A little bit different

janerowena Who is this Kirstie Allsop? She's an amateur compared to you. You seem to have a very special skill in finding your sisters houses and they sound wonderful. A lot of people are now putting their houses for sale on the web instead of through estate agents so maybe you could put your talent to use and do house finding as a business?

Mine is nothing special architecturally but it is my new house, having moved in four weeks ago, has wallpaper hanging off the wall, no carpet on the stairs, boxes still all over but I love it to bits, especially at the moment as I have double aspect windows in living room and am getting a spectacular fireworks display while sat very comfortably on my settee. Wonderful.

I must admit I enjoyed helping my daughter when she was househunting earlier this year. One of her main requirements was that it must be a 'Christmas' house; somewhere with rooms big enough to dress for Christmas with lots of room for guests and space for a spectacular tree. The house she eventually bought is named after the doctor who lived there and meets her requirements for Christmas perfectly.

Well my dads bigger than your dad !

rubylady finding the houses is the easy part, I think. It's getting the sale to run smoothly that is the problem. All of my sisters lost their partners at the same time, but for different reasons. As I had so much experience of moving, it sort of all fell to me as one by one they all wanted or needed to move. So stressful, and we did lose several houses along the way and had to find others just as nice. It's bad enough hearing your sisters being picky about near-perfect houses, it would drive me mad to hear someone else doing it. My Mil asked my advice on how to sell her house quickly. I told her, and she ignored me!!! It took a stroppy estate agent, fed up with taking the blame, to get her to smarten up her entrance and get rid of all the clutter. It has taken her more than four years so far...

Bet my dad's even bigger gillybob

My house, on the other hand, is crap.

I would love to see your homes and settings because I love houses too, and yours all sound unique and charming to this American! Well, our home is a rambling "California Ranch" house, a long/angled one-story custom built in 1953 that we bought in 2000. Its modern style "brings the outdoors in". The setting lies among rural homes, rolling terrain, vineyards and mountain views. I feel closer to the past when I hear the bells ringing from the old Adobe 1778 California Mission a bit behind us. Our home has its original swimming pool, jacuzzi, and poolhouse with cedar lined dressing rooms and a bath. Our full remodel left us with 12 exterior French doors, 6 skylights, and each main room has windows on three sides. All this light and undraped glass reveals a 250 year old giant oak tree, 200+ oak, plane, maple, pine and california pepper trees, and 100+ roses in various gardens. And my DDH takes care of it all!! Oh, and our kitchen and sitting room also had a built-in tri-tip barbecue which I thought very strange but discovered was all the rage in 1950. I transformed it into a fireplace. I could live here forever. . Sorry..post too long!!

nightowl and gillybob, sorry, if my posts about our house have come across as boasting!

DH & I love our house for it's fabulous features not because of its size or it's value (neither huge) We also love it despite the cost of trying to keep warm, stop it leaking and the fact that , because it is open plan, it is not child friendly!

Mostly though, we love it because it is our home and a place a DC & DGC like to come!

Not at all kitty! My post was tongue in cheek. It may not have come across that way, sorry. (And that's to all of you).
It is just rather amusing to read through this thread in its entirety! It can lead to serious house envy

And just to add to that kitty, home is home isn't it? And your last sentence is what's most important, it's where our families (especially DGC) like to come.

Sorry if I came across as a GOW last night.

MariClaire your home and surroundings sound wonderful - I love California.

Are you near Monterey, Salinas etc? I'm a big fan of Steinbeck and have been to that area a number of times. Have a good friend in Paso Robles.

Oops - I'm guessing gillybob's remark was aimed at me. Sorry, wasn't meant as a boast.

Ours is a 1930s house with many original features including Crittall windows with leaded lights. We also have an air raid shelter in the back garden. It is a surface shelter with walls 3ft thick and a grass roof. When the children in our road are 'doing' ww2 as a project ,they come to visit and have their photos taken wearing a tin hat and spraying the garden with a stirrup pump while standing in front of the air raid shelter. What a photo for the project book!

We have sold all the 6 houses we have owned without using an estate agent. The last two properties we sold to the daughter of friends but prior to that we sold by putting adverts in the local paper and putting up homemade "For Sale" signs in the front gardens. We have had no problems to speak of and I accept that we may have been lucky in that, but problems can arise when using agents and seem to do quite often.

I can't see that estate agents do much to earn their fees and we must have saved thousands of pounds over the years in their fees. It's not hard to show a house to potential buyers and you know its pluses and minuses better than any estate agent. There is plenty of advice and information online regarding price levels (Rightmove, Zoopla, Mouseprice etc) and on TV how to present/dress the place

I would always try to sell a property myself and maybe try online selling if it stalled.

No absolutely not grannyactivist. My remark was not aimed at anyone at all.

Don't worry Gillybob. My house is post war,designed by a single minded obsessive and built by Jerry and his firm of bodgers. It's taken me nearly 40 years to get it anything reasonable and lots of things now are needing replacing like doors and windows. But we are minutes from the station, the bus station and the centre of town and are surrounded by green and trees and birdsong. Six and two threes.

Gagagran
Do you ever run into legal problems?
That is what would stop me selling something as expensive as a house online I think.

You still have to go through a solicitor, Soontobe, and presumably gagagran and others who sell their property themselves would get a professional valuation first.

We live in the house that belonged to a stationmaster so as you would guess we are close to a railway station! I am jealous of Riverview
I wish we had had sufficient funds for a place in London, SE1/Waterloo would have been my ideal spot, and a place near family! Greedy me!