Unexpected nice thing you realised about your house after moving in

[JustJam4Tea]

In the middle of a town very close to where we used to live, but the back garden is at such an angle from streetlights that’s it’s like a little dark sky area. The stars are great.

Fantastic draw on the chimney.

The water pressure is amazing.

That there's a huge hawthorn tree in the ginnel at the end of my garden (I don't have a clue about gardening so thought it was nice but didn't realise what it was until it flowered a couple fo months after I moved in).

There was loads of Hawthorn at my primary school when I was little so the smell is really nostalgic.

Last year, just a few days after my dad passed away I discovered that it's known as the father tree in Celtic folklore and is a symbol of love and protection, which has been really comforting.

It's incredibly quiet

I live in zone 2 in London. I expected street noise from the crazy busy A2, sirens, neighbour noise

Can't hear anything

@MsSquiz that's really lovely.

This is a list of things I love about my area

Nice library
Lovely pubs and restaurants etc
Great variety of shops
Things to do and see
Decent schools
Beautiful parks too
Excellent transport
Nice and smart people
High community spirit

I sound like a estate agent haha

The hallway and upstairs landing. Not truly enormous, but generous compared to everywhere I've lived before. I feel happy every time I see the landing.

That it had self cleaning windows. I don't know they existed

Reading this has reminded me of all the things to feel grateful for. Like some pp we viewed house in winter so lots I didn't notice.

Fave gems
Nature reserve around the back with a small lake and lots of wildlife that boys love. DH surprised me with that a week or so into getting keys and I felt so blessed. We'd moved from somewhere with a gorgeous lake within 10 mins walk and it was one of the things I was going to miss about our last home.
Again, lovely lovely neighbours.
Excellent soundproofing - we have two very lively DS and apparently no one ever hears them (60s solid built semi)
Views of forest from front side and back
Views of reservoir from master bedroom. We are edge of London so these are real gems for us.
Space to build summerhouse in garden which has been super with DH and I both WFH.

Thanks for starting this thread

An owl in the forest at the front. We moved from a pretty urban flat with next to no wildlife so that was a nice discovery.
It's a mid terrace and we were pleased to find out just how private it is and how dark it is in the garden even with there being two street lamps close by.

The brilliant community spirit on the road. Lots of people have lived here for 20-40 years. There are a couple of families where the children or siblings have moved here too. We have a helpful Facebook group and recently one of my neighbours organised us to have trees planted and we all chipped in. Obviously there are a few people who aren’t great but it’s outweighed by the vast majority. It makes such a difference.

Should have added that other people seemed to know that about our road, especially in the local area, but we didn’t and the agents didn’t tell us!

After moving in we discovered an old well in a very overgrown corner of the garden (was never mentioned by the estate agent, previous owner or the deeds). We had to check with our local council that we could use it, and it needed a little TLC and a new pump, but now works perfectly and provides all the water we need for the trees and plants in the whole garden. For context, we live in Spain and piped water is very expensive so we would have had massive bills if we had to use mains water to keep the garden green in summer. Not drinkable, but still a great blessing.

The shower is like a power shower. The sound proofing is amazing. I never hear a peep out of my neighbours.

@Rosemarypots

The hallway and upstairs landing. Not truly enormous, but generous compared to everywhere I've lived before. I feel happy every time I see the landing.

Yes, this too! Our upstairs landing is like another room, the DCs use it as an extension to their bedroom and play there for hours. We had limited time to view the house (lockdown) so I didn't pay much attention to the landing (!) but it's turned out to be real bonus feature.

I also love the mature trees in the garden. I obviously knew about these before we moved in, but I've loved seeing the bird and wildlife that they bring into the garden.

We can hear bell ringing practice on a Monday evening which is just lovely. It’s also a much quieter area than we thought it would be, which is fantastic after our previous inner city house.

How noisy the road nearby is 😕
On the positive - we didn't realise it was going to increase so much in value, so fast. And become a desirable holiday destination

How useful the airing cupboard is! Never had one before, and I love it!

The neighbours. Our last neighbour used to smash his garden and house up when on a bender. We met him once on our way out on a Sunday morning as he came home, covered in blood after a fight.

This year in our new house a neighbour bought our child a chocolate Father Christmas which was so lovely! Another neighbour just text to apologise one solitary branch fell in our garden while he trimmed their tree. We all do Christmas cards and chats here. So much nicer.

The sense of history. I like that parts of the house are Tudor, we thought it was 1800s. That I find interesting bits of pottery dug up when I look at the mole hills (less keen on the moles though).

Modern houses are great- low maintenance. I can gush about my low maintenance roof.

Utility room is a god send (never had one before)
West light through the windows
Lights in the cupboard under the stairs

.. our old home in Loughborough was half way between main town church & a working bell foundry - sadly now closed. We had lots of traditional bell ringing to enjoy.

The way the light comes in through the windows in the morning.

The only sounds we notice being church bells and children playing (we’re very close to a primary school which I know is a negative for but I love it).

The tiny shop on the road sells really good bread from a bakery as well as the long life sliced stuff.

even though we only moved round the corner really we found a new dog walking spot at the end of the road, that's really quiet, with a stream and sticks for throwing. It's really lovely.

There's some lovely stories on this thread.

Another with the church bells here.

There's something reassuring about the hourly clock chimes and I've grown to love the sound of bell ringing practice on Wednesdays nights.

@Keiki

The views. Obviously I knew it was in the countryside but both the sunrises and sunsets are amazing at this time of year. I can't imagine ever growing tired of them.

That reminds me. There is a perfect sized gap between the houses on the opposite side of the street which means we see amazing sunsets from the living room. I see sunrises from my bedroom in the morning. I knew the back garden faced south west, but didn't think it through much more than when viewing.