Why buy a house with huge windows - and then swathe them in blinds?

Galaxy, is that true about the potatoes?

Bluebelle

It's like an oven throughout my flat in the summer.
Absolutely unbearable with the sun coming in every huge window all day.

I've been looking at blinds and curtains to try and sort it out before this summer.

Yes it's true Jane. It was surreal. When the first one hit the window my immediate conclusion was that a bird had been carrying it as a snack and had dropped it

it does sound surreal!

Light fades fabrics and wood.
Perhaps people are trying to protect these in their homes, and open curtains/blinds/shutters when they are actually in those rooms, so as to enjoy the view, but keep them closed when they are not in that room?

The windows may give great views but they may also allow a lot of sunshine that can fade and damage furnishings very quickly. Sunshine can also overheat a room.

We have huge windows and plantation shutters. We have the shutters open so we can see out and it lets lights the light in but people can’t stare through the windows. I love my home but I don’t want everyone to see in and see the things I have. Before the shutters we had had comments about the size of the TV and nice sofa (windows are floor to ceiling). I wasn’t worried about the comments until a neighbour mentioned it was a shop window to a burglar.

Well, each to his own really. We are all different. I've got large patio doors with vertical blinds, plus curtains which I close in the evening. All my windows have blinds or curtains. I just don't like people looking in. And it helps to keep the heat in.

I have a huge picture window in my living room in my bungalow. I have to have blinds because of people passing and looking in. An odd time I give them a little wave when they are really having a really good nosey. My patio doors at the back let the sun in so I needed blinds to stop my sofa fading, but I really missed looking out at the garden so I ended up last summer putting a canopy outside over the doors that I can let out when it's really sunny, plus it's great for the dog who loves lying on the steps at the doors.

If we did not have shutters or house is then like a goldfish bowl. Before we had them I had to keep the curtains partially drawn. Our house is 1930s in a narrow road so without the shutters the people across the road can see straight in our front rooms. Added to that the passers by. All very well in the summer when all the shrubs in the front garden block the few (at least from the road but not upstairs to the neighbours). Net curtains are awful and added to that my cats would just destroy them. I say yes to shutters and more and more people are installing them down our road.

Standing at the bus stop each day I have a fine view into bedroom windows of the adjacent new block of townhouses and can see who's made the bed or not! I feel like posting some adverts for blinds or nets through their doors

why? because they choose to!

Kim19

Just thinking, if I have enough people looking in at my 'valuables' there might be some donations left at the door!

We've always been so behind the times with electrical goods like phones and PCs and TVs (nothing is ever replaced until it has to be) that we used to joke that if we ever got burgled the burglar would probably take pity on us and leave us a little something ?

No nets, no blinds at our front bay windows. We have a lovely view over the valley. Some of our neighbours wave if they see us, but never stare in the windows. The postman always waves to me. I love being connected with the outside world.

The more you can afford the more likely you are to be burgled! If you've got lots of gear worth nicking you're not going to leave it on show when you're out!! Shame really that some people can't keep their filthy hands off others'stuff isn't it?

Presumably, either they bought the house because they liked its layout or the district, but did not care for the huge windows.

Or it may have been the only house they could afford.

I would hate to live in a house with huge windows and the first thing I would do if I had to live in such a house would be to install blinds or curtains.

One of my nosey neighbours keeps asking me when we are going to do something about the garden. Meaning that she feels we neglect it.

I told her politely at first that we had bought the house because we liked it, not because it has the garden that it has and that neither of us enjoy gardening.

Now I have stopped being polite and just ask her to mind her own business - with or without a well known adjective in front depending on how much she has riled me.

I'm amazed at the number of people who relate incidents of passers-by peering in through their windows.

I have an office and sitting room facing directly on to the pavement - there's no frontage - and the number of individuals who put their noses to the glass, shading their eyes the better to see - just astounds me!

There's nothing special about my house apart from the fact it's a Grade II listed building built from Cotswold Stone - but all the houses in my street look like mine to some degree and they all look like Listed buildings. These are not tourists who are frequent visitors in Summer, but locals.

I once visited a nearby village renown for its outstanding charm. Many of the houses are ancient - some Jacobean - with steeply pitched gables, mullioned windows, etc, and sometimes the artefacts on display in the windows are fascinating - it would only be a step to peer in and look inside but I could never bring myself to do that because it feels deeply intrusive. Who are these ill-mannered individuals who can't curb their idle curiosity? Flippin' 'eck, I don't even stare at people passing outside for more than a couple of seconds because it seems rude and makes me feel uncomfortable... and they don't even know I can see them!

... no wonder people put blinds / curtains up at their windows...

MawtheMerrier

BlueBelle

As we become a more insular and isolated species the nets become blinds, the blinds become steel shutters that we sit behind on our phones trying to communicate with the world from inside our bolted doors making sure no one ‘pops in’ or sings or whistles

You know what?
You've got a point!
Too much Groansnet these days

Rage against it at every opportunity, that’s what I say ?

One dark night I was sitting at the computer and had that feeling that someone was watching me - I looked out of the window to see a fox in the front garden, lit by a streetlight. He stared at me and I stared at him then he loped off.

I've just walked past Gordon Ramsay's (probably) empty house. Huge windows, no curtains, but the glass looked like it had a coloured film so people couldn't see in. The view from the windows is stunning, so why cover them up?

When I moved into my old house I didn't close the curtains as there was just a field of horses who could see in. Then my neighbour mentioned that there was a peeping tom in the area so I always closed the curtains at night after that.

it shouldn't be empty, it is his prime residence apparently during lockdown

Yes, our Venetian blinds are tilted and appear closed from the outside but the angle means that we can see out perfectly - but those dropping off and picking up from the nursery opposite don't stand and stare in our windows. We didn't need anything before the nursery was given planning consent in this residential area (25 children in one through-room????!!!) but sadly our privacy is now lost. I don't like net curtains and the angled blinds also make the lovely sunlight visible but not too bright!

JaneJudge

it shouldn't be empty, it is his prime residence apparently --during lockdown--

I'm guessing the little boy is at school in London, Gordon probably filming in America?! Maybe the young adults are hidden away inside having a rave or two?

Josieann

JaneJudge

it shouldn't be empty, it is his prime residence apparently --during lockdown--

I'm guessing the little boy is at school in London, Gordon probably filming in America?! Maybe the young adults are hidden away inside having a rave or two?

that really made me cackle