S/O Houses.....what do you hate in a house?

[UnderProtest]

I'm bored, so I'm looking at houses online.  WTF is up with accent walls?  It is just me that thinks they are weird (and outdated)?  So what do you hate in a house?

[fbf2006]

I've been looking at houses in Houston. Some of them have white floors in the living areas and kitchen. I guess they're tile? I really don't like the white!

[ECB]

Tile anywhere but the kitchen, bathroom or foyer.

[UnderProtest]

fbf2006, who puts white tile in a kitchen?

[bcv513]

I hate when they advertise a house as a three bedroom. Then you get there and the "third bedroom" is a twin bed stuck in the middle of the unfinished basement. I can pee in the kitchen sink. It doesn't make it a second bathroom!

[irene adler]

Lack of a foyer. Our front door opens directly into our living room and I hate it.

I loathe tile countertops.

[fbf2006]

Feb 25, 2016 13:57:32 GMT -5 UnderProtest said:

fbf2006, who puts white tile in a kitchen?

Right?!! No matter how much I love everything else, I'm like nope!

[Deleted]

I don't mind a good accent wall, but so many aren't done well.

Besides the obvious carpet in bathrooms and all that, I really hate poorly done open living spaces. A lot of the houses that have been going up in our area consist of one big room with high ceilings and a kitchen in the corner. Then they put in a plain island that basically sits three feet from the couch. It's like someone tossed a kitchen in the corner of the living room. I need some definition and space between where I cook and where we watch TV. This seems to be more prevalent in cheaper new builds.

[Pom]

I find that 'designer' colors is code for ugly and not to anyone's taste but the owner.

[ECB]

Feb 25, 2016 13:57:56 GMT -5 irene adler said:

Lack of a foyer. Our front door opens directly into our living room and I hate it.

I loathe tile countertops.

I never lived in a house with a foyer so I never thought about it.  but our house now has a big foyer and I LOVE it.  LOVE.  It's only 1 of 2 house designs in our neighborhood that has a foyer.  All the others - opens right into the living room. 

It may now be a dealbreaker.

[Nonny]

Sinks that aren't flush with the counter. They suck balls if you need to wash your face, and I'm incapable of using them just to wash my hands without splashing water everywhere. I also suspect the bowl style would be a bitch to clean around underneath them.

[drloretta]

White or very light carpet. We lived in a house like that, and it got dirt on it if you just looked at it long enough

Too much wallpaper. I'm all for an "accent wall" (sorry UnderProtest), but an entire room in wallpaper is generally a turnoff for me. It has to be very well-done and understated for me to look past it

Outdated kitchens. I can't tell you how many listings I've seen with nice rooms--and then you get to the kitchen. It will make me stop looking immediately

Pools in New England. I just don't get it when you can use them for maybe 3 months

Not necessarily a hate, but I'm pretty much over granite

As far as house listings go, it drives me NUTS when someone leaves the toilet lid up in listing photos.

[hbomdiggity]

Carpet in the bathroom.

Granite TILE countertops. Ffs if you can't afford the real thing just don't do it.

I'm also wtf with new construction that is "ac ready" as in they are too cheap to actually provide the compressor.

[ska]

Feb 25, 2016 14:06:39 GMT -5 drloretta said:

As far as house listings go, it drives me NUTS when someone leaves the toilet lid up in listing photos.

I cannot stand this! I've seen it on House Hunters too. It is absolutely one of my biggest pet peeves.

[ECB]

One thing I hate about my house- the previous owners picked this really weird off-white to paint the ceilings, doors and ALL the trim. There are rooms I want to paint but I just can't get motivated to start because it means EVERYTHING has to be painted and I dont know if I have the staying power to do trim and ceilings too.

I wish I could describe the color. It's almost a tan. Somewhere between off-white and a light tan but a yellow based tan. If that makes ANY sense.

And yes- I may hire out when I eventually get to it.

[shaynaatl]

When the only logical place to put the living room TV is above the fireplace. I hate having to crane my neck to watch TV, and it limits the size of the screen I can put up. Unfortunately, many new construction houses have this set-up.

[UnderProtest]

Oooh, I have another one. Wood on wood on wood. I love hardwood floors, wood kitchen cabinets, and wood moldings, but good God, not all together. I think one listing even had paneled ceiling and/or walls.

Oh, and drloretta, I don't give a shit, I want a house with a pool. It has to be warmer than here!!! Okay, so I REALLY want an indoor pool, but that's not going to happen. It seems like a TON of the houses I'm looking at have pools.....like more than the Southern city I used to live in.

[drloretta]

Feb 25, 2016 14:11:32 GMT -5 ECB said:

One thing I hate about my house- the previous owners picked this really weird off-white to paint the ceilings, doors and ALL the trim. There are rooms I want to paint but I just can't get motivated to start because it means EVERYTHING has to be painted and I dont know if I have the staying power to do trim and ceilings too.

I wish I could describe the color. It's almost a tan. Somewhere between off-white and a light tan but a yellow based tan. If that makes ANY sense.

And yes- I may hire out when I eventually get to it.

Oh yes, trim drives me nuts too. I have quite the distaste for the unfinished brown trim I see in a lot of places around here. And DH keeps sending me a listing for a house with trim in THREE different colors, depending on the room. It bothers me to no end

That said, we looked past a LOT of weirdness in this house. There were 3 families living in it, and I'm convinced they all picked rooms to paint and didn't consult each other. It ranged from a sedate taupe in the living room to semi-gloss lemon yellow in the hallways, and Pepto Bismol pink in one bedroom. I've spent a good chunk of the last 4 years fixing it all. And don't get me started on the wallpaper borders. We still have some in our master bath.

Which for some reason brings me to bathtub surrounds. They are the devil

[drloretta]

Feb 25, 2016 14:16:13 GMT -5 UnderProtest said:

Oh, and drloretta , I don't give a shit, I want a house with a pool. It has to be warmer than here!!! Okay, so I REALLY want an indoor pool, but that's not going to happen. It seems like a TON of the houses I'm looking at have pools.....like more than the Southern city I used to live in.

I wouldn't mind a pool for DD's sake, but I just don't get the theme I see of in-ground pools and NO GARAGES in so many New England houses. 

[UnderProtest]

Feb 25, 2016 14:19:19 GMT -5 drloretta said:

Feb 25, 2016 14:16:13 GMT -5 UnderProtest said:

Oh, and drloretta , I don't give a shit, I want a house with a pool. It has to be warmer than here!!! Okay, so I REALLY want an indoor pool, but that's not going to happen. It seems like a TON of the houses I'm looking at have pools.....like more than the Southern city I used to live in.

I wouldn't mind a pool for DD's sake, but I just don't get the theme I see of in-ground pools and NO GARAGES in so many New England houses. 

Yeah, now that is stupid.

[dr.girlfriend]

Ugh, the worst thing in my house when I bought it was the dark trim...all the baseboards and window trim was dark blue in the bedroom and dark green in the dining room. Even when I painted it over in a nice fresh white, it looked like there was mold growing on the window panes because of where they had sloppy green paint. We still haven't finished repainting the bedroom trim.

[Deleted]

Wall paper
Popcorn ceilings
wood paneling
all concrete backyards

BUT what I really can't understand is pedestal sinks in master bathrooms

[konapoppy]

Feb 25, 2016 13:57:56 GMT -5 irene adler said:

Lack of a foyer. Our front door opens directly into our living room and I hate it.

I loathe tile countertops.

Tile countertops are the worst!

ps: you need to come visit sometime- our drought tolerant landscaping is in and beautiful!

[ska]

Feb 25, 2016 14:24:33 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

Ugh, the worst thing in my house when I bought it was the dark trim...all the baseboards and window trim was dark blue in the bedroom and dark green in the dining room. Even when I painted it over in a nice fresh white, it looked like there was mold growing on the window panes because of where they had sloppy green paint. We still haven't finished repainting the bedroom trim.

If we ever move again, I plan to have all of the trim professionally sprayed when the house is empty. Then we can paint walls as we choose colors. But painting trim is a PITA.

[ECB]

Feb 25, 2016 14:30:00 GMT -5 @lemonlover said:

BUT what I really can't understand is pedestal sinks in master bathrooms

OMG yes.  For powder rooms, it's fine.  But for any bathroom where you use it on a daily basis to get ready for work, etc... I don't get it.

My parents redid their bathroom a couple years ago and put in a pedestal.  It annoys me when I occasionally spend the night.  The only small compensation is that their linen closet is RIGHT THERE and easy to get to for stuff stored there.  

[steph96]

Feb 25, 2016 13:57:56 GMT -5 irene adler said:

Lack of a foyer. Our front door opens directly into our living room and I hate it.

YES! We eliminated so many houses because of this. I love the fact that I can open my front door and whoever it is can't see straight into my home. All they can see is the foyer and the hallway wall.

I hate when people use non neutral colors on big projects (countertop, shower, exterior paint, flooring). Our house is an absolutely hideous color but I can't justify spending $2k+ just to change it when it was painted a year before we moved in.

[UnderProtest]

steph96, so you wouldn't like the lavender colored house I saw???

[UnderProtest]

Oh, and is it just me that has an irrational hatred of split level houses???

[peachdragon]

Feb 25, 2016 14:05:33 GMT -5 ECB said:

Feb 25, 2016 13:57:56 GMT -5 irene adler said:

Lack of a foyer. Our front door opens directly into our living room and I hate it.

I loathe tile countertops.

I never lived in a house with a foyer so I never thought about it.  but our house now has a big foyer and I LOVE it.  LOVE.  It's only 1 of 2 house designs in our neighborhood that has a foyer.  All the others - opens right into the living room. 

It may now be a dealbreaker.

I had a little bungalow and it had a short corridor (probably 3 feet long, with a step up into the house) when you walked from the front door into the front room.  Even that is preferable to a front door opening right into the house.

[peachdragon]

Kitchens with a peninsula instead of an island. Especially if there are cabinets above the peninsula. Who thought it would be a great idea to break the sight line from the kitchen sink into the rest of the house?