Essex house with ‘dated brown windows and awful decor’ …

[JulieRtn]

… has now had two offers at asking price. Thankfully there are some intelligent viewers out there who can somehow manage to see past wallpaper, mirrors, flowers, furniture and candles which may not be exactly to their taste 👍

No but as you've pointed out that's up to the buyer. Pointless spending money and effort on stuff that's going to get redone anyway, as any estate agent will tell you

Or some people aren't put off by superficials?

The trouble is that there were also a number that clearly were not posted in any spirit of helpfulness and/or which were simply stupid and/or impractical and/or rude. OP is entitled to answer those people.

I can never quite decide if these people are just enjoying the chance to be snide anonymously (I mean, whether they’re the types who live for a tour of someone’s new house so they can dash back to their friends and quiver with horror over Linda and Steve’s GREY GROUT AND SUBWAY TILES OMG!!! etc), or whether they genuinely don’t understand the difference between someone presenting a house for sale and someone attempting to cater to their own particular taste in décor.

I think it should be a rule that if you're going to post rude, unhelpful comments (not constructive criticism) about someone's decor, you have to include a picture of your own amazingly tastefully decorated home that apparently would appeal to everybody. So basically it can't be grey, can't be too bland, nor have any of your personality injected into it, but must be homely, without having any of your stuff on display. It must be fully carpeted, but with wooden floors underneath, in case the vendor prefers them and you really must factor in time between exchange and completion to change the windows to vendor's preference and perhaps paint the exterior to a shade of their choice. Only then may they deem the house fit for habitation.

Good to hear OP- it wasn't necessarily my taste but I thought it was a lovely spacious house and perfect for the right person

@CellophaneFlower Ha, ha- exactly what I was thinking.

To be fair I also thought some of the comments on the other thread went too far. I saw one where a poster advised her to fablon the kitchen work surfaces and paint the cupboards, which was too much.

but for me, I read it and found myself nodding that all the brown windows and doors were too Dated, but although the baroque, mirrored furniture and animal print was a rather unique taste, the op is taking it with her, so was utterly irrelevant.

it takes a set of balls to post images of your home on here. So fair play to the op. I saw a thread where people posted what they disliked on interior decor, and it was batshit, everything from beams to range cookers featured. Basically if it existed, someone hated it..

Agree with @howmanybicycles

You post asking for opinions. You're going to get opinions.

I posted DM’s house on here last year and the responses were brutal, but not nasty.

It was actually really helpful and we took some things on board, ignored others because it was too much of a faff, and we sold her house.

You do need a thick skin as some posters’ expectations are utterly mental but they represent what potential viewers may be thinking so it’s worth being brave.

I have to say though - DM’s house was (deservedly) heavily criticised but there were none of the very personal insults that OP here had. Criticism should be constructive - it’s not an invitation to rip someone’s personal taste to pieces. I wasn’t surprised when the last thread was taken down - there was a spitefulness to the comments that you don’t often see here in the Property section.

Glad you have had offers OP, the thread really descended into spite and mockery from some posters, I think a lot of the really nasty ones come from a place of insecurity about their own home and as yours was spacious and expensive it was a way to take their failings out on you, a similar situation happened on another thread a couple of years ago, a lovely big expensive detached house in a posh area, it got really unpleasant, houses really can make people very envious.

Yay.... I was one that said I loved your house!😁

Oh that's wonderful news. I hope it all goes smoothly from here.

@LadyVictoriaSponge I agree with you on this. It's the same if you live in a non cheap part of the Uk. The 'I would hate to live there' brigade who never want to say where they live that's so amazing.

Actually you are right, you see it quite a lot . Particularly if someone posts a very expensive several million house, you see lots of oh it’s hideous, when it’s nothing of the sort. You know it’s envy.

to be fair though the ops house is fairly normal semi, and generally I have seen a lot of these links posted and many positive comments of its beautiful etc for normal houses. I’ve also seen some brutal ones.

the uniqueness of the ops taste I think was the incendiary issue here, not envy, although definitely for some it would have been, but maybe not for most. It was batshit, as the ops taste in wallpaper and accessories was totally irrelevant.

It often goes the other way too. If someone posts a picture of a perfectly normal/nice/average family home, eg a £2-300k semi or detatched you get all the 'I'm too small minded to imagine anything different than my London/SE bubble' crowd commenting with 'it must be in a right shithole to be that cheap', 'I bet there aren't any jobs, the schools are rubbish and there isn't anything to do near there at that price' etc.

@BarbaraofSeville I agree with that too- it works both ways. One thing I will say is we rent nice big family houses (lucky to do so) usually when owners are abroad etc rather than investment flats. I can honestly say over the years that some of the smaller homes in less smart areas when we viewed were really tidy and well kept and some of the posher big homes in areas like Bristol and oxford were actually a total state. Location has naff all bearing it seems on quality and condition of homes.

I’ve found this thread really illuminating as a non-Brit (though one who lived in the UK for many years). As a culture, you are very invested in home ownership, houses and interiors as a display of taste/money/social class, or as a peek into the soul (there’s some ingrained house tidiness equal morality thing too!). I really didn’t understand why new acquaintances wanted so badly to see the inside of our house when we moved from London to a village (very ordinary but well-designed 70s affair), but I get it now. I think they were terribly disappointed, though, as we hadn’t ‘put our stamp on it’.

As a culture, you are very invested in home ownership, houses and interiors as a display of taste/money/social class, or as a peek into the soul (there’s some ingrained house tidiness equal morality thing too

this is not exclusive to the uk. It’s common amongst most of the first and second world and even some of the third.

and yes of course peoples homes give an idea of taste, money or social class. Where you live, if you own or rent, how you decorate and fill a home, give a huge insight into the occupants.

From the skint, to the lazy, to the gaudy, to the mass market, to the unique and quirky, to the expensive, to the understated and tasteful, to the dedicated followers of fashion (yes grey dwellers im looking at you) and everything in between, your home says a lot about you.

I honestly haven't seen any of that. Sometimes people will post a pic of a house and Southerners will say "I couldn't get a 1 bed studio for that in my area", but I don't think they're being rude.

I think most of us in expensive areas are fully aware we're paying a premium for living where we do, but we don't think "cheap" houses are necessarily in shit areas. They're just not where we choose to live, for whatever reason.

@CellophaneFlower yes there's an element of that too - and one persons shot area is anothers'i love it' - we hated living in Bristol for all kinds of reasons specific to us but for others it's their dream destination- my home town in the Midland is to me a bit shit but no more so than hundreds of similar towns in the Uk where people live perfectly happily

I would happily go up North and get a much bigger house, but for me it's the weather. Let's face it, in this country, every degree matters! However, with climate change, I may soon be heading up. We had a terrible time with fires round here in the heatwave last year!

Sorry... didn't mean to derail the thread 😳

I sensed a lot of green eyes in that thread OP. Personally I loved your decor, especially your hall/stairway wallpaper and your gorgeous kitchen.

I’ve lived longterm in seven countries on three continents, and haven’t found it to quite the same degree elsewhere. I think it’s in part down to the fetishisation of home ownership over longterm, secure tenancies, and the strong preference for houses over flats, but not just that.

The obsession may be due to relatively low home ownership rates. www.statista.com/statistics/246355/home-ownership-rate-in-europe/
That was always my thinking as someone coming from country with hogher rate of ownership. Tbf we also had strong preferences for houses. It's logical, space.

The decore things is class obsession in UK. Literally everything is some marker. In my DH's experience percieved class can even overide racism.🤷🏻

Secured tenancies are bit double issue. Can't have them because shitty landlords and shotty tenants, because they come with responsibilities on both sides. Many people always quote Germany for secured tenancies, but then they have standardly mandatory house/flat airing daily. I can totally imagine backlash for little things like that...