What annoys you the most about your current house?

[Anonymous]

Lack of mudroom and need an updated larger kitchen. Bigger master bedroom. Extra bedroom for kids. Need a guest bedroom--DH's relatives are ALWAYS sleeping on a pull out in the hallway. Poop stained rug in basement needs to be cleaned or thrown out. The general CLUTTER. Other than that, I love our drafty old house.

[Anonymous]

We just moved to our dream home, but our old house drove me nuts: no mud room, laundry in the basement, the basement in general was so gross, only one bathroom upstairs, galley kitchen, no closets of any kind. it did have beautiful hardwoods, a very pretty dining room, and the woodwork was vey nice but overall it was less than ideal.

[Anonymous]

We moved a few years ago and there's no butler's pantry between the kitchen and dining room in our new house. Great mud room, though. We also paid a fair amount of money for a new house and the builder didn't put any type of wet bar in the finished basement.

Minor stuff; we're pretty happy.

[Anonymous]

Lack of a front hall! 1950s cape, walk right into the living room. Also no pantry. Old, original windows with falling-out glazing and peeling paint.

Real pet peeve: contractors who didn't know what they were doing put lovely new marble old fashioned tile into a bathroom...and didn't lift the toilet first, and also didn't seal it. I didn't know enough at the time to question it, and now I look at the horrible, ruined stuff every day.

We've already replaced the roof, a broken stack pipe, redone the floors, built two decks, repaired innumerable plumbing problems, replaced the appliances and furnace when they went...how much more can a crappy little house cost us???

[Anonymous]

Why the previous owner updated the original fuse box with a new fuse box in 1970 (and where he found it) instead of circuit breakers will remain a mystery.

No kidding - fuses were years (maybe decades?) out of date by 1970. Probably the box was cheaper, and he had previously purchased 200 or so fuses and didn't want to waste the money. But that really, really sucks.

My list - shitty, inefficient, developer grade windows. Plus, as it's an old rowhouse, it has settled, making the windows even less efficient. The settling also leads to cracks in grout.

Poorly insulated in spots.

Crappy heating unit.

The range "vent" that is incorporated with the over-the-range microwave - beyond useless. Combined with unfortunate smoke alarm placement, I can't even pan fry something without it going off. HATE. IT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We moved a few years ago and there's no butler's pantry between the kitchen and dining room in our new house. Great mud room, though. We also paid a fair amount of money for a new house and the builder didn't put any type of wet bar in the finished basement.

Minor stuff; we're pretty happy.

That IS tough. Where does the butler work his magic?

(I kid, I kid - just jealous.)

[Anonymous]

-Certain of our neighbors who don't maintain the exterior of their home or yard.

-The type of repairs (versus improvements) that we occasionally pay for on a 90-year old home.


In general we're really happy with it and have a low mortgage balance for the area we live in, so feel really lucky for that.

[Anonymous]

Need to re-do two baths upstairs. Doesn't have great curb appeal (not very attractive brick and landscaping needs work). Wish we had a larger driveway for more parking. Overall, more square footage would be nice. I dream of doing an addition one day, but we'll only get there is we are very lucky.

[Anonymous]

Neighbors who think they have great additions that are really ass ugly to anyone else, bringing down the value of the neighborhood (probably deliberately, for some stupid reason). We are thinking of leaving some eyeglasses on their front porch, but they would never get it. Too dense.

But they are great people. Nice, resourceful, classy and very considerate. They never impose on anyone else. Oh wait, no they are not. That was our last neighborhood

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Neighbors who think they have great additions that are really ass ugly to anyone else, bringing down the value of the neighborhood (probably deliberately, for some stupid reason). We are thinking of leaving some eyeglasses on their front porch, but they would never get it. Too dense.

But they are great people. Nice, resourceful, classy and very considerate. They never impose on anyone else. Oh wait, no they are not. That was our last neighborhood

Heh. One house in our neighborhood added a turret to their tiny 1940s brick home. In vinyl siding.

[Anonymous]

We only have one bathroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We only have one bathroom.

This

[Anonymous]

Heh. One house in our neighborhood added a turret to their tiny 1940s brick home. In vinyl siding.

I remember reading in the Washinton Post or Post Magazine several years ago a story about a man who built a tower on his house, because his neighbor had protested his modest home addition, where he wanted to build out for his kitchen. Anyway, he ended up not being able to get a permit for it and so he built up. I wish I could find the article. The tower was quite impressive.

[Anonymous]

No toilet on the first floor. Little to no closet space.