I would NEVER buy a house with…

[Wyr]

• solar panels

• a ‘garden house’ IE a lockdown special outdoor wooden shed dressed up as an office - usually taking up half the garden and completely pointless

• a neighbour who has a load of cars / shit in their yard - hoarder vibes

who’s next? 3 things that would make you not buy a house…

Gosh, I have never heard anybody want a north facing garden in the UK. The issue most of the year is keeping the house warm, not cooling it down.

Our house is a double-fronted symmetrical one. The front door opens in a centre hall with rooms opening off of it to the right and left. The staircase is against one wall of the centre hall, after you pass the door openings. I'm not clear how this is a problem?

I concur with this. It's by far the nicest heating we've ever had

If it’s not based on anything then your assertions of a 40 year payback is meaningless. What a bizarre thing to say.

It's a small light aircraft, but with the wings folded and in a bigish trailer, so maybe not the Tom Cruise image you may have had, but for the purposes of a light hearted thread like this......

Payback on my heat pump was 4.3 years - in line with the calculations done prior to purchase and installation. You clearly know nothing, but feel free to keep spouting rubbish.

Things I wouldn't want in a house:

Leasehold
No mains drainage
Bi-fold doors
Kitchen 'island'
Open plan - much prefer separate rooms you can close off
Plastic grass
No garden
No parking
No garage
Garden overlooked
No Front garden as a buffer from the road
Attached (have been in the past, such a joy to be detached finally)
No downstairs loo
Dark rooms
Poky hall
Only one bathroom
No bus stop, pub, village shop within walking distance (big compromise here is that this means living on a main road)
No easy access to nearest towns and cities

Dealbreakers for me:

Mullioned windows - criss/cross style. Not sure if that’s the right term. Makes me feel claustrophobic

Tiny en-suite. Would rather not have one at all.

Conservatory. Just feels like being in a greenhouse. Usually too warm/cold/exposed for me.

Gosh, I have never heard anybody want a north facing garden in the UK. The issue most of the year is keeping the house warm, not cooling it down

You do if you are in the South East. Need some shade in the Summer. The front is then of course South facing, and baking, and you have to keep your front windows and blinds down all day.

In the Winter if we have sun on the front, we don't need the heating on.

@Boreded sorry, I only got back to the thread now so there's been a lot of water under the bridge since then! No, we don't have water bills in Ireland. Also, the equivalent of council tax is paid yearly and for our house it's about €250 a year, so you don't have to think about that most of the time either. Electricity and heating oil are expensive though, which is why our solar system is going to pay for itself pretty soon.

Why do so many people not want a kitchen island?

If the house already has solar panels installed what is the problem?

Ours were installed 13 years ago. Last year our total energy costs over 12 months for gas and electricity came to £141.11.

This year we have paid £46.45 so far.

No-one sits in their gardens looking at the roof.

The only downside for us is when it snows it slides off the roof onto our conservatory, but it hasn't caused any damage so far.

Why are you intentionally trying to provoke a response. Does it make you feel special because you are on an anonymous board and so you can say whatever you want?

who hurt you sweetheart?

We are building our kitchen at the moment and are planning to have a moveable island/bar. (Well, we will see how it looks and functions, maybe we will change our minds, but we like the idea atm!).

I feel like you might be a global warming denier

You’ve got the wrong end of the stick! I’m very much pro electrification, renewables and energy efficiency.

I was asking the previous poster how they could assert 40 odd year paybacks on double glazing - an unusual assertion to make given you (usually) can’t actually install anything less than double glazing these days as the U-value on single glazing is too high to pass building regs… and has been since 2002.

4.3 yrs is really good going for payback on a heat pump, so well done.

HostaCentral, we're in the SE, very near the "sunshine coast"..,0n average making £80 a month with the solar panels. You're correct of course a north facing back garden equates to a south facing front . As it's 200 feet long there's always sun. We had quarter of an acre,south facing, watering was an absolute nightmare,we grew peaches outside about 20 years ago.

They're a pet Mumsnet hate, like en suites. Some posters lack the imagination to know they can be very nice indeed and others advocate for a 'peninsular' instead.

Ours is roughly modelled on this one and we could not love it more
https://plainenglishdesign.com/kitchen/soho-factory/

I have an island in my kitchen, which I love, but I'm not sure I'd say that if someone doesn't like them they 'lack imagination'. It's just a personal preference, not a personal insult.

I did say some posters, not meaning to tar all with the same brush. But often when someone posts about a kitchen renovation people seem to not realise that not all islands are necessarily giant monolithic hunks occupying 3/4 of the room.

I love the look but in my family it would be a dumping ground for mess and drive me nuts. What I personally don’t like is when people have a kitchen diner and have an island instead of a proper dining table. I saw that recently in an expensive home and just thought I’d need to take it out and that would likely mean replacing a huge expanse of flooring.

I love the look but in my family it would be a dumping ground for mess and drive me nuts. What I personally don’t like is when people have a kitchen diner and have an island instead of a proper dining table. I saw that recently in an expensive home and just thought I’d need to take it out and that would likely mean replacing a huge expanse of flooring.

Dodgy WiFi in the garden has duplicated my post. Sorry.

I hate the ones with 3 dangly lights, always reminds me of something that Dexter would use or an operating theatre

😆