Has something you've changed in your home made a huge difference?

You should have gone on strike many years ago, but at least you have some warmth now.I can’t bear to be cold.
Hmmm, thinking about it, we added a small vestibule to our back door, the one we use most, and space for boots, umbrellas and a few plants in there, and I do think it’s also helped keep the back of the house a bit warmer.Parcels can be left there if we’re out, so a useful addition to the house and it wasn’t very expensive.

This doesn’t seem to be popular on GN, but 7 years ago we extended the back of our house and have an open plan kitchen , dining , living area . I love it. We had a narrow galley kitchen before and often feel isolated in the kitchen . My dh has got interested in cooking and we have the space to cook together . We turned our old dining room into a tv room , so we can watch different programmes .

We moved and started again, best thing we ever did.

We had the windows at the back of our house replaced two days ago.
The difference is amazing. No more draught blowing through the bathroom window. The lounge is warmer and kitchen feels so much brighter.
We have been undecided for years and now so pleased we finally took the plunge.

I didn't have enough money to finish the renovation work on my (1970s) house when I bought it. I did the basics - new bathroom, replastering throughout (previous owner had been a chainsmoker and it reeked), sorted central heating and electrics and had to replace a fence that blew down with the wall that was my choice. Cue for the money had all been used up by then - between that and subsidising my job pension till my Revised State Pension Age. So I had to wait for more before I could finish the house.

At that point - well I'd given up putting up with the kitchen any longer and just taken out a loan to get my new kitchen (cue for LOTS more storage space and much nicer-looking). I also realised my last house (a damp Victorian terrace house) had caught up with a sofa of mine - as I'd inadvertently brought that damp to Wales with me and so thought "Blow it" and bought two new sofas on interest-free credit at that time too so I could throw the damp one out.

I'm very time and motion conscious about kitchens being designed as efficiently as possible - so was good to have that extra storage space and a breakfast bar for extra work surface space.

The sorta conservatory/porch I added onto the front of my house when I had some more money has been very useful. As I'm now living in remote Wales = I need somewhere that I and guests can leave wet/muddy outside clothing and I need "greenhouse" space (because of colder/wetter garden) and again because of where I live now means I have to buy a LOT of the goods I get by post and need somewhere out of the rain/wind for those goods to be left when I'm out. That has proven VERY useful and a lot of people compliment me on having done that and it also helps with keeping the temperature of the house up (rather than wind whistling through a front door letterbox/through the keyhole/etc).

Must admit I'd have read the husband the Riot Act long before most people - though my way of doing it would have been to just go ahead and arrange the work and then tell him afterwards "By the way dear - there's a bill for that heater coming out next month. Just letting you know.....". That's how I saw my mother operating with my father - ie she decided and then persuaded him he liked the idea of whatever-it-was after the event..

Not quite a change to the home, but I found that getting a cleaner in changed my life for the better. It's now but a burden and I can focus on family and hobbies more.

When we downsized to our cottage the only compromise was that there wasn’t a downstairs WC. Under the stairs was an old larder with a window. We had all the electrical units moved and converted it to a WC during lockdown. Gave DH a project to do .

We had an awning installed right across the back of the house. It’s wonderful. Blocks glaring sun in summer and on a drizzly day I can put my clothes airer under it. We sit under it most days except for real cold.

Our house had a door from the entrance hall into the living room, and another door from the dining room into the living room. Having two doorways made the layout of the room very awkward so, after my husband died, I finally moved a bookcase in front of the doorway from the hall and the whole proportion of the room has changed. My husband would never have agreed to having everyone walking through the kitchen and dining room, but the living room works so much better now.

The other change was made by my husband. He removed the old patio doors in the dining room and replaced them with french doors. The result was wonderful. In the summer I can open the doors wide and almost the whole side of the room is opened up. I love it.

We had a utility room built years ago when we had DC at home and dogs. It houses washing machine, tumble dryer, fridge, a freezer, cleaning materials, shoes, bins, overspill from kitchen etc.

Best home decision ever!

Not in the house, but we got rid of the front and back grass. Our house is a converted school with a very small garden on the old playground which had been very poorly broken up and/or removed. The grass was very poor, mostly mud.

We now have a two level patioed garden which is much more usable.

We had a cloakroom in the hall which was next to a downstairs loo.
We had the door to the cloakroom blocked off and the room knocked through to the loo installing a shower.
When we had teens it was invaluable but now many years later it has future proofed for me when I can no longer get upstairs.
Then last spring I got rid of my dining room furniture and turned the room into a “snug” for me.
I can have a single bed easily in there so with the shower room and the kitchen next door I will be self sufficient on one floor.
It has eased my mind tremendously.
I am lucky enough to have a conservatory for which I have bought a table and four chairs to eat at.
I no longer entertain so it is fine for our needs.

Two things. We had a small wooden deck built near the back kitchen door, with a partial roof (the clear plastic sort). It allows us to catch the morning sun, and stay covered while using the BBQ. Should have done it years ago!

The other thing is small but I love it. A heated towel rack in the bathroom. The towels dry quicker, so they don't get that musty smell, and it is so lovely to dry yourself off with a nice warm towel. Heaven!

Mine is layout-specific, but we have recently had a boot room at the back of the house made more useful. It was previously a glorified porch with 'stuff' dumped in it to keep it out of the way of the rest of the house. I hated it, as the downstairs loo was off it, and the back door opened into it, so anyone coming in that way walked into a hovel, as did any visitors who wanted to avoid climbing the stairs to use the loo.

Anyway, we recently sorted it, and now have built-in cupboards for the 'stuff', an overspill fridge and (most importantly) a worktop in there with sockets above it. I have kitchen appliances (air fryers, a pressure cooker etc) left out and plugged in, so they are not cluttering the kitchen, but are accessible and don't have to be lugged out of drawers or cupboards when I want to use them. I can also open the back door when using them to get rid of any smells. It is a real game changer, and was relatively inexpensive to do, as the room already existed, so there were no building costs.

We also had a loo with a built-in sink installed in place of the old one. It is not ideal, as the sink is tiny, but nobody is going to bath a baby in it - it is just there to wash hands after using the loo - and it saves people having to use the kitchen sink, which was the previous arrangement. I recommend the combi loo/sinks where space is short and plumbing challenging.

Our house is a 1980s barn conversion from a 18th century barn. It was decorated in the 80s style with all brown wooden doors, windows and skirting boards.
I've decorated many times over the years but never until now changed the woodwork.
It's now all white and looks fabulous.

We also had a freezing cold kitchen with no room for a radiator. We now have underfloor heating. It was not a major job. The floor was screed then an electric heating mesh laid and the room retiled. The joy of coming down in the morning to make tea is lovely and the floor cosy and warm. We only have it on twice a day, in the morning from 7-10 and the evening whilst I am cooking and clearing up. We were so pleased that we now have it in the bathroom. We live in a 120 year old house.

Oh, Gin and Alice, I am with you. I added a tiny radiator to my current kitchen straightaway.
However, I am so heartened to hear of the success of the tiny- downstairs - loo group. I am planning this, and am awaiting the availability of the plumber. It's a little like those phone calls " Your loo is important to us: you are 475th in the queue"..

The best thing we ever did was to build a conservatory, we sit in the sun surrounded by plants when it is a chilly day and thrive in light levels that you can’t get in the house.

In fact most of our time is spent here.

18 solar panels and a battery. Never worry about heating bills!

Our 70s semi had a back door in the kitchen and french doors in the dining room. The two rooms had been knocked into one before we moved in.
We got the back door removed and a large window put in. I now had room for a dishwasher and large recycling bin.
It's a small house so there was only about 5ft of wall between the 2 doors.

Another thing that has proven useful in mine is that I had to have an old oil tank removed from my back garden when I bought current house. The space released by that is now a reasonable size patio - where I've got a garden table and chairs and can sit in privacy in my back garden (ie if I want a little sit-out and don't want my awful neighbours being able to see I'm at home).

The security cameras I had installed are very useful too. I had lots of incidents of trespassing neighbours until I put them up and the message took a while to sink in - and I duly grinned with amusement the first time two of them tried to trespass in after I'd done that and they spotted my cameras up and changed their minds about doing that. So probably those cameras and the barrier I put up to show the divide and where my front garden starts has been about the most useful purchases I made. I would like back the £3,000 those things cost me - as I obviously begrudge every penny they cost me (as they shouldnt have been necessary). But there's no gainsaying they're very useful at protecting my home. It's also handy to be able to spot when a deliverer is about to leave a package for me or I've got a visitor I'm expecting about to turn up.

Not sure this counts, but I've just had a new toilet and it gave me the chance to give it a good clean back there. Now that the new toilet is installed it has left me with a problem though. The new cistern is totally a different shape from the old one, so I have to find a way to make that wall look decent. So, paint, tiles, whatever? Help!
This is so interesting, isn't it... not

We had an air source heat pump installed in our conservatory. Wattmeter in the winter now and cool in the summer. We use it much more often .

I put two tables in the dining room.

Now I eat at a beautiful little table, with a little flower arrangement and a candle and a nice glass beside my plate.

And all the other paper work, newspaper, jigsaw, seed packets and general debris that used to accumulate all around my food is confined to the other table and I have my back to it while I eat my peaceful meal.