Home improvement regrets!

champagnetruffleshuffle · 2023-09-04T10:17:55+00:00

What is the permanent feature/alteration you have made to your home that you constantly regret? I write this while cleaning around the external entrance we added to our kitchen for the umpteenth time in a week. It's now the main thoroughfare in and out of our house, with 2 adults 2 teens and a dog, it's constantly filthy and littered with footwear. (despite a shoe cupboard in situ!) I hate that my kitchen floor is always dirty and wish we'd put the door somewhere else. Actually I wish we had a big enough house for a posh boot room complete with dog shower but that's a whole new moan ha!

gandeysflipflop · 04/09/2023 11:31

modernising things believing them to be better at the time only realising the older things were much better made and more robust and sturdier and reliable for example replacing an old extremely reliable back boiler for a modern combi. God how I miss being able to run 2 taps to fill a bath in 2 mins now it's 1 tap at a time and a 20 minute wait. everything modern is extremely flimsy, poor quality and designed to breakdown. even furniture is not as well made as it used to be unless paying an absolute fortune for it.

Original poster

champagnetruffleshuffle · 04/09/2023 11:48

Yes, totally agree. New loos that never flush as well as traditionals, and leak!

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Original poster

champagnetruffleshuffle · 04/09/2023 11:58

We're doing further improvements to the house soon, I'm going to push to brick the opening back up and come up with a better solution.

Trouble is, we often think we've thought carefully about decisions like this, only afterwards finding we've missed something!

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WickedSerious · 04/09/2023 12:34

We built a tiny porch on one side of our house so that people weren't stepping directly into the kitchen,it's permanently filthy and I keep tripping over the multiple pairs of shoes that are left there.

Original poster

champagnetruffleshuffle · 04/09/2023 13:16

I was thinking of doing that but thought it would just move the mess, sounds like I was right poor you.

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midgemadgemodge · 04/09/2023 13:26

The best you can hope for is to move the mess to somewhere you don't mind so much

There is no house design that will turn mucky kids and dogs into clean tidy beings

minipie · 04/09/2023 13:29

I accidentally put in a loo with a “poo shelf” despite having warned various other people (incl on MN) to avoid them!! 🤦‍♀️

I have a larder cupboard with a door that blocks the kitchen walkway. Should have made it slide & hide.

Small garden, we made the patio area too big so the lawn bit is titchy. Matters less now the DC are older though.

hennybeans · 04/09/2023 13:31

We had limestone floor installed in our kitchen. Huge mistake. Always, always looked dirty and terrible. And honestly I tried everything. We just had it ripped out last week after only 5 years to be replaced.

Also, I foolishly chose white tiles with white grout for dc’s bathroom floor. What is wrong with me? Why did the bathroom planner not say that I’ll spend half my life cleaning it and the half telling the dc to be careful. What a mistake.

WickedSerious · 04/09/2023 13:34

midgemadgemodge · 04/09/2023 13:26

The best you can hope for is to move the mess to somewhere you don't mind so much

There is no house design that will turn mucky kids and dogs into clean tidy beings

True,if it wasn't out there it'd be cluttering up the hallway.

TomaytoTomaato · 04/09/2023 13:37

5 spotlights in the bathroom ceiling - it's just too bright in there with the light on. Could have easily got away with just 3.
I never turn the bathroom light on - the bathroom door is frosted so I use the hallway light in the evenings/at night which gives a nice warm glow in the bathroom.

CointreauVersial · 04/09/2023 13:39

We decided to put the dishwasher right opposite a pinch-point where the airing cupboard juts out....so every time the dishwasher is open you can't get from one end of the kitchen to the other. Makes putting stuff away a total pain. Honestly, if I'd chosen to swap positions with the sink we wouldn't have had a problem. 🙄

Ariela · 04/09/2023 15:12

TomaytoTomaato · 04/09/2023 13:37

5 spotlights in the bathroom ceiling - it's just too bright in there with the light on. Could have easily got away with just 3.
I never turn the bathroom light on - the bathroom door is frosted so I use the hallway light in the evenings/at night which gives a nice warm glow in the bathroom.

Just take the bulbs out of a couple

mumonthehill · 04/09/2023 15:20

White ceramic sink, it stains, is a nightmare to clean. It looks nice once in a blue moon!!

BarrelOfOtters · 04/09/2023 15:34

White ceramic sink - same. It's always tea coloured.

Glossy white tiles bathroom floor - clean, turn your back, and they look grubby again. Never again.

For some unknown reason got separate hot and cold taps in bathroom had to get it changed to a mixer tap.

Didn't think about storage in the utility....There's never anywhere to put the clean washing that doesn't have recycling, cat bowl, muddy cat prints....

We did think long and hard about pinch points in the kitchen after having a fridge door that used to open on to a peninsula and effectively block half the kitchen.

Good things, plugs and more plugs in the new extension.

LindorDoubleChoc · 04/09/2023 17:45

When our dishwasher door is open you can't get to the undersink cupboard that houses our recycling bin and food waste bin. There's always some scraps of food or slice of lemon in a glass when you're loading the dishwasher and you have to close the dishwasher door, open the cupboard door, scrape, close the cupboard door and re-open the dishwasher door to deal with a dirty plate. Gives me the hump.

LindaDawn · 04/09/2023 17:54

We changed a through lounge rectangle opening to an arch opening. Gonna change it back to a rectangle when we redecorate next.

MrHopsPortal · 04/09/2023 18:03

LindorDoubleChoc · 04/09/2023 17:45

When our dishwasher door is open you can't get to the undersink cupboard that houses our recycling bin and food waste bin. There's always some scraps of food or slice of lemon in a glass when you're loading the dishwasher and you have to close the dishwasher door, open the cupboard door, scrape, close the cupboard door and re-open the dishwasher door to deal with a dirty plate. Gives me the hump.

Ours is exactly the same - plus you can't get to the sink either so can't rinse anything off while you are loading the dishwasher. Drives me bonkers - although we inherited that particular design flaw from our sellers.

Nonplusultra · 04/09/2023 18:06

Non slip tiles seemed like a sensible choice until I realised that they’re textured to grab and hold as much dirt as possible and will never be clean.

MrsMoastyToasty · 04/09/2023 18:11

To save money on an already expensive large extension we decided to keep part of a wall and not going down the route of more RSJ's and underpinning tofull open up the room. . It's a bloody nuisance.

illiterato · 04/09/2023 18:16

My new sofa is too big for the room. Not permanent but cost so much it might as well be.

ceiling fans with lights. Lights are shit.

fully agree re loos. We need to go back to wrought iron tanks with a chain. They are way the best ones.

OliveHenry · 04/09/2023 18:21

Not my mistake, but done by the previous owners - a natural stone floor in the kitchen.

I hate it.

It never looks clean, the slabs are huge (and one needs re-sitting'cos it's started to rock).

It's totally unforgiving if you drop anything.

It's not level - the texture of the stones makes it hard to move anything (eg pulling washing machine out - the feet get stuck on the raised bits of the floor).

But it's under the kitchen cupboards so I don't think it would feasible to replace.

I've thought of levelling it off and putting something smooth on top, but don't know how that would work as it runs through into the rear hallway which has door plate into the dining room, so not sure how I'd deal with the height difference.

Have I mentioned that I hate it?

whenindoubtgotothelibrary · 04/09/2023 18:29

15 years ago now, but an expensive and trendy at the time white rubber bathroom floor with raised circular bumps. It held on to every single scrap of dust and hair. Impossible to clean and always looked awful. We covered it over after a year as it was driving me slowly insane. Just glad I'd resisted DH's suggestion that we also have it in the kitchen and downstairs loo!

Fizzadora · 04/09/2023 18:32

When the glass blew on the french doors on my dwarf wall conservatory, I had them replaced with sliding ones, in the very much mistaken belief that they would open fully and only realising once they were installed that one side was fixed and that the exit gap was barely 15 inches wide. I have no idea why this just didn't register when I ordered them.
Even though there was nothing wrong with them, after 5 years of going out through the gap sideways and feeling trapped inside my own house, I bit the bullet and had them replaced with new french doors that both open. (Had a solid roof with a couple of velux windows added at the same time and it has transformed the house)

vanillafudgecake · 04/09/2023 19:17

TomaytoTomaato · 04/09/2023 13:37

5 spotlights in the bathroom ceiling - it's just too bright in there with the light on. Could have easily got away with just 3.
I never turn the bathroom light on - the bathroom door is frosted so I use the hallway light in the evenings/at night which gives a nice warm glow in the bathroom.

Put them on a dimmer switch.

We did this with our en suite. Great for those middle of the night pee's with no bright lights waking you up!

Original poster

champagnetruffleshuffle · 04/09/2023 20:25

Agree re. teen/dog messiness. Although earlier a friend gave me a great tip; they've got an old butler sink installed outside with hot and cold running water and shoe storage next to it - dirty dog, wellies, footy boots all get chucked in there. Bingo, I'm sold!

We suffer the dishwasher pinch point too, drives me mad but I'd rather that than wash up any day ha!

Also had white grout in the bathroom and learnt so the en suite is getting a grey waterproof one.

We chose two massive sofas for our first home without measuring anything at all and had to put up with skirting round them for 3 years, idiots!

Not sure what a poo shelf is but I'm off to google in case I add one to the en suite!

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