House envy

I think we can be perfectly content and still admire other things and think "oh that would be nice".

Maybe I'm odd but I can the hold two thoughts/feelings true at once.

...Or maybe the "envy" word had been taken quite literally by some?

The best way to be happy is to be content with what you have

When I was growing up we lived in flats. Nice, big flats with the living areas totally separate from the bedrooms.
Now I live in a bungalow that is both very private (surrounded by a hedge) I can dance naked in the rain if I feel so inclined!
The big bonus is my bedrooms are down the hall so I can leave my bed unmade without visitors seeing what a slut I am. Just like our flats.
I just love it and although some friends have bigger and better and some have smaller I don’t want to swap with any of them.
That cottage by the gates in Hyde Park though. I’d be there in a flash!

It took me a really long time to put a washbasin with hot water and a radiator in my tiny downstairs loo M0nica.

It was perfectly fine as it was - just colder and not so welcoming but SO lovely afterwards.
It had been put off for maybe 15 years because of the route the hot pipes had to travel and the mess it was going to make.

I know you will be looking forward to the changes!

NotSpaghetti

Surely we all have something we'd like to (magically and without fuss) change about our own homes - however much we love them!

At the moment this is a downstairs loo and a proper kitchen. ut we are halfway through a house renovation.

*buy not by

I think I must have a bit of house envy because I always by a handful of tickets in that Omaze draw! 🤞

We have been in our home for 38 years, it was meant to be a stop-gap whilst we looked for a barn conversion.

Still looking, albeit half hearted now as there is just the two of us. Also DD lives in the same road, one DS lives round the corner, one DS lives a 15 minute walk the other way.

In my heart I get barn conversion envy, but my head is telling me that we are ideally situated here, despite it being a large house, even if we have to stop driving in the future.

No, I'm content with our home.

Surely we all have something we'd like to (magically and without fuss) change about our own homes - however much we love them!

Chocolatelovinggran

It's possible to enjoy and admire other people's houses without envy.
I love looking at other houses in magazines. Sometimes, I borrow an idea from them.
However, if we are talking total fantasy, please may I have the Hampton house owned by Diane Keaton in the film "Something's Gotta Give"?

You may Chocolatelovinggran, if I could move into Rosehill Cottage from The Holiday
I love the thought of the big stone fire place in the kitchen and sinking into a comfy chair in that cosy little library room, bliss.

Chocolatelovinggran

It's possible to enjoy and admire other people's houses without envy.
I love looking at other houses in magazines. Sometimes, I borrow an idea from them.
However, if we are talking total fantasy, please may I have the Hampton house owned by Diane Keaton in the film "Something's Gotta Give"?

I am absolutely with you. I have always been fascinated by houses and decor, possibly because as an army brat and always on the move. 20 home addresses in my first 21 years. All, bar two, a hiring (the army word for an official rental) or an army quarter. they came decorated furnished and soft furnished. All bland and dull. How I longed for a bedroom which I could make mine

In the 1950s, the in thing was a girl getting her bedroom redecorated when she was 13. Leaving behind the bunny friezes, replacing them with pretty wallpaper and curtains and, best of all a kidney shaped dressing table. Some girls at school had this - and how I envied them.

cc

I've never really had house envy, we were very happy in our first small terrace and have been happy in the larger houses that followed.
We've downsized to a flat now and I'm equally content, we have the space and the convenience that we need and there are lovely things such as a balcony facing the river opposite Kew gardens which gives us a lot of pleasure.
Friends have asked if I miss our last "perfect" Georgian house which we spent years renovating, but I can honestly say that I don't as I know it would be a pain to maintain as we're getting older. However I do miss my beautiful garden as it was my hobby.

When DH worked in London in the early 2000s we had a flat opposite Kew Gardens for a few years. I was brought up in that area of London and love spending weekends there. I sometimes miss it.
I don’t have house envy, but since I did a post graduate Interior Design diploma, I do have an interest in houses and how they’re styled.

There are houses I admire, mainly for the architecture. Lutyens being my favourite I think. The houses and of course the Jekyll gardens are glorious.

But I am totally happy with how we live. It is warm and comfortable in winter, airy and cool in the summer, - this year with the help of a/c on a few days, as it has a north/south aspect. The garden is manageable, although as I age I am considering getting help with some of the heavier work, like the autumn cut back etc. It is also affordable.

When visiting friends tbh when I come away I’m hard pushed to remember what the house was like, unless of course it is a country estate😄, so no I am never envious of other peoples houses.

I had house envy early in our marriage because various of my schoolfriends married men from families who gave them money to buy their houses, And some eventually inherited quite grand houses.
But DH and I worked and ended up in a fairly enviable house ourselves. So there!

It's possible to enjoy and admire other people's houses without envy.
I love looking at other houses in magazines. Sometimes, I borrow an idea from them.
However, if we are talking total fantasy, please may I have the Hampton house owned by Diane Keaton in the film "Something's Gotta Give"?

Call me shallow but I had house envy for years after my divorce. I had to move with my little son from our lovely big semi-detached and move to a terraced house five minutes away but in a less expensive area. All my DS's friends lived in big houses because their parents were married couples and could afford to live in the area I had to leave behind. It was very upsetting at the time but as my DS grew up, his friends always seemed to congregate at our little house so we had some very happy memories of living there before he moved out to live with his partner and I moved in with my OH.

I am just grateful that we have a house with no mortgage and a roof over our heads - one that is not leaking.

Not envious of people living in bigger houses but rather envious of people who have their house all done up. I started doing our house bit by bit since I retired four years ago and hope to finish in three years’ time when I will be collecting my state pension.

If left on my own, I will most likely sell this place and buy a small bungalow in the same area.

I have never been envious of anything or anyone. My life is what I made it, my house is what I chose. I knew I would fill all the space and not with clutter either

4 bedrooms and I am widowed, garage, big drive, lovely convenient area very close to lanes and byways so I can go cycling in safety. Stairs, very glad to have stairs to keep my muscles working

We never had grand aspirations but were always aware of potential needs, we had to move several times for work and the first homes were a strain financially but we laid the groundwork by living within our means. I think we had 7 moves and I have moved once as a widow

Only once were we out of our financial comfort zone, our first home and we chatted, then sold it pdq to then buy a smaller modest home. Lesson was learned

We learnt from one house, never again to get leasehold. That was a lot of work, to enable all the residents to buy a share of the freehold so that we could manage ourselves. Life is full of lessons and always best to live in the present and be thankful for a comfy home, whatever that is

I get garden envy 😁 but not house envy.
I'm in the process of downsizing after 46 years.
I'm both daunted and excited. It's time.

I'll miss this place but not the worry, work and ever increasing cost of maintenance.

I will no longer need help with the garden - there's a low maintenance small garden in the new house. I won't have to rent out rooms to help pay the bills.

I would move to somewhere smaller at the drop of a hat This house was our dream 45 years ago with small children and pets and was not quite a new-build but didn't need much maintenance as such back then. Now it needs a new roof, windows, kitchen and bathrooms and we have four bedrooms spare with associated contents that we don't need any more. DH refuses to move and now he is chairbound all the maintenance is down to me - and I can't do it. It isn't even in a good condition for selling but if I had my way I would go for a 2-bed bungalow with a small outside space preferably nearer to our DD an family so I have someone to change a lightbulb when one fails.

I live with my DH in a nice four bed detached house in a lovely village so have no real reason to envy anyone else’s house. However, to be honest, I do rather envy a couple of friends who have downsized to lovely little bungalows. The problem is that they have moved many miles away to much cheaper parts of the country which I wouldn’t want to do and any similar bungalows local to us are either tiny in unsuitable locations or very large and outside of our price range. So I think we’ll have to stay put and accept that a stairlift will be needed one day. Sigh!

I live with my son in the ex council house I have lived in for 27 years. 3 bedrooms, quite a pretty garden,on a quiet estate. At times I have been jealous of my friend who has lived in a house twice the size for 50 years. It's beautifully decorated, with a large garden, a swimming pool, and a double garage. However mine is adequate for our needs, but since her husband died. my friend is literally rattling around in her big empty house. She can afford a gardener and a cleaner but the house is still empty. She has no children and what relatives there are live quite a way away. At 80 I think she would find the upheaval of moving far too much so she is stuck with it.

KathrynP

Just remember ...... smaller house less housework so time to enjoy life. My friend has a fantastic home that she and her husband have modernised inside and out and extended over the past two years but it has three bathrooms and a huge kitchen and master bedroom suite plus two other bedrooms, so much floor space to clean. She doesn't employ a cleaner so it must be hard work.

Quite the reverse I found a bigger house easier to keep clean, more space to move round, fewer thing piled on each other or too close together, less moving things around.

All our furniture is on legs so that the vacuum cleaner slips smoothly under them, no moving furniture but now the house is smaller I have to move one piece of furniture to get the cleaner under another one . Big house need be cleaned less frequently because the same amount of use is spread over a larger area. Based on a the last year;s experience.

Just remember ...... smaller house less housework so time to enjoy life. My friend has a fantastic home that she and her husband have modernised inside and out and extended over the past two years but it has three bathrooms and a huge kitchen and master bedroom suite plus two other bedrooms, so much floor space to clean. She doesn't employ a cleaner so it must be hard work.