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Original poster

Did you 'love' your house the minute you walked in?

73 replies

cupcake78 · 11/01/2014 18:23

House hunting and can't find anything I 'love' but one or two I could live in. We have a budget and I don't think I will find anything I love within the budget as I've been spoilt growing up.

Did you wait for the love to happen or will I be waiting forever?

OP posts:
Piscivorus · 11/01/2014 19:16

With our last house yes. I walked through the door and loved it, deapite it being a wreck, needing everything doing and DH saying NO!

We found we had to move and this house was just the best we saw but now it is done and it is ours, I love it!

LemonDrizzleCake11 · 11/01/2014 19:18

We'd been looking for years (well, 2) and viewed nearly 40 sodding houses a few houses when we walked into the one we eventually bought - it just felt warm and somehow homely, even though it clearly needed a lot of TLC.

OH was not impressed with me for offering asking price, but quite frankly since it was the only one he had said he'd liked and I was fed up of spending virtually every weekend with estate agents, I figured it was worth it!

laughingeyes2013 · 11/01/2014 19:18

Yes, it felt immediately like home and I knew I had to live there!

I had to move out 6 years later as it was one bedroom and I am now a family of 4, but I still miss it massively!

TheBigBumTheory · 11/01/2014 19:20

Yes, every last damp and mouldy corner, it was love at first sight.

MissGuineapigs · 11/01/2014 19:20

Yes.

I'd viewed several other flats, and a house, which were all varying levels of suitability, for one adult and guinea pig moving out of her childhood home!

About two flats I viewed were fine from a practical view, but I felt I was forcing myself to like them. When I viewed my current home (which started less than brilliantly), I loved it. It'll be four years this year, and I still love it Grin

laughingeyes2013 · 11/01/2014 19:20

Having said that, I've also lived in a house that was the best here is rather than falling in love with it, and after doing it up I liked living there.

Liked, not loved!

Runrogrogrun · 11/01/2014 19:24

No. Didn't want to leave my old house but outgrew it. Left period charm for a 70s house. Kept (and keep) reminding myself about the space. It is not my forever house and my next one won't be either as I have realised lots of children and cottages don't mix on a small budget - my (our!) retirement property will be a return to a cottage.
However while I don't love my house I have grown to appreciate it, my children love it (have they no taste?!!) and we have decorated it beautifully (in my opinion!). And most importantly I love my (new) village and will strive to stay here for our next move.

DontmindifIdo · 11/01/2014 19:26

My current house isn't as big as the one I grew up in, but I just wanted it. This is a semi and the other side of the semi was for sale at the same time, we viewed both, both are quite comparable in decoration and style, and were close in price, but I loved this house, the other one, I could see us living in perfectly fine, but I didn't have the same emotional response.

Original poster
cupcake78 · 11/01/2014 19:27

I have 2 more to see. I know I'm going to like at least one of them. Its rubbish! One is nice but not sure on location. Very near a local supermarket, surgery etc might be brilliant might be a massive mistake. South facing, detached, near ds primary school. Secondary school not terrible but not brilliant!

Other is nice and big but involves moving ds primary school and it's semi detached. Garden not south facing. In better area for secondary schools, 4 double bedrooms, nice conservatory can get to garage through house but further away from work and very small hallway. Very near a new expensive housing development which could increase/decrease price.

OP posts:
TheGonnagle · 11/01/2014 19:29

Our house looked like a bad taste bomb had gone off in it- think yellow walls with maroon gloss paintwork (really!). But it just felt right- as we went upstairs I knew it would be our first home together. It's so much home that we're still here, after all our friends have moved on to naicer areas 11 years later.

DontCallMeBaby · 11/01/2014 19:30

Nope. It ticked all the boxes, I liked it, but it's not a hugely loveable house - 1960s box. And the previous owners' decor - coloured carpets, patterned wallpaper, borders, dado rails, peach bathroom suite was especially unloveable. We've been here 12 years and are looking to move; I'll be sorry to leave the area, and will be a little bit sad as it's the only home DD's known, but I won't miss the house terribly. I am very fond of it though.

I would dearly love to love the next house - it's supposed to be the forever house this time.

Coveredinweetabix · 11/01/2014 19:32

My first house I fell in love with at first viewing, tried to be objective at second viewing but just fell in love a bit more and the love just grew & grew during the six years I lived there.
Our current house it totally different. It ticks all the boxes and we've had some wonderful times here but it is not our forever home.

ShoeWhore · 11/01/2014 19:37

Oh yes. This is the third place we've owned and I got a good feeling about each of them. I felt it as soon as I walked into the hall! Luckily for us the previous owners had disguised its beauty with some truly hideous paint colours and apparently noone else had the vision to see past that.

I love this house and will be very sad to leave (later this year). I hope whoever buys it makes it really beautiful as it deserves that, we just haven't had the funds to do all that needs doing. (it's fine as it is but there is potential to make it really wow)

Busyoldfool · 11/01/2014 19:40

Yes. As soon as I saw it. Put an offer in immediately. Was happy here for several years but not any more. The area has changed, we have changed, neighbours have changed, financial situation has changed. I still love the house itself but I need to move and I won't be sorry to go. I should have gone sooner.

IwishIwasmoreorganised · 11/01/2014 19:42

I loved the feel of it and the location but it wasn't big enough for our forever home (which is what we were after).

We bought it and extended. Now I really do love it Grin

Jojay · 11/01/2014 19:52

No, it was a dump. DH had already viewed it on his ism and said no, but I felt it was worth a look.

It had potential though and I love it now that it's completely unrecognisable from the house we bought!

IHeartKingThistle · 11/01/2014 19:52

I just knew it was our house. We both did. It was weird. It's nothing like the house we thought we wanted, but it's our house. And it fell through 3 times and we still ended up here. It's our house!

IHeartKingThistle · 11/01/2014 19:52

TheGreatHunt that's so sad. Can I ask what changed?

SomewhereBeyondTheSea · 11/01/2014 19:54

Yes - two other places fell through after offering the asking price, so I was all set to 'settle', but when I first walked in I knew within 30 seconds. And then I saw the kitchen Shock - it was ten times nicer than any other I'd seen.
Offered the asking price within 5 minutes on the condition that it came off the market immediately. Fortunately the seller didn't realise what a gem it was and try to gazump me!
Nearly a decade on and it's nowhere near as pristine as it was, but it's still the right place for me .

TheGreatHunt · 11/01/2014 20:07

It's a money pit :( We've not got the ££ to sort it.

Plus we've now got children so it doesn't work for us.

Actually writing that down makes me think we've outgrown our home. It's huge - there's plenty of space - but with toddlers, the steps to the garden and lack of parking make it impractical. We also cannot use the loft bedrooms when the weather gets warm in the summer as far too hot.

But I do like the big rooms and huge garden still.

yankeecandlebabypowder · 11/01/2014 20:45

I was coming into our house for a few years before it was ours. DH's aunt lived here. It was small & poky yet cosy. Its about 200 yrs old & full of family history & we love it. We've completely renovated & extended it & now its what we need for our family.

We won't be moving from here now.

BecauseIsaidS0 · 11/01/2014 20:52

I hated it on the first viewing, hated it even more on the second one. It was ugly, ugly, ugly. But it was way bigger than all the other houses we'd been looking at in the area and it ticked all the boxes, so my now DH convinced me that it had potential. I still signed the papers not entirely convinced of what we were doing.

Seven months and fantastic builders later, I love it so much it almost hurts. It is my forever home.

BrianButterfield · 11/01/2014 21:19

I didn't like it from the outside but when we walked into the first room DH and I were both sold! We went upstairs and in the first bedroom we went in we had a whispered conversation about how this house was 'the one'. Everything else we saw after that was just the icing on the cake and we still love it (although it has cost us £££ to make it perfect...)

mumma24 · 11/01/2014 21:36

No, didn't love it first, I loved the space but came away saying no not the house for me, my husband however loved it and could see the huge potential.
4 years later, love my home

Mandy21 · 11/01/2014 21:40

Not loved - didnt love the actual house but loved the location and it was the best we could afford in the area. Location was the one thing we weren't willing to compromise on and as Kirstie Allsop would say, we have the worst house in the best location!

And although the bathroom suite is peach, it has more woodchip than B&Q in the 70s and we can't afford to do much about it, I absolutely love it now because of the life its given us (fab neighbours, lovely village community etc).

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