I hate my house!! What do you hate about your house?

[dsmith]

I'm tired of plumbing issues!! I can't afford the $10,000 - $15,000 it will take to fix the issue once and for all. Also our first floor bathroom needs renovating, our second floor bathroom doesn't even have a shower and mil doesn't want it changed. Plus it has one of those double faucets for hot and cold water, so no chance of warm water and the hot takes forever. The first floor needs all new flooring, that cabinets in the kitchen are terrible and the drawers make horrible noises when you pull them out, the stair chair that my in-laws need to get up and down the stairs isn't working after 4 tries from the company, and the list just goes on and on. The basement rec room is my sanctuary, and the waste line keeps backing up. At least it's easier to clean up after removing the carpet and switching to tile... I spend way too much time on Zillow looking at my dream house the next town over with it's beautiful open floor plan, great room, shiny new kitchen, pool, fenced in yard, more bedrooms than we need, beautiful finished basement with an office and an exercise room... I have a bad case of house envy!!

 

 

What do you hate about your house? 

[2_girls_mommy]

I live in a tiny 80 yr old house with a lot of issues too. Originally we bought, did a lot of repairs, and planned to sell immediately to move to a slightly bigger house with a better layout for a family, but then the recession hit and it took us years to get through that and we were glad for the tiny house payment. But honestly, with homeschooling and three kids now, we can't afford all that ours needs done to keep it updated either.

[Wheres Toto]

If you get me in the right mood - Everything.   But in a different mood, I realize how lucky we are to have a roof over our heads in a safe, quiet neighborhood with a decent amount of property where we can have a garden, a dog, kids can play outside, etc.  That we can afford fairly easily even if there was a drastic cut in income, which makes it possible for me to be home with the kids.

 

What's wrong with it?  It's too small (750 square feet), not enough bedrooms (only two although we built walls in the corner of our living room to give us some privacy), no storage at all, it's old (build in the 1940's as as summer bungalow) and drafty, the windows aren't thermal, the walls have poor insulating, no dining room or anyplace to put an adequate size table to eat at.

 

What I would change (short of knocking the whole thing down and rebuilding):  a deeper tub in the (only) bathroom, add a 1/2 bath, add a garage/utility room so we can actually access the well pump, fuse box, etc without having to move the stacking washer and dryer out of the way and I can have more than 18 inches to empty and load them and so the furnace can get out of the corner of my kitchen where it keeps us from being able to put in more counterspace (we have 2 feet of counter total), rip up disgusting carpeting and stain the concrete slab (or pergo, I would like pergo), new insulation in the walls (the kids bedrooms have been done when we had to replace the walls after hurricane damage), new thermal windows, new siding (it's stained, ugly and warped in places), a 3-season room that would serve as a dining room and school room most of the year.  I'm sure there's a few other things but those are the highlights.

 

ETA:  Oh yeah, I forgot the roof leaks.  It's covered with a tarp but there are water marks on the ceilings.

Edited October 4, 2017 by Where's Toto?

[kewb]

I hate that my house likes to take on water. We replaced the leaky roof when we moved in. No matter how much maintenance I do with the gutters we inevitably end up with ice damming in the winter. My bedroom has never been finished because I wait years to repair the water damage. We finally hit the 10 year mark and we redid the walls and ceiling. I had just picked out a paint color when, bam, leak. So now I look at my ruined new sheetrock and think about how I don't have to money to repair again.

Edited October 4, 2017 by kewb

[Guest]

I live in small, old, outdated, underfunded government housing right now. Where do I begin? Lol

[Paige]

I hate my kitchen. The cabinets are so high that half of them are virtually unusable for me. The upper ones have 4 shelves a piece and I can only reach the first shelf without a stool or climbing onto the counters. We have a stupid tiny island with a cook top that barely fits and no counter space on the sides for a spoon rest, and it disrupts the flow so there's no work triangle. I have to take so many steps to get around the island to do anything and the dishwasher barely has enough room to open because of it. Taking it out would be an expensive PITA, however, because it's gas and we'd need someone who knew what they were doing and then I'd have to run gas somewhere else. 

Edited October 4, 2017 by Paige

[mama25angels]

I don't care for my house either! I didn't want to buy it but my dh insisted because it was a good deal and now I'm stuck for the next 30 years. A friend of his was renting this house so I'd been in it a lot and knew already that I didn't like it, I didn't like the color, the neighborhood, etc. I had something else in mind for my forever home.

[SKL]

I don't hate my house, but I'm annoyed with some of the work we recently had done on it.

 

Just today I noticed an actual hole in the kitchen floor.  The flooring that was just installed like 2 years ago.  I'm guessing the table leg poked a hole through the floor.  I thought floors were supposed to be strong enough to support tables.

 

I dislike the mysterious mildew smell of unknown origin in my kids' bathroom.  This has been there for months and even our cleaning people could not find the source.

 

I'm not thrilled with repeated leaks from the upstairs bathrooms.  :/  Supposedly they get fixed, then I notice another water stain.  :/

[Elizabeth86]

I know I replied to this?? Maybe I posted it the wrong post? :lol:

[SKL]

I know I replied to this?? Maybe I posted it the wrong post? :lol:

 

Check the tipping post.  :)

 

[Elizabeth86]

Check the tipping post. :)

 

I just found it :lol:

 

Almost 6 people in a 1000 sq ft house

 

Yard too small

Not a private location

No playroom

No dishwasher

No separate laundry room (in a closet)

I would LOVE a paved driveway for bike riding and such.

[gardenmom5]

I had no say in my house - dh was building it when we started dating/got engaged.  I refuse to go to what I hate about it.

it's an effort to focus on what I like.

[creekland]

A second bathroom would be nice, preferably located downstairs so we don't always have to run upstairs to go - or have our guests do the same.

 

New flooring is desperately needed throughout.

 

But we live with it all because we're too addicted to travel and changing either of those would mean fewer trips (plural).

 

We also live with old appliances, an old window AC unit for the whole house (obviously only "handles" one room), and everything is horribly outdated, but those don't bug me at all.  Things still work.  That's all we need.  We don't have to be on House Hunters.

 

And the view + location are gorgeous, so there are trade offs.  Without those we wouldn't have bought this place.

[mmasc]

I don't hate my house, but I'm annoyed with some of the work we recently had done on it.

 

Just today I noticed an actual hole in the kitchen floor. The flooring that was just installed like 2 years ago. I'm guessing the table leg poked a hole through the floor. I thought floors were supposed to be strong enough to support tables.

 

I dislike the mysterious mildew smell of unknown origin in my kids' bathroom. This has been there for months and even our cleaning people could not find the source.

 

I'm not thrilled with repeated leaks from the upstairs bathrooms. :/ Supposedly they get fixed, then I notice another water stain. :/

I'm sure you've checked this, but one time we had the most awful, sour-y, mildew-y smell in the kids bathroom. I finally did a full-on sniff test and discovered it was the shower curtain, specifically the lower 1/3 of it. Just a thought!

[6packofun]

I hate that the water softener NEVER works no matter how many time it's been "checked" and "fixed" and our well water is gross.  I'm tired of buying our drinking water.  Also, the water pressure is not great.

 

The other thing I hate about our house is that it is so poorly insulated.  SO inefficient.

 

But we rent so there's only so much we can do.  OK, maybe I hate the fact that we're in our 40's and STILL renting more than anything else.  LOL

[JustEm]

The mortgage payments. Dh bought right before the recession so he paid top dollar and then we couldn't take advantage of refinancing. The interior ugliness just makes the large payment worse. We are currently getting it ready to sell or refinance. We'll see

[cjzimmer1]

Overall I really like our house but it's got a couple of sore spots.  The kitchen is way too small and the layout is terrible.  Our house was built for us and it was just DH, I and I newborn moving from an apartment.  The kitchen is double the space of the one from the apartment but in reality it's still very tiny, especially now that there is 8 of us and I do almost all the cooking from scratch.  Also the refrigerator is positioned across from the end of the counter.  So if someone is standing at the counter, you can't open the fridge and if the fridge is open you can pass through the area (and the the main food prep is on one side and the garbage is on the other side, it's very frustrating.  Basically only one person can work in the kitchen.  If anyone tries to help, they just end up being in the way due to lack of space.

 

2nd problem is that all the windows are casements windows  Which drive me nuts because anytime you try to open them, the handle falls off the window and you have to remove the screen and reattach the handle to close them.  They have also all molded due to excess moisture problem from so man bodies living in a very tightly sealed space.  We've got someone working on a bid to replace them but I'm afraid we will not be able to afford to replace them all.

[Guest]

That it isn't my house, it's somebody else's investment.

[alisoncooks]

OMG, yes, I have house envy, too. I spend too much time on realtor.com drooling over how the "other half" lives.

 

What I hate:

Our front porch has rotten wood, paint peeling, wobbly

We have a leak somewhere under the house -- kitchen floor is water-damaged and in danger of breaking through

Master bath has the same issue -- soft spot, floor needs replacing

Everything in the house was built on the cheap and now it's all failing at the same time

Back deck is literally falling apart

The carpet looks gross and is bunching up/wrinkling in places

 

Basically, everything needs renovating and updating.

[Ravin]

It's four hours from my office.

[lllll]

nm

Edited October 11, 2017 by lllllll

[Guinevere]

I don't like that mine didn't come with a maid. Or a cook.

 

I had a dream last night about extra rooms that I didn't know we had, so I guess I'd like a little more space. I've gotten rid of a lot, though, and spent the last year organizing. I need to buy some more bins and boxes to finish, but we are fitting quite nicely now.

[kiwik]

I need a new stove. Otherwise I am just really grateful to have it. Yes there are annoying things but I can live with them.

[duckabell]

The worst thing about the house is the anxiety it's brought me. We became homeowners for the first time a year ago, and up until then we rented. I don't know if the anxiety that I've had this past year is just due to being a homeowner or because of this specific house.

 

We bought this house because it was well within our price range, had a lot of outdoors space, and was in our ideal location. When we got it inspected there was some issues that we had to clear up such as a leaking roof/chimney, a little bit of mold in the garage/laundry room, and some other issues. The seller did give us some concession for repairs, but the risk was all on us. Luckily we had a month to do some of the more major repairs before moving in.

 

In the first year we've:

• Replaced the roof and chimney
• Replaced a shower
• Redid both bathroom floors
• Replaced a fair amount of the indoor plumbing (but not the plumbing in the crawl space)
• Remedied the mold
• Replaced the gutters
• Replaced sliding patio door
• Painted some rooms
• Got water softener and replumbed main shutoff valve
• Electrical work

 

Still to do:

• Add insulation to the attic
• Replace flooring in half of house
• Replace most if not all windows
• Redo some of the kitchen including counters, flooring and oven
• Paint more rooms
• Repave very long and large driveway 
• Decorate rooms once floors are done
• Redo the shed
• Remove some branches from larger trees

For our area we have a lower mortgage, and so thankfully we're trying to cashflow the updates to the house. The good news is that because of this location we see our house retaining its value.

 

Thankfully as we tackle some of the bigger issues such as the plumbing, roof, etc., I'm a bit less nervous and it doesn't feel so overwhelming. I do still get nervous about pipes breaking, mold, etc. I'm also anxious about flooding since we don't have the best drainage and sit lower than other homes, plus there's two trees right where we would put French drains.

 

Our house only has 3 bedrooms, but it has two living areas which makes it easier to feel like it has more space. Ideally I would like another room or office, but right now it's working.

 

When I was struggling more with being satisfied with my house there was this phrase I saw on a blog and liked, "This house may not be our dream house, but it's the house where we're living our dreams." I also read the book "Love The Home You Have" which helped me realize I wasn't alone, and to be thankful and do the little things I could to appreciate this house.

[I talk to the trees]

The neighbors! Funny how that can make the difference between loving a house and clawing at the walls to get out....*sigh*

[Garga]

I can post on both this thread and on the 's/o--what do you love about your house' thread.

 

Two things:

 

1.  The living room is very small.  Well, the entire house is small, but the living room is particularly small. When we sit together in there watching tv (which we love doing), we're all squashed on the couch. I've managed to fit a smallish couch and one chair in there, but it's a tight fit.  There is absolutely NO space for a coffee table or end tables.  When people first walk into the house, the front door opens immediately into that small living room and it only takes about 4 adults for the space to feel crowded. People always look very awkward when they come into my house because they're all bunched up there in the living room.

 

2.  The kitchen is isolated. I can't knock down walls, because the wall separating the kitchen from the rest of the house has the stairwells in it to the 2nd floor and to the basement.  It's a small kitchen anyway, just like the living room, and having 3 adults in there is Too Many.  We all bumble into each other.  There is precious little counter space and as another poster said, the cabinets are too high for me.  I have 7 doors of cabinets, but can reach a total of only 4 shelves without a difficult stretch or a chair. I use the hutch and an old dresser in my dining room to store a good bit of kitchen items because they don't fit in the kitchen.  And it's not like I have a lot of kitchen items.  I just have a tiny kitchen without much storage space.

 

The house was built in 1949 so it's almost 70, and for the most part everything is working and not falling apart.  It seems pretty sturdy.  We've had to do normal things like replace the roof, but nothing unexpected on a house.  There is a list of things that have to be done, but none are crucial.  The windows are a bit leaky and we could use more insulation in the attic, but it's not critical stuff like mold or floors falling apart.

Edited October 4, 2017 by Garga

[OrganicJen]

What bugs me about my house is that the previous owners remodeled things before we bought and we have discovered everything was a weird custom size in the kitchen so it's hard to just replace things as needed.  I wish they just sold it for a lower price without any remodeling so we could have done what we wanted.  Every time we need to replace something we can't find anything to fit in it's place, even the refrigerator was a weird size and no new ones would fit in the opening they left without having to have alterations made to the cabinets above the fridge. 

[freeindeed]

I hate the location. I really dislike the city in which we live.

[SamanthaCarter]

Two things:

 

1. The living room is the size of a bedroom, and you step into the house directly from the front steps into the living room, no entry. Just not enough common space. Never build a house without some sort of defined entry space, it's awful.

 

2. The layers and layers of paint. 70+ years of owners switching paint colors and doing poor paint job. Part of me wants to replace all the trim and doors and start over.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited October 4, 2017 by SamanthaCarter

[SamanthaCarter]

I can post on both this thread and on the 's/o--what do you love about your house' thread.

 

Two things:

 

1. The living room is very small. Well, the entire house is small, but the living room is particularly small. When we sit together in there watching tv (which we love doing), we're all squashed on the couch. I've managed to fit a smallish couch and one chair in there, but it's a tight fit. There is absolutely NO space for a coffee table or end tables. When people first walk into the house, the front door opens immediately into that small living room and it only takes about 4 adults for the space to feel crowded. People always look very awkward when they come into my house because they're all bunched up there in the living room.

 

2. The kitchen is isolated. I can't knock down walls, because the wall separating the kitchen from the rest of the house has the stairwells in it to the 2nd floor and to the basement. It's a small kitchen anyway, just like the living room, and having 3 adults in there is Too Many. We all bumble into each other. There is precious little counter space and as another poster said, the cabinets are too high for me. I have 7 doors of cabinets, but can reach a total of only 4 shelves without a difficult stretch or a chair. I use the hutch and an old dresser in my dining room to store a good bit of kitchen items because they don't fit in the kitchen. And it's not like I have a lot of kitchen items. I just have a tiny kitchen without much storage space.

 

The house was built in 1949 so it's almost 70, and for the most part everything is working and not falling apart. It seems pretty sturdy. We've had to do normal things like replace the roof, but nothing unexpected on a house. There is a list of things that has to be done, but none are crucial. The windows are a bit leaky and we could use more insulation in the attic, but it's not critical stuff like mold or floors falling apart.

Oh my! Do we own the same house?!? My kitchen is tiny and can't be opened up because of the stairwell to second floor and basement. Also a 40s house. Cape cod?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Garga]

Oh my! Do we own the same house?!? My kitchen is tiny and can't be opened up because of the stairwell to second floor and basement. Also a 40s house. Cape cod?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 

Yes!  Cape cod!  

[OrganicJen]

It sits right across the street from our landlord's house. And they're retired. And home. all. the. time. With, apparently, not much to do ... :glare:

LOL. We had a rental house next door to us and I always tried very hard to give our tenants as much privacy as possible because I thought it must feel weird for them having us right next door. I think we must have done okay because they always said what perfect landlords we were but it's definitely an awkward situation.

[DawnM]

Location, more rural than I like, and in the wrong part of the country

Layout is a bit funky

Kitchen 

Some things are dated 

 

[Arcadia]

My entire neighborhood has plumbing issues with their toilets and kitchen disposals so it’s not my house that is the issue. I would appreciate “full flush†toilets though instead of those save water kind that we have to flush twice most of the time.

 

There is nothing I hate about my house. All my issues are wants more than needs.

 

I would appreciate another toilet but the need for two toilets is less than once per year in which case someone can just walk to the pool or clubhouse and use the toilet there.

 

A den with an attached toilet would be nice but not a need. That could be a guest room when we have guests instead of making guests sleep in the living room.

 

A “walled in†patio would be nice. The HOA doesn’t permit patio awnings or blinds for our complex. My friend’s older condo complex allows that so her patio is shady and protected from rain.

 

My husband tends to overbuy stuff and bring used electronic stuff home. So I’m actually happy our house is much smaller than my in-laws or it would look like hoarders den.

[dsmith]

I'm glad I'm not alone in hating my house, but not glad for everyone that hates their house along with me, lol. Sometimes I really miss our rental. It was in a nice apartment complex in a great town, we had two floors for a total of 1800 sq ft, close to everything, and if something broke it was fixed usually the same day. Our dishwasher broke and within an hour the super was bringing in a new one, when the fridge broke in the evening I had a new one the next morning. 

 

Thankfully the plumber came earlier than we thought and only charged us $150. He was amazed at the matted roots that were lining the waste line, and is hopeful that we should be ok for a few months and possibly over the winter. We'll probably have him check it in November when he is scheduled to do some maintenance on our heating system. He thinks it's going to be a nightmare to dig up the line. Can't wait. :scared: The company to fix the stair chair got here at dinner time with a full crew to take another crack at the darn chair. Hopefully the repair lasts longer than one trip up the stairs. My dog is seriously tired of being put downstairs or upstairs, depending on which part of the house is being worked on.

[Ausmumof3]

I don't actually hate my house but it definitely has some issues. It was an owner builder job but the owner was pretty incompetent. So things like window sills fall off the walls, the tiles are breaking up because of a lack of floor levelling and glue. Most of it has never been properly painted and we are slowly getting through it but by the time we do it will be time to do it again. One section of the house has no roof cavity so it heats up in the summer time. It has a weird skinny 2nd bathroom that was meant to be a passageway I think. The first bathroom bench top is the wrong size for the cupboard so people are always bumping their head on the overhang. Nothing wrong with them but their are massive full mirror door wardrobes in the bedrooms that are an absolute night mare to clean.

 

The worst about all of it is I'm not much of a DIY person so it's very slow to get fixed or sorted. Painting or building shelves or any of that just seems too hard.

[peachskittles]

It's a roof over our heads.  We had plans to fix it up, but every layer is another problem.  Number one issue is lead pipes which affected the water which has lead to lead poisoning for the entire family.  The doctor presumed the littlest one was eating paint chips, but nope, it's the water.  The plumbing in general is horrible in this place.  It leaks into the kitchen, in the basement, in the living room...Lots of fun when you come home to water in the kitchen.  The upstairs bathroom has a roof leak and the landlord has no intention of fixing it.  We told his property manager, who told us in turn to fix it if it bothered us.  Electrical is thrown together.  We have leaky pipes mingling with electrical currents.  Asbestos in the basement is another issue.  Also the basement destroyed everything we stored down there.  So much for the "dry basement" idea.

 

We obviously HAVE to move, due to lead poisoning.  It's not the city water, it's the house pipes.  The landlord already has another tenant lined up when we move out. The lady I talked to at the state department told me that he can't rent it again.  Uh huh and how do you plan to stop him?  But how do you move 9 people and two dogs 5 hours away with absolutely no money?  Our poverty is starting to show, and no one is offering to help out except the most random people, like our doctor and her church.  All the state will do is tell us where the lead is at (we know the answer to this one) or send us a list of rentals.

 

*sigh*  I like the yard.  And our tree is very nice shade in the summer.  But the house needs to burn to the ground.

 

 

[Rachel]

We have the worlds tiniest shower stall. I want to shampoo my hair without bumping the wall.

[EMS83]

Space/storage issues.  Always.  And I can't seem to find a good affordable solution.  I was planning on building a bunch of 6' shelves, but I'm tired and I don't want to keep disrupting our routine with projects like this.  An extra room or two would be nice, but I'd really just love to start with highly efficient use of space.  I can't seem to make that happen, though.  It's really frustrating.

[Sandwalker]

It's a roof over our heads. We had plans to fix it up, but every layer is another problem. Number one issue is lead pipes which affected the water which has lead to lead poisoning for the entire family. The doctor presumed the littlest one was eating paint chips, but nope, it's the water. The plumbing in general is horrible in this place. It leaks into the kitchen, in the basement, in the living room...Lots of fun when you come home to water in the kitchen. The upstairs bathroom has a roof leak and the landlord has no intention of fixing it. We told his property manager, who told us in turn to fix it if it bothered us. Electrical is thrown together. We have leaky pipes mingling with electrical currents. Asbestos in the basement is another issue. Also the basement destroyed everything we stored down there. So much for the "dry basement" idea.

 

We obviously HAVE to move, due to lead poisoning. It's not the city water, it's the house pipes. The landlord already has another tenant lined up when we move out. The lady I talked to at the state department told me that he can't rent it again. Uh huh and how do you plan to stop him? But how do you move 9 people and two dogs 5 hours away with absolutely no money? Our poverty is starting to show, and no one is offering to help out except the most random people, like our doctor and her church. All the state will do is tell us where the lead is at (we know the answer to this one) or send us a list of rentals.

 

*sigh* I like the yard. And our tree is very nice shade in the summer. But the house needs to burn to the ground.

I'm so sorry this happened to your family! Have you heard of vitamin C helping to reduce lead levels in some people? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0YeQ1HfGBJc It's cheap and good for you anyway, so maybe couldn't hurt?

[Granny_Weatherwax]

I've debated whether or not to post on this thread because I am trying to not hate my house. The things I would like to change are: kitchen - it's awful. The refrigerator blocks the doorway to the basement and the driveway; the gas stove is beneath the window; the 1960s cabinets are unfinished plywood on the interior with sanded and polyurethaned plywood for the doors. The shelves are spaced so strangely that I can't put a box of cereal inside; the base cabinets have no back on them and there is a big hole in the wall behind one cabinet (the cat got stuck in it once). We only have one bathroom. The third bedroom doesn't have a closet and only one outlet. The tile in the bathroom is from 1960 and the grout separates with fluctuations in temperature. The basement flooded the summer after we bought the house and we've never been able to afford to refinish it. DH ripped out the 1970s paneling to expose the original brick which is coated in flaking paint and removed the carpet to expose the cracked cement floor. The basement needs to be sandblasted and tuckpointed before any renovations can be made. We have a one car detached garage that neither of our cars will fit into. The garage door opener quit working about 5 years ago and someone shot a bb through the door.

 

If we had to do it all over, we wouldn't buy this house.

 

[happypamama]

I hate that it needs work, mostly. It needs a new kitchen, a better entry area, a new family room, a new bathroom/laundry room, plus a porch/deck. Redoing those things will really help me have a better functioning space, better flow, better ability to clean, better storage, etc.

[mamaraby]

There’s only one bathroom, the entrances just dump you into living areas without any place to put things like shoes, the only good place to keep the vacuum is in my closet, there’s probably asbestos in my attic, and there’s no pantry.

 

Oh, and it needs to be painted, the front window has lost it seal, and the back patio door needs to be replaced.

[Element]

Oh, man. I'm super thankful for *any* house, after being a renter for 15 years, but there are definitely things I do not care for! The kitchen is so 1980s and really tiny (under 100 sq ft.) and includes a back door through which there is always traffic. The garage is rotting apart. The basement is set up super weird, so no one really uses it. The bedrooms are tiny (we had to take the closet doors off because they took up too much room. Yeah. Tiny.) We could set up a basement bedroom, but one would have to walk through a weird utility room to access the bedroom, plus the downstairs bathroom is so small you can touch all 4 walls while sitting on the toilet. The yard...  :glare: The yard is a hot mess and I don't currently have a deck, only a deck frame. All the doors are hollow, so you can hear whispers from one room to another, with doors closed. I could write pages about what's wrong with the house. But! It's affordable. It feels really good to be a "homeowner," and not have to haul laundry through snow or rain to a local laundromat. (Still have a mortgage, hence the quotes.) 

[Ausmumof3]

It's a roof over our heads. We had plans to fix it up, but every layer is another problem. Number one issue is lead pipes which affected the water which has lead to lead poisoning for the entire family. The doctor presumed the littlest one was eating paint chips, but nope, it's the water. The plumbing in general is horrible in this place. It leaks into the kitchen, in the basement, in the living room...Lots of fun when you come home to water in the kitchen. The upstairs bathroom has a roof leak and the landlord has no intention of fixing it. We told his property manager, who told us in turn to fix it if it bothered us. Electrical is thrown together. We have leaky pipes mingling with electrical currents. Asbestos in the basement is another issue. Also the basement destroyed everything we stored down there. So much for the "dry basement" idea.

 

We obviously HAVE to move, due to lead poisoning. It's not the city water, it's the house pipes. The landlord already has another tenant lined up when we move out. The lady I talked to at the state department told me that he can't rent it again. Uh huh and how do you plan to stop him? But how do you move 9 people and two dogs 5 hours away with absolutely no money? Our poverty is starting to show, and no one is offering to help out except the most random people, like our doctor and her church. All the state will do is tell us where the lead is at (we know the answer to this one) or send us a list of rentals.

 

*sigh* I like the yard. And our tree is very nice shade in the summer. But the house needs to burn to the ground.

Wow that's insane.

 

Your landlord should have to fit a filter or provide bottled water till you can get out.

 

I'm so sorry this happened.

[Guest]

.... I suddenly don’t want to complain about either my previous house or rental, after reading some of these.

 

Thank you Hive, for reminding me how blessed we are, that our housing problems are truly first world problems and contentment issues, more than any sort of big life and safety disruption. I still wish I had more storage, things were built better or thought out, and that we weren’t renting. And I miss my old shoebox house in Alaska where things worked and were well done even though it was beat up, old, and a tight squeeze.

 

And I want to build my new house and not have it take forever to even get land. But that’s SUCH a tiny violin....

[peachskittles]

Wow that's insane.

 

Your landlord should have to fit a filter or provide bottled water till you can get out.

 

I'm so sorry this happened.

 

We have lived here 3 years with no lease.  He is desperate to find a tenant that wants to buy this place.  We start demanding things, we will get kicked out.  It doesn't matter if it is not legal, it will be done.  So we are drinking our bottled water, finding ways to make money and will be out asap.  Thankfully my sister will be moving out in a week or so, so it's one less thing to worry about.

[Guest]

We love our house, but we are not to happy with the new neighbors. Opiod issues, illegally renting rooms out, partying at wee hours, vehicles on lawn...they have dropped the resale value like a rock. We will have to rent ours out till they move on. Our old neighbors were great.

 

Water is an isdue here too. All the illegal renting has run the wells dry. Neither town or landlord has to filter beyond what the law is. We get sediment in the lines now.

Edited October 5, 2017 by Heigh Ho

[alisoncooks]

I despise having a toilet that requires plunging multiple times a day. Blech. I hate plunging toilets. When we remodel this bathroom, I'm getting one of those high-capacity flushers.

Edited October 5, 2017 by alisoncooks

[AMJ]

My house?  I hate the things that are not fixable without a major remodel (if even then).  Because of the high water table and rainy environment here ours is built on a slab, which means that all ground-floor plumbing is encased in cement.  There's no moving that without tearing apart large bits of the house.

 

The landing at the top of the stairs lines up perfectly with the door to one of the kids' bedrooms.  That landing is less than 36 inches wide.  My kids are both teens, and I STILL insist on closing the baby gate at the top of the stairs each night to prevent sleepy wanderers from falling down the stairs.

 

The front entry of the house is too shallow because the side of the base of the stairs (there's a right-angle bend just a few steps from the end) creates an obstruction less than 36 inches away from the closed front door.  To let anyone in one has to open the door and walk backwards while pulling it open, or there's no room for the visitor to enter.  It's rather off-putting, keeping the door between oneself and one's visitor like that.

 

The ONLY window on the quieter side of our house (faces a neighbor's) is the giant window over the master bathtub.  I had to put obscuring film over it to keep neighbors from watching everything going on in the bathroom, and to keep us from seeing everything going on in one of their bedrooms.  All the other parts of the wall that could have provided nice light are solid wall.  And that bathroom window doesn't open, either, even though it would make a good fire escape route if we were trapped in there.  We'll have to use the toilet lid to smash it, if we ever come to that.  

 

I used to hate the color of the paint inside, until we repainted.  I hunted and chipped and tested, and decided that the color that worked best really was the original color.  Instead of the very flat finish, however, we got a satin finish, and that changed the character of the paint entirely.  I love this color now.

 

There are many other things, mostly boiling down to the builder not knowing what they were doing and cutting corners, and us not knowing certain elements are problems until we had to live with them.  Quite a lot of them we have already found ways to fix or modify.  We live in a good, quiet neighborhood in a good, quiet town.  We are close enough to DH's parents to see them every week, and often more often than that.  DH has a 10-minute drive to work, without ever going near the highway.  We will stay in this house until he retires.

 

Once he retires I would like to move to a more temperate climate, at least a few hours away, but unless his folks also move I'm not sure that will happen.  Barring that I at least would like to get someplace where I can see the sun rise and set and watch the weather come in, hopefully with the opportunity to build our own house or with a house with good bones, one we can modify to our needs.  Our current house is NOT a good house for aging in place.  I'd like to retire in one that is.