If you live in a pretty house, does it make you happy?

[beatricequimby]

DD pointed out a lovely country cottage on our way to school today, roses round the door type of place. Apparently she is going to live there when she is grown-up.

We live in a 1950s pebble-dash semi and will probably be here for years. I like it on the inside but it is not pretty from the outside and is never really going to be. I do wonder what it would be like to live in a really pretty house. Does it make you happy, or do you just forgot about what it looks like from the outside?

My house is no oil painting from the outside, but it looks attractive enough in my eyes. I do feel happy when we're approaching it when coming home, but I don't really spend a lot of time looking at the outside. Think the inside is more important

I think my house is pretty, 18th Century granite cottage with nice gardens and yes that does make me happy. I sometimes go outside in the evening just to look at it with the lights on and imagine other folk would think it looks like a nice house. It also needs to be pretty inside though

I would love a pretty house. Mine is a little quirky and pretty inside.. But I would love a little gatelodge type house or a Georgian house if money was no object.

I think your home can make you happy.. Or contribute to your overall happiness at least.

It is much more important for your house to be pretty and comfortable inside than out, IMO. I often look at country cottages in admiration but generally feel totally claustrophic inside them! I need space, light and a clutter free environment to be happy.

I love mine. It's not roses-round-the-door pretty exactly, but it's a small Victorian semi with an arched hedge over the gate and pyracantha round the door. yes, it makes me happy .

Anything you can do to the outside to improve it? Climbers, re-design of front garden, different front door?

The outside makes me briefly happy when I arrive, but after that it's the inside that's important. The view out of the window makes happier than the look of my own house, I think. Although I do love the view out of our french doors into the garden, so that's kind of an outside thing that makes me happy.

OTOH our village is dead and boring, so I'd probably prefer to live in a pretty, busy town in a less attractive house.

My house isn't chocolate box pretty nor a cottage, it's a large rambling Edwardian semi, on a corner, and it does make me happy when I walk up the road and see it looking over the little Victorian terraces. But I've also lived in some shocking-looking houses, including one 1970s monstrosity that was opposite beautiful Georgian houses, and I was always happy that we were inside looking out rather than outside looking in. I felt rather sorry for the Georgian owners who had to look at our hideous house.

So yes, the way my house looks does make me happy, but there's always a compromise - you get much more space with ugly houses, which is a big silver lining. Our house is big and looks nice (in my eyes), but it's a semi-detached and on a main road, which keeps the value down. We wouldn't have been able to afford it on a quiet road.

Yes it does :)

Obviously it's more important that it's pretty on the inside as well as outside but I do love it when I tell people where I live and they say 'oooh, do you live in that gorgeous house on the corner?'

The wind whistles through the pretty windows though and it's a bit of a money pit. But I wouldn't move if you paid me

Our flat is not the prettiest building from the outside. But. Inside it is so pretty. Light airy spacious. And we've done a lot of work to it to make it look attractive. I love when people come round, and are genuinely surprised and shocked by the interior. I will be sad to leave it.

However. I too want the pretty chocolate box country cottage.

Our house is good looking, I'm not sure I'd say pretty as that sounds delicate, and ours is not delicate.
It's a grand looking Victorian villa with a brilliant big porch and a massive gorgeous red front door, all framed by mature gardens and trees. It's beautifully proportioned, got quirky details and is good on the eye and I love it.
We bought the house for the whole package, how it looks inside and out, it's potential, the grounds, the space, where it is - all of it.
I am an architect though so aesthetics are important to me and my opinion may be a little skewed.

My house is lovely.
I grew up with 7 siblings in a two up two down so it never ceases to amaze me that I actually live here.
I often see people looking up at the house doing the 'one day I will have a house like that' thing and I want to go out and say 'you really might'

My house is not pretty from the outside. A bog standard 1970s mid terrace that is looking a bit drab and grey and needing a lick of paint.

But I love it. I especially love the kitchen, I live in it basically. It's where my friends sit for a cup of tea and a blether, where ds1 does his homework, ds2 does playdoh and painting, where we have big groups of family and friends for birthday cake or other gatherings, and where I MN from

I really couldn't give two hoots about the outside!

I often see people looking up at the house doing the 'one day I will have a house like that' thing and I want to go out and say 'you really might'

Awwww, that's lovely!

Ours is a pretty thatched Tudor house. We've been here 10 years and it does still make me happy to see it. Especially in the summer, we have roses around the gate arch and climbing along the walls. I love that bit.

After daying that, we are considering moving and tbh the way the house looks won't be our top consideration. What's inside is much more important.

my house is large but not pretty but where we live is beautiful and most days are a joy.

I have great views at the front and at the back - and lovely changes through the seasons.

the windows in the house are small so am going to do a 'Double the House for Half the Money'

I want to see pictures of all of your houses - they sound lovely. We have a very grand house. I used to drive past my house and look at it and think whoever lived in it were very lucky because it is so handsome! It's a 3 storey Edwardian semi which has a 150ft winding gravel drive, we face an olde worlde church as well which is lovely. I often catch people staring at the house as they walk past just like I used to. Does it make me happy? No, it's cold, draughty, the wrong lay out for us and is a money pit. We have spent 5 years renovating it and it's beautiful inside but we are selling up in the new year.

Our house makes me happy every time I walk up the steps to it. It's very pretty, gorgeous willow in the garden and has amazing views. It's not immaculately maintained nor is it big but I just love how it looks on the outside, it almost takes my breath away sometimes (usually when I'm on a bit of a downer), it's also lovely and light with good ceiling heights and lots of windows. We had it extended to suit our needs which is something else I love about it. I find it strangely humbling that I own (well the bank does atm) something so lovely on that scale.

I've just moved from a pretty cottage to an ugly house built in 1979.

My new house is light and spacious with ceilings tall enough that you can have bookshelves round the top of a room. It's warm with massive windows and on a hill where my outlook is over church steeples with oceans of sky - I've just seen a beautiful sunset.

The cottage was dark as a cave - had to have lights on all the time.Cold, tiny rooms, unbeatable slugs. And faced a block of flats with noisy people in. Ceilings only 7ft tall.

I heard people walk past my little cottage and comment on how pretty it was. That was all it was.

Another one who has moved from a pretty cottage to a big ugly house.

I love it. We have space for all our stuff, big windows and even some spare space in some of the cupboards although that won't last long

I did love my cottage: it was pretty, and lovely inside too, and had lots of lovely period features and a pretty garden and lovely neighbours. But we were totally squished, and when dc3 came it was pretty clear that it wasn't going to work for us long term.

I don't think the outside matters much - it's whats inside (and more importantly who is inside) that counts.

I live in a very new build and to me it's pretty. I obviously like it but my DH absolutely loves looking at it from the outside.

laurie did I hear you say warm? I can't remember what it feels like to live in a house where I do not have my North Face gillet on even in the summer because it's so bloody cold. Sod pretty!

We live in a very pretty house, people often paint or photograph it.

We love it, but I'm sure we would be happy elsewhere (although I never want to leave). I don't really think about it much tbh.

yes Flossie , warm!

On the day we moved a month ago it was 15 inside our old house (only heated by a wood burner ) - in the depths of winter it needed constant coal and logs and you could never get it above 19 or 20, no matter how much you fed it.

In this house without the heating on a month later it's 20 degrees in my living room