I DID buy a house with

[MonteStory]

Really enjoying reading the ‘I would NEVER buy a house with’ thread and all the different perspectives on objectively tricky situations as well as odd picky requirements people have.

So, which no-nos have you embraced or even actively chosen?

Our new house is:
off mains gas
has solar panels
on a private road (which we own)
has lots of trees
no shops etc in walking distance

We’re so excited to move in☺️

Our current house has a garden with a slightly odd set up which means it’s not directly connected to the back door but has to be accessed via our garage and down a private path. It was one of my favourite things about the house when we viewed because the way the garden is located means it’s secluded and not overlooked by any other house and so feels like we have a tree-shrouded, relatively massive, secret garden in the middle of London. We still use it loads, and we built a home office which gets used as a base in summer, and a summer house where we store garden tableware and so on so less carrying stuff around.

Those aren’t ’no nos’ though! 😅 I think this thread is for those who don’t toe the typical house buyers guide, think outside the box and embrace the fear - and admirably succeed. Could never be me 🐓- but loving reading the comment!

1940s house which has concrete EVERYTHING. Love it. And the bank was completely indifferent, contra all the scare stories you hear.

Our (only) bathroom came with the dreaded corner bath as well ( with shower tap fitting ) . Would have changed it but DD and DGCs would be devastated.. They don't have a bath in their house so when they come to visit it's more for the excitement of the corner bath rather than seeing us , I reckon !

We also have a small kitchen and fake wood flooring downstairs .

Overlooked
neighbour had a lawn full of cars (he’s a mechanic and now has a very nice new driveway)
no downstairs loo
no en-suite
east facing garden
needed a shit tone of work doing
near a school
electric oven

Sold a lovely 3 bed detached to move to it - it was the only house I could afford with 4 beds which we needed due to eldest ND - semi detached and very dated

i bloody love it though it’s such a nice house!

• Asbestos
• Rats
• Outdoor toilet only
• Attached slightly derelict pub/bar

In the village of the damned.

I bought a house with a separate toilet (no sink in it) and bathroom 🤢

No driveway
Needs a lot of work
Artex and most likely asbestos 🫣
Immersion heater tank and no boiler
But loads of original experiments features so we just ignore the asbestos and cracks 😂

Wootton-under-Edge isn’t that bad! 😁

I bought a house with zero curb appeal, on the edge of a council estate with a north facing back garden and no front garden.

I’m sure there’s plenty more that posters on that other thread could take offence at, but -back in the real world- the house turned out to be perfect for me and my family because we don’t really care what the house looks like from the outside. We only see it when we’re parking up the car 😂

Got to have your fun before they get here and derail this one too

More about the mysterious tunnel please?

On a busy road, well slightly set back from one.

We wouldn’t have been able to afford the house otherwise, totally worth it.

@MugPlate We've all got partial tunnels under our houses and then behind there's a blocked up HUGE tunnel which is 1/4 mile long. It's from the old wool trade. There's a winch on the house two doors down.

I had to fill mine in because my floor was going to fall in it and it was too expensive to do anything else, but another neighbour uses theirs for wine and cheese. Mine, I just store my ghosts in.

I bought a house with tenants in situ.

It was a bit tense waiting in case they wouldn’t move out as expected (but they were lovely people and of course they did).

A Grade II listing - makes things tricky sometimes as we can't always do what we want with it.

I bought a flat with Japanese knotweed in the garden!

It was discovered after the seller had rejected my offer which was 2k over the asking price, and I'm guessing people with higher offers withdrew after the JK was found. Estate agent said the flat was mine if I wanted it and the seller would pay to get it treated. The JK was far enough away from the building that I could get a mortgage. I've been there 7 years now and I love my little flat!

I bought a north facing garden intentionally.

patio and the back of the house is usually shaded so doesn’t get too hot and is perfect to sit out. Then the garden itself gets loads of sun and from about 1/3 of the way down is a total sun trap and lovely.

south facing gardens mean the house gets the sun and the inside gets too hot.

Oh I also have an en suite so I guess I have to admit to enjoying shitting where I sleep now. That was also intentional (the en suite, and I guess the shitting too)

Our house is:
Overlooked (front & back)
Smallish back garden that was fully concreted over when we bought
On a private road

Our previous house was a Victorian terrace on a busy road with no parking.

• Totally open plan downstairs (the previous owner even got rid of the corridor so that the staircase was in the living area and you walked straight into the living room from outside) - it was awful and we have reinstated some walls
• small north facing garden - not bothered, we get plenty of sun.
• long narrow drive - didn’t realise how annoying it would be. But we ended up only using the one car at the end of the drive and realised we didn’t really need two cars.
• carpet everywhere downstairs - didn’t work for us so we had to replace it.

I’m still not in love with the house, but the location is ok. And that’s the only thing you can’t change.

I loved it but judging by other mumsnet posts it’s hated!

Ours was a smaller house and it made it much lighter and social and worked really well in the space.

In our current house the kitchen is big enough to not need it and actually we’re putting a wall back in to separate off a lounge.

• No upstairs bathroom
• No bath
• No mains gas
• Ancient storage heaters
• full 1979s decor
• North facing garden (it's very sunny)

I added:
-Solar panels
-A wood burner
-A saniflow toilet (only way to add one upstairs). That room (cupboard) doesn't have a window but it serves it's purpose of allowing the kids to go for a pee in the night without falling down the stairs very well)

So a fair bit of the set from the other thread is now covered 🤣