As many of us do - I still check out properties for sale - even though I bought my current one a few years back and have no intention of moving.
When I bought mine (ie a 1970s bungalow) I had darn nearly everything ripped out. It really needed work - and all that's left is I kept the windows (as they were upvc), kept the internal doors and most of the skirting boards. Everything else got ripped out from both the house itself and garden.
Mine really needed it - poorly-planned 1980s kitchen, tatty 1970s bathroom, etc. All that - despite the fact there's been two owners in between the first owner and myself and the last owner did buy it this century.
Anyways - at long last it's done now - new kitchen, new bathroom, new floor coverings throughout, garden gutted and turned into my style, new decor throughout (had to be replastered before that could be done), all exterior doors changed, etc.
I still struggle with just why, in particular, the house still had a 1970s bathroom - despite those owners no 2 and no 3 since then and it was one that didn't even work well (high bath, trickling little shower, 1970s wall fire!!).
Since then - I've seen someone I used to know sell her house here and buy a 1960s bungalow here and do absolutely nothing to it (not even changing the 1970s carpets and having it decorated) - despite the fact she would have had quite a bit of leftover money from selling her last house. Me - I was walking through her "new to her" house when she moved in enthusiastically making suggestions for what a new kitchen/new bathroom could be like (yep...the house needed that) and defo taking it for granted she'd change the old 1970s/1980s carpets throughout and decorate at least (it needed it).
I was also very surprised to see that a neighbour bought an adjacent house and she would have had quite a bit of money over from her (noticeably dearer) last house and yet all she's had done was there was a painter in for a couple of days and so I think she's probably just had one or two rooms painted. She didn't even bring her own furniture with her when she moved - and is just using the previous owners furniture.
Looking at houses for sale (specifically bungalows - as that's what I bought - and I'm seeing 1980s or maybe even 1970s kitchen after kitchen/bathroom after bathroom. 1970s/1980s carpets). Cue for me thinking "It's obviously a probate house - and nothing much looks like it's been done since the 1970s/1980s. Have they had that house for 40-50 years personally that they don't seem to have done anything much to it? But it appears they must have bought it more recently than that and that means they're living with stuff from a previous owner a couple of buyers ago by the look of it?
That puzzles me personally - ie to move into a house that's basically not been touched for 40-50 years and do nothing at all (even though some of them will certainly have the money to do so). I would understand if they didn't have the money to do the work - but it often looks as if they did.
Very puzzling to use someone else's old furniture - I'd be wondering what the heck might have happened over the decades to the sofa I wanted to sit on and could be "harbouring" all seats of spills/dog hairs/etc.
Thankfully I have got the renovation work on this house finished before feeling I'd run out of energy to chase the "manana and unreliable" workmen this area seems to specialise in.....and so I can 'put my feet up' and just keep it up from here onwards.
The thing that surprised me most with my own current house is that owners no. 2 and no. 3 had obviously both kept the tatty old Rayburn, hybrid central heating set-up and oil tank in the garden that owner no. 1 wanted. I came in and thought "I wouldnt even know how to work that stuff" and out it came and I've got a normal gas central heating system and the Rayburn got taken out.
Certainly what puzzles me most is even living with a previous owners furniture....but I see it happening...
I am currently spending on necessary maintenance, some planned, some unexpected, but that’s just part of being a homeowner. I’m a bit clueless as far as decor is concerned and ‘trends’ do not interest me.
If my educational background means I have bookcases rather than a bar in my living room, then my home reflects that. Good.
Each to their own.
This thread is all about nosiness and oneupmanship and I don’t think it’s a nice thread at all
Crissstitchfan ❤️stay strong
My 35 year old friend is in a big old battle and just been told she has new areas effected it’s heartbreaking
There’s so much more to the world than new furniture and posh decorations
BlueBelle
This thread is all about nosiness and oneupmanship and I don’t think it’s a nice thread at all
Crissstitchfan ❤️stay strong
My 35 year old friend is in a big old battle and just been told she has new areas effected it’s heartbreaking
There’s so much more to the world than new furniture and posh decorations
I too find it incomprehensible and pointless.
What business is it of anybody’s how or indeed whether people decorate their own house?
How judgemental and then insensitive to post such hurtful comments about living /end of life when given the GN demographic, there were always going to be those for whom some more years would be a privilege.
Or was it all just an excuse for OP to write at length about her own prejudices?
My lovely mother-in-law (mentioned earlier) who did lots of work just about 5 years ago and does truly love this "new to her" home said this week "what is the point of being 101?"
Two weeks before there seemed to be a lot of good things in her life.
She is not well ( and may not totally recover) so feels unlike her (formally busy) self.
How we live and any alterations we make is probably partly to do with how we feel. 
- to anyone feeling a bit low today.
Lathyrus3
Here’s my mother/mother-in-law of the grooms outfit.
Dead common, that’s us😬
Pretty. Have a lovely time!
Thank you Norah.
Done and dusted a few weeks ago.
Now I can eat cake again😬
RosieandherMaw
Or was it all just an excuse for OP to write at length about her own prejudices?
A pretty fair summing-up, I'd say.
No wonder Earth has disagreements from top to bottom of Society....as some people insult and/or otherwise don't accept a different viewpoint to their own.
But could be worse....could be Mumsnet....where today's threads included a woman that had decided to be outraged and offended by a man sunbathing in the nude in his own back garden. Duh...it's his OWN garden. The thread seemed to be split 50/50 between those who were pointing out "It's his OWN garden - up to him" and those who had decided to be shocked and offended (errr....why......given builders are so prone to having windows of other houses looking down into what should be private back gardens and so some people do decide to be "nosy and offended") - rather than pretending it's not builder bad design (as it is) - as back gardens should be private.
Apparently someone decides to be outraged by nude sunbathing every year regularly on Mumsnet (when they are the ones that decided to look down into what should be somebodys private back garden).
That thread about the nude gardener was on Gransnet
Good grief, it's getting worse.
builder bad design
We should all have 10 secluded acres surrounding our houses, of course.
You mean the backs of all houses should be windowless?
Or houses should be built with a road between each row so that the backs of houses looked out onto the fronts of others?
Or…….
Actually I’m struggling to think of a layout where you have close neighbours but can’t see their garden.
What would be a good design?
Back to back as in the olden days?
I don't think they had front gardens either.
Haha now I ve really gone down the rabbit hole …’off with their heads’
Normal people don’t go gardening in the nude, if you have a private garden there is no law that prohibits it, in the same way some like to sunbathe naked in a discrete part of their garden.
It’s not just old back to back gardens that have privacy issues, modern estates are also back to back with clear views into opposing windows and parts of gardens.
Well I’m not normal according to you David as I did when we lived it Françe miles from anyone, I was clean too as we dipped in and out of the pool.
BlueBelle
That thread about the nude gardener was on Gransnet
There is one on MN as well, strangely
@David49 as I understand it, there is no law in England to prevent you being naked anywhere, private or public. No offence is committed unless and until somebody is made offended by your nudity and makes a formal complaint.
Personally, I've no desire to test this by taking my clothes off in Tesco or the Albert Hall but each to his own - and I did briefly consider pressure washing in the buff when I did front and back yards last year. 😆
Who amongst us has never been skinny dipping?
I would think most people do this at least once in their life.
🤷♂️
Isn't there an annual naked bicycle ride in Manchester? Or is this just wishful thinking..?
Ziggy62
BlueBelle
That thread about the nude gardener was on Gransnet
There is one on MN as well, strangely
That's the one I was referring to - I said "Mumsnet" and not "Gransnet".
As for whether peoples back gardens are or arent private - it's always been my understanding that, whether our own personal back garden is private or not = that's what we want it to be and will treat it as being. That convention still applies, afaik, of "The garden is either private - or, if it isnt, then treat it as if it is and no 'peeking' ". It's been harder in recent years - what with garden grabbing, people taking their house up a storey to 3 stories high (by putting windows in their roofs - and thus transforming some houses that had a private back garden into one that has a "peeker" - if they're ill-mannered enough to look into was private/should still be private space) and modern builders building houses in a layout where by umpteen houses at once can see into a back garden if they've got a "nosy peeker" living there.
Lots of perfectly ordinary little bungalows used to have private back gardens - but no longer have and it's because one or more neighbours have put a window up in their loft and so can see in if they are "nosy peekers". I've had to do my own share of studiously ignoring a couple of "nosy peekers" looking out of a 3rd storey window that wasnt there on neighbours house when I bought mine - grr! They were kids and I just reacted with "Obviously ignore them - and they should stop doing it" and, fortunately that worked or their parents told them off for bad manners and it stopped happening.
NotSpaghetti
Who amongst us has never been skinny dipping?
I would think most people do this at least once in their life.
🤷♂️
Nope.
Ha ha M0nica - never say never!
Not yet ...
And I'm sure I never will.
NotSpaghetti
Ha ha M0nica - never say never!
Only if I can do it in a nice heated swimming pool. I learned to swim in warm tropical waters and have never adjusted to the idea of swimming in cool European seas, streams or lakes.
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