the trees. It was quite painful though when we had a week when the lift was broken. Lovely surburb with shops, restos, cinema, doctor, dentist etc. Our landlady is selling up though so not sure if we can stay long term. We want to buy somewhere but can't decide where. Always thought we'd go back to UK for retirement, but it does all sound a bit pants at the moment.

mondaytosunday · 19/10/2025 21:58

Yes I do and no I don’t imagine staying here forever. The house doesn’t stress me other than I’m never on top of the housework (as I’m loathe to do any). But actually I really like the layout. Only thing I’d change is more storage! But I see myself living closer in to central London eventually.

JaceLancs · 19/10/2025 21:59

Been here 36 years and will probably still be here until I die or go into nursing home
Quiet rural village but with enough amenities
Dormer bungalow with one bedroom and bathroom downstairs and 2 beds up plus second bathroom so fairly future proof
I would need to get a gardener though or make it easier to look after as struggle with it now

Odiebay · 19/10/2025 22:05

Yeah i love my house. We struck gold with the village we are in. House is a good size plot,garden and drive. We are actually extending next year to then have my dream house. I will be staying here to raise my children and would only move to be closer to the sea in later life.

Attempt333 · 19/10/2025 22:07

Yes. I love my home, the village. We have the school in the area for ds to join when he is old enough and I want this house to be a lovely childhood home. Loads of work went into it and it has some unique features. I suppose we might move in the future when we are much older and DS has moved out.

MrsSkylerWhite · 19/10/2025 22:07

WannaFOffOnHoliday · 19/10/2025 21:45

I hate this house. This town. The people.
Everything

That sounds really hard. Do you have any options?

mumofsixfluffs · 19/10/2025 22:13

I’m mid 50’s in my second home excluding my parents and my now adult kids were raised in this house. I love it, it’s a very modest end terrace but for me it will always be my home.

WonderingWanda · 19/10/2025 22:14

Did 12 years in the last house but we outgrew it. Moved into a lovely but larger and more expensive house which is perfect for the next 10 - 15 years with teens growing up and becoming adults. Once the kids have left home I suspect we will want to downsize. Although who knows what state the housing market and economy will be in then and whether anyone will be able to afford to buy it off us.

noworklifebalance · 19/10/2025 22:15

Love our house - would happily stay here until we die. It may need some adjustments for our older age but hopefully a stair lift will do the trick. Plenty of room for the DC to bounce back home either on their own or with partners (and maybe grandchildren). Got major teaching hospitals nearby, can get into the city in 20mins, local high street has cinema, cafes, restaurants etc and large supermarket is 5min drive away but we get it delivered anyway.

BendingSpoons · 19/10/2025 22:17

I love my house. I don't know if it's our forever home, but I hope it's our '25 year plus' home. I often walk upstairs in the evening and think how lucky we are to have this house.

I don't know what my life will look like in 20 years time. We will be nearing retirement (so commutes not an issue), presumably won't have children living at home, may have grandchildren. We might be happy where we are or might have different priorities. Saying that, I've seen PIL downsize and then upsize again to have space for the family to stay.

I was recently idlely wondering what we would do if we won the lottery. I was torn between staying in a house we love and moving to an area about 10 mins away with fancier houses that have space for a swimming pool. I genuinely wasn't sure what I'd choose, which I guess shows I do live our house. (I also really love swimming pools!)

Handeyethingyowl · 19/10/2025 22:19

I plan to move at some point which makes me sad but it’s not where I want to grow old. If I could transport the house to a better location I would.

DMs house she moved into the year before she had me and she never saw it as a ‘forever home’ but every time she thought of moving she stayed because it is a convenient location. DF died in it in his sleep which was ‘nice’ because he never wanted to move.

SeagullSam2027 · 19/10/2025 22:21

I love my house so much and will never sell. After living in old period houses with so many compromises and disappointments, this one was designed just for us and it's totally perfect. So much light and space, in a gorgeous setting - it's literally a dream.

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