Close the curtains !!!!!!!

Now I know why I am still alive! Alone in the house with 2 small children and thinking I could hear people on the scaffolding that surrounded the house because it was being reroofed. I didn't go outside to check. I phoned the police.

Actually, when they arrived there was nothing to be seen and the police pointed out that the roofers had taken their ladder down and padlocked it so it couldn't be used to access the scaffolding.

Pity, DH could have returned from his business trip to find his family slaughtered and we could all now be a trial, a book and a film. On second thoughts.............

And why do the Police cars have their siren going in country roads with nothing else in sight?

Architects nowadays don't seem to think curtains are always necessary. We are having sliding patio doors replaced, the whole side of the house is sliding glass doors in fact. Our architect looked at me as if I was bonkers when I asked where we would draw the curtains back to (the masonry pier which currently provides a short wall for the existing curtains to draw onto is being removed). I don't like cold black glass at night, nor the thought of someone creeping around in the garden able to see in to the house which will be an illuminated goldfish bowl. He thinks curtains are not necessary and now that I look at interior design type magazines, he is clearly not alone. We will be having some curtains (or blinds)! but it's quite tricky from a design point of view.

Has somebody already mentioned the conservatory in Broadchurch at night?
And how a person on their own in a strange house will go down into a creepy cellar -completely ignoring the equally creepy music in the background too

You are right Doversole that some (but by no means all) architects don't seem to like curtains and this is reflected in the choice of images for glossy magazines and on programmes like Grand Designs. The images are generally looking out on a wonderful sunlit view, not a wall of blackness.

This has been debated on architectural forums. Many architects take the view that, particularly in domestic design, privacy and a feeling of warmth and security (what you might call coziness, although that is not a term generally favoured in fashionable circles), is an essential attribute. Blinds tend to be used more than curtains, but curtains have the added advantage of absorbing sound. Some modern houses are so full of hard surfaces they can be very echoey.

Your architect should listen to you and find a solution if he has designed in a problem. You are entitled to have the choice.

I mentioned the Broadchurch episode MawBroon but didn't specify the conservatory, but yes, that's the one I meant.
Would you - really?
All part of the tension of the programme I suppose but it was definitely OTT and quite ridiculous.

Monica, probably squirrels or something

Drawing curtains is a bit of a cultural issue. In Scotland when I was a child everyone drew curtains or blinds when it got dark, but that was before double glazing came in and it was optimistically, and I may say quite erroneously, thought to cut the draughts!

In Denmark at the same time, no one ever drew curtains although all houses and flats had them at every window. People drew bedroom and bathroom curtains, but you could see in through anyone's windows at any time, but children were brought up to not stare through windows, as doing so was considered extremely rude.

But that was real life: as far as TV series and films go, I don't think they are meant to be realistic, but scary. I agree no woman in her right mind would keep doors and windows unlocked if she was living alone, or even just alone in the house, Investigating odd noises at night is more difficult: I would not do so, if I felt they were caused by burglars etc. but I would and do get up to investigate anything that sounds like storm damage.

I think God should introduce a new feature to the world that will actually sound creepy music to warn us when there is something in the cellar or outside the front door so we don't open it.

thecatgrandma - yes, a lot of Scandinavians dislike the dark to such an extent that they do sleep with the curtains open, They say that it is dark all winter, so the light summer nights are considered wonderful and people can sleep through them quite happily.

Well I suppose once you've had to live half your life in the dark you no longer have a body clock to get disturbed!

And also, how come soap characters ALWAYS have the mobile number of their arch enemies stored on their phones?
And they can leave the area ( in a black cab if it’s Eastenders!) in less than 24 hours. There’s no house selling, packing of furniture, taking final meter readings, and many more things!

Has anyone else noticed that when Kevin McCloud goes back to visit the houses with nothing but huge glass windows you find the owners singing the praises of their property, but the property always has a 'television room, or 'snug' with a solid outside wall, small window and curtains and if you look carefully you can see that that is the room that is most used.

I can remember one older couple, who actually looked as miserable as sin when he revisited and through the door of the 'television room' you could see all the furniture of their previous living room, old fashioned bright blue wing chaired suite, curtains, even same coloured carpet. The woman admitted she hardly used her big beautiful kitchen, they ate mainly ready meals. Her DH had fought neighbours and the council for years to be allowed to demolish his neo-georgian house and replace it with this all glass house and it was clear that now they had it, they hated it.

Oh yes It gets me annoyed as well.
As does Merlots point about walking about in very poorly lit homes. People just o not do that.

I get annoyed about Holby City. That does not bear any resemblence to any hospital ward I have been in.

The ward blinds are open the the patients have no privacy. Relatives wander around the wards at all hours. If you are going to make a drama at least make it appear vaguely realistic.

Yes Monica I am afraid that these unhappy home owners were not well served by their architects. A good architect will atune herself to the clients needs. A not so good architect may just want to feature on "Grand Designs" Even worse, in this country any unqualified person can design a building.

If you come across anyone who describes themselves as an "architectural consultant" or has a business card advertising "Joe Bloggs Architecture" (as opposed to "Joe Bloggs Architect") it means they are unqualified.

The Architects Act prohibits anyone whose name is not on the Architects Register from describing themselves as an architect, the penalty may be a fine of £2,000. However in the UK (unlike most other civilised countries) anyone - absolutely anyone can design a building.

It takes seven years to train as an architect - five years at university and two years in practice. Nowadays architectural students are accumulating horrendous debts in order to qualify, yet anyone can design a building.

If you were to spend seven years or less to qualify as a doctor, dentist, vet, lawyer, etc you would have substantial debt but at least you would not have to compete with unqualified people for work.

Should you consider embarking on a building project, make sure you check the qualifications of your "architect"

architects-register.org.uk/

Do women architects do any better at designing houses that people actually like to live in?

www.thoughtco.com/famous-female-architects-177890

OK - you've got me bang to rights. I'm just going to make sure the doors are locked.

PLEASE tell me.....What does AIBU
mean ??

I often see it before a topic.

It stands for "Am I being unreasonable?", Bez1989. Often the prelude to the more controversial threads, particularly over on the dark side (Mumsnet).

Bez1989 you will be able to find a list of all the anacroyms in the tab at the top of this page.

Very occasionally, someone seems to be acting really recklessly, then they are saved from certain death, or at least entrapment, by the police turning up, having been previously called.
So we realise the character wasn't so stupid after all.

Curtains closed when it's dark. Keeps the place warmer.

Another thing that drives me mad is that no one down south appears to close their curtains at night to go to sleep! The light would wake you up early! We have blackout blinds as well as curtains, I could not possibly go to sleep with no curtains closed for that reason and also that someone could look in (we live in a bungalow)! Is that the case?

I live down South ( London region), and everyone I know has their bedroom curtains or blinds closed.

I agree about the earlier post regarding the West End of Glasgow.. I was born and raised there, in a flat identical to the one in the painting, and I can't ever remember anyone closing their livingroom curtains or blinds at night, except if it was really cold and they wanted to keep the heat in.

We had roller blinds but I don't remember them ever being closed.

One Christmas, my children gave me an Avril Paton painting. Oh how I love looking in the windows of the flats.

I thought of this thread whilst watching Hard Sun earlier this evening.
Why did she leave the flat and go down to the street when she heard a noise ?? Especially as it was all over the news that they were looking for a serial killer.