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Housekeeping

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What is the most stressful home you have ever lived in?

28 replies

LoyalOliveShaker · 28/04/2024 18:06

Whether that be the home itself or the surrounding area

OP posts:
stayathomer · 28/04/2024 18:20

We lived in the middle of nowhere, down a lane way a farmhouse to our right, fields all around, a lake down the road. At night joyriders would fly past our house and sometimes stop to drink outside our gate. The house was old, cold, very damp with carpet everywhere and for some strange reason dead flies regularly everywhere no matter how often you got rid of them!!!!

It also had the tiniest kitchen (if two people stood in it you hit off each other) and no dishwasher (this still bugs me nearly the most because I had enough other stuff to be cleaning lol).

There was single glazing and a wind would sometimes go through the house. The sitting room had a fire but the room wasn’t always warm. When you walked out of it at night the hall hit you like ice:(

It was where our kids first got asthma and there were regular chest infections and ear infections. The landlord changed out broken cookers, washing machines etc with 2nd hand stuff and the plumbers and electricians would apologise. Saying all of this we had the most amazing garden with rabbits in the field behind us and horses one side and cows behind the farmhouse and played amazing games daily!

We lived there two and a half years until he rang up yelling at me because I’d texted him telling him the washing machine was broken- he said the plumber had once found the machine was clogged with a kids toy and we’d have to pay this time (for reference the washing machine and its friends broke 6 times while we lived there, that was the only time it was because of us). When I asked could we change some carpet he said it wasn’t working. At the time in our town there were only three properties online and he only gave us a month. So scary, we were so lucky we found somewhere! I’ve never moaned about where I’ve lived since!!

Ponderingwindow · 28/04/2024 18:23

Flat that had multiple roof leaks every time it rained. It got to the point we were storing items in the hall to keep them dry. Black mold on the walls. Graduate student at the time and just didn’t have the funds to move.

BeyondMyWits · 28/04/2024 18:25

Currently living in our house with cracking walls. In a dispute with insurance over whether it is their definition of structural (they pay to fix) or "70s design flaw" (we pay to fix).

Stressed out all the time. Every creak "hurts".

Oneofthesurvivors · 28/04/2024 18:28

Rented a room in a house so cold there was ice on the inside of the windows.

TeamPolin · 28/04/2024 18:47

Terraced house with inconsiderate neighbours from hell. Blaring and bass music at 1am on a Tuesday night. I was a school teacher at the time and was going into work on 2 hours sleep. I was a train wreck for an entire term...

Sparklybutold · 28/04/2024 19:46

Living with my in laws - specifically FIL.

Spinet · 28/04/2024 19:52

We were in a rented terraced house when our DD1 was born and there were workmen on the roof next door. Was just snoozing after a typical newborn night's sleep and there was a knock on the door - was the workmen telling us to get out of the house as the chimney was about to collapse. 2 day old DD, DH and I were all decanted into the street outside until they made it safe some 5 hours later. That landlord did not do a necessary thing to that house!! V stressful!

Greywitch2 · 28/04/2024 19:53

The one that had my ex DH in it.

LizTruss · 28/04/2024 20:03

10 Downing Street

Fortunately I managed to cleverly engineer myself out of that place pretty smartish! 😰

Justyouwaitandseeagain · 28/04/2024 20:11

A shared house where I was presented with a hefty 'roommates agreement' (not dissimilar to Sheldon's) and had to pass 'training' the use of various household appliances. Despite being an independent adult in my 20s I was given a 9pm kerfew and would receive daily emails - sent to my work address - outlining all misdemeanours from the last 24hr period 🤦‍♀️

FourSteeples · 28/04/2024 20:12

Probably this one — semi-renovated for the last four years, large, draughty, in the middle of a building site.

Maninthemoonsmiles · 28/04/2024 20:14

On a traffic island opposite a noisy offy😳

MissyB1 · 28/04/2024 20:15

My childhood home. Not so much the building but more the atmosphere, two parents who weren’t coping, and six of us siblings. I was a like a cat on a hot tin roof.

QueenAnn · 28/04/2024 20:17

Living with my 1st husband in an old terraced house in Wigan. He was 10 years older than me and divorced with a young child. The house belonged to a friend of his who couldn't sell it. I was 23, very naive and the house was bought purely based on my salary using a very dodgy solicitor (again, a friend of his). It was a dump and I left him 18 months and many bruises later. When I look at my lovely home now and my lovely 2nd dh and family, I can't believe I ever put myself in that position.

Magpie50 · 30/04/2024 04:31

Def this house. Paid the mortgage off but now have a dilapidated victoriana terrace to fix up which will take me years.
Also have a garden I'm too nervous to use thanks to the alcoholic, drug addict with a criminal record who lives next door (the other side already has a restraining order against him for threatening behaviour).

MariaVT65 · 30/04/2024 05:52

Shared house where our landlady:

-Locked up our heating thermostat in a cover so we couldn’t put the heating on when we wanted. I had to sit in my coat.

-Refused to fix a leak that was coming through my bedroom ceiling.

I moved out as soon as I could.

grinandslothit · 30/04/2024 06:04

When I temporarily stayed with my sister, after an overseas move , who turned out to be a severe hoarder and lived in absolute filth and squalor.

Galaxyinmypocket · 30/04/2024 06:33

Rented house in early 00's - landlord letting himself in whenever he wanted, no heating for 2 years, unsafe electrical wiring, unsafe and rotting back gate, unsafe interior door used as back door with no proper locks, rotting floorboards, damp, huge spiders would get in, had very little money (most of what I was earning was paying rent) and minimal furniture, couldn't afford to decorate and didn't see the point given the actual foundations of the house were rotting.
Awful house and difficult years but some good memories of that time generally as it was central to everything -bars, restaurants, parks, transports links, coastline etc

GoodHeavens99 · 30/04/2024 07:21

MariaVT65 · 30/04/2024 05:52

Shared house where our landlady:

-Locked up our heating thermostat in a cover so we couldn’t put the heating on when we wanted. I had to sit in my coat.

-Refused to fix a leak that was coming through my bedroom ceiling.

I moved out as soon as I could.

I would have enjoyed winding her up!

I would have bought some skeleton keys and opened the case, as i saw fit, and only turning it up a smidgeon.

Just to take the chill off, as my Mum says.

buildersteacup · 30/04/2024 07:26

My current house which is lovely but when we moved in our neighbours were awful. Racist towards my husband, swore at us and called us cunts just because we wanted to put up a perfectly legal fence within our garden boundary for privacy (I was pregnant at the time and wanted it to be safe for toddlers), played techno music at all hours, her sons smoked weed like chimneys in the garden every single day. Thankfully karma got her and she had to move out a few years ago into a tiny grotty flat in a rough area as she could no longer afford to live next door. It's been bliss ever since. New neighbours are quiet and pleasant.

MariaVT65 · 30/04/2024 07:35

GoodHeavens99 · 30/04/2024 07:21

I would have enjoyed winding her up!

I would have bought some skeleton keys and opened the case, as i saw fit, and only turning it up a smidgeon.

Just to take the chill off, as my Mum says.

My housemates did manage to turn it up a bit by poking a knife through, but she always found out and got really angry.

FindingMeno · 30/04/2024 07:39

I have lived in some dumps.
In one the cooker was condemned ( but not replaced). In another there were bare live wires poking out of the wall and a flea infestation. In another there were rats.
All unheated. All rented.

ABwithAnItch · 30/04/2024 07:45

We lived in Hull for 5 years in a historic ‘nice’ area, but it was constantly targeted because areas around it were not nice at all (and yeah, Hull). Garage broken into multiple times, many tools and bikes stolen. Drug dealing in plain sight on high street. Often had doorbell rung with groups of teenagers outside making up ‘collections’ for money. Interrupted numerous gypsies roaming about in our garden trying to find stuff to steal. There were lots of side lanes and people fly tipped constantly. The house was gorgeous, huge and affordable, but I loathed the neighborhood and couldn’t wait to leave.

GoodHeavens99 · 30/04/2024 07:47

Ooh heck, @MariaVT65

She sounds a bit volatile, and it's probably not a good idea to wind her up, in that case.

MassiveSalad22 · 30/04/2024 07:48

Above a fried chicken shop behind a Sainsbury’s with unfriendly housemates in a dodgy bit of London. Middle of the night bottle deliveries or something - a lot of clanking glass every night. Constant vile smell. Lived in a box room. Grotty dangerous bathroom.

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