Joy and Austin 18: 234 Days Since the Wedding and Counting

[Rosalie]

1 hour ago, allthegoodnamesrgone said:

Well many Americans require an insane amount of space, we are very much a go big or go bigger society.  I get a chuckle out of watching House Hunters International and watching Americans in Europe with their little budgets looking to get 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms when the realtor is very professional and says yeah, not gonna happen. 

Reg. hotel reviews. Americans often complaint on tiny hotel rooms in Europe, even if the hotel rooms are larger than normal in Europe. The differences in cultures are truely fascinating!

[lumpentheologie]

I have to move in a few months and my wish list includes:

1. Separate kitchen and living room.

2. Natural light - including windows in the kitchen and bathroom.  Ideally I would like to be able to see the sky from somewhere in the apartment, even if only while sitting down. Willing to walk up stairs for this. 

3. Quiet

4. A kitchen that can fit more than one person at a time

5. High ceilings

6. Less than an hour and a half commute (each way), and 12 min or less walk to the subway 

7. Wood floors

I likely will not get all these things. (Sigh)

[ladybug15]

On 1/26/2018 at 4:22 PM, sta_sha said:

@ladybug15 if you breast fed twins then I applaud you! I couldn’t and pumped for my boys for about 6 weeks. They are now exclusively formula fed. You’re awesome  

I did for 3 months, and when I went back to work, I pumped for 9 months. I was not generous producer so had to supplement. Each drop was earned.

[feministxtian]

9 hours ago, Rosalie said:

Living in Oslo, Norway, one of the most expensive cities in the world, I would have to win the big win in the lottery to be able to buy such a house.  We own a 1,5 bedroom, 1 bathroom, with a tiny kitchen and descent sized living room in the suburbs.

We should be able to find pretty much everything on our list for about 350K USD here in Las Vegas...well, if we were willing to go to the east side of the city, we'd be able to find it for less than 300K USD. Thing is, our jobs are here on the west side of the city and I detest longer commutes and/or having to use the freeway. 

[victoriasponge]

My (British) househunting list is pretty different (for if I ever have the money to buy)

• Victorian (Edwardian at the latest)
• Period features (Gimme them high ceilings, nice tiles and original fireplaces)
• Not open plan. Separate kitchen. Two reception rooms preferable. (one for living, one for dining)
• 1.5 baths.
• Garden. It just has to exist. Driveway and/or garage. Again, just has to exist. Grew up without, car got hit.
• Preferably semi-detached. If terraced a real check of how thin walls are between houses.
• More than one double bedroom. Enough room for two wardrobes (standing ones) and a chest of drawers in both. (This is why no new builds, sure they might have an en-suite, and occasionally a walk-in wardrobe but the rest of the room sizes suffer for it)

And all this will cost more money than I'll ever have... the boyfriend's parents' house fits the bill though... They even have a wine cellar and a separate shower, not one in the bath.

[AprilQuilt]

5 hours ago, allthegoodnamesrgone said:

Well many Americans require an insane amount of space, we are very much a go big or go bigger society.  I get a chuckle out of watching House Hunters International and watching Americans in Europe with their little budgets looking to get 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms when the realtor is very professional and says yeah, not gonna happen. 

heh. I was in Oregon a few months ago, and got chatting about London to a cashier in some store who'd been there. She told me she'd visited once, and stayed with some friends in their house. 'At least, they called it a house!'

She was describing a traditional London-stock terraced house that I can't afford to buy 

[Carm_88]

I like older houses, I love the Jellybean Row area of St. John's, mind you I don't want to live in downtown St. John's because parking is nonexistent but the look. So an older house would be ideal, also no open concept. If I'm fighting with someone I want to get away from them and not see their face half a house away. Shoes go off before you come inside, there's so much bog around here that I would chase someone who dared come in with their shoes on around the house with a mop. They'd get the idea pretty quickly.  

 

[SweetJuly]

48 minutes ago, victoriasponge said:

My (British) househunting list is pretty different (for if I ever have the money to buy)

• Victorian (Edwardian at the latest)
• Period features (Gimme them high ceilings, nice tiles and original fireplaces)
• Not open plan. Separate kitchen. Two reception rooms preferable. (one for living, one for dining)
• 1.5 baths.
• Garden. It just has to exist. Driveway and/or garage. Again, just has to exist. Grew up without, car got hit.
• Preferably semi-detached. If terraced a real check of how thin walls are between houses.
• More than one double bedroom. Enough room for two wardrobes (standing ones) and a chest of drawers in both. (This is why no new builds, sure they might have an en-suite, and occasionally a walk-in wardrobe but the rest of the room sizes suffer for it)

And all this will cost more money than I'll ever have... the boyfriend's parents' house fits the bill though... They even have a wine cellar and a separate shower, not one in the bath.

Your boyfriend's parents' house sounds amazing! Worth marrying into his family

My family moved around a lot when I was little, and we once lived in an old villa from the early 1900s for a few years while my father was working in Germany. I remember that it was a lovely house with a beautiful garden, and I felt like a princess living there (especially because we had a cook and nanny). I also remember, however, that the house would get very cold in winter, and many years later my parents told me that they constantly had to have renovation and repair work carried out on the place as there was always something falling apart, leaking or giving up the ghost.

Friends of mine who own a beautiful grand old house here in Belgium also seem to constantly have to put a lot of their money into keeping the house from falling apart. So while I still love the style you describe, I'd very much prefer a modern construction built in the old style if I had to choose a house for myself now - I like things to require as little maintenance as possible

[SportsgalAnnie]

What I need in a house: bath tub, washer and dryer. I’m not really concerned with size. 

Now a dream house would have an art room, indoor pool, be self cleaning, wrap around porch, slide along with stairs and bay window. 

[victoriasponge]

13 minutes ago, SweetJuly said:

Your boyfriend's parents' house sounds amazing! Worth marrying into his family

My family moved around a lot when I was little, and we once lived in an old villa from the early 1900s for a few years while my father was working in Germany. I remember that it was a lovely house with a beautiful garden, and I felt like a princess living there (especially because we had a cook and nanny). I also remember, however, that the house would get very cold in winter, and many years later my parents told me that they constantly had to have renovation and repair work carried out on the place as there was always something falling apart, leaking or giving up the ghost.

Oh yeah, their house has been a lot of work. The toilet in the main bathroom doesn't flush so you have to use the other toilets, but they're in a small extension that is beginning to fall apart... So that needs doing. Apparently they lived out of two rooms (living room and toilet) when they first moved in because everything else had to be restarted  It's paid off for them though, the house is gorgeous and large, and in a nice bit of the city with good schools nearby so it's worth a fortune. Plus it still has an Anderson shelter from WW2 in the back garden for some odd reason. Which I think is super cool.

If I could find a new build that actually had rooms as large as the period properties here, I'd probably go for it but that never seems to happen in the UK. Maybe I should move to Belgium...

[Runningfromreality]

56 minutes ago, SweetJuly said:

Your boyfriend's parents' house sounds amazing! Worth marrying into his family

My family moved around a lot when I was little, and we once lived in an old villa from the early 1900s for a few years while my father was working in Germany. I remember that it was a lovely house with a beautiful garden, and I felt like a princess living there (especially because we had a cook and nanny). I also remember, however, that the house would get very cold in winter, and many years later my parents told me that they constantly had to have renovation and repair work carried out on the place as there was always something falling apart, leaking or giving up the ghost.

Friends of mine who own a beautiful grand old house here in Belgium also seem to constantly have to put a lot of their money into keeping the house from falling apart. So while I still love the style you describe, I'd very much prefer a modern construction built in the old style if I had to choose a house for myself now - I like things to require as little maintenance as possible

When I was little we lived in a 200 year old house in Vienna. It was by far the coolest house I've ever lived in and there's no way I'll find anything close in our part of the U.S. (Colorado). We're planning on having our next house built because all of the houses built on the amount of land we want are gigantic and we just don't need or want a cavernous home. 

[victoriasponge]

So thanks to @Bushes of Love I've got on a House Hunters International binge.

All I have to say is 'so obviously we want 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms' in every episode in Europe is the most hilarious statement ever. Oh you obviously want it do you? Better pick a new continent to live on then... *estate agent proceeds to only show them 2 bed, 1 bath, because that's all that exists*. Americans proceed to cry about how expensive everything is and how small the kitchens are. And how they want period features and modern living. And how they want to live in the city centre. Often in London. (or other country's equivalent)

I proceed to whack my head into a wall and shout at them to move back to Charleston.

I don't have issues. At all.

[Gobsmacked]

Go older is my advice!  Our new house bought neatly 20 years ago leaked like a giant sieve and several large waterfalls. (That's how it felt at the time!) took nearly 7 years of remedial work to fix it.

The builders paid for everything on their insurance. Looking back we can laugh but at the time it was a stressful nightmare.

Our present house is older. Tried and tested! A new kithchen of our choice will be nice hopefully next year, but we can live happily with the old one!

 

[Bushes of Love]

1 hour ago, victoriasponge said:

My (British) househunting list is pretty different (for if I ever have the money to buy)

• Victorian (Edwardian at the latest)
• Period features (Gimme them high ceilings, nice tiles and original fireplaces)
• Not open plan. Separate kitchen. Two reception rooms preferable. (one for living, one for dining)
• 1.5 baths.
• Garden. It just has to exist. Driveway and/or garage. Again, just has to exist. Grew up without, car got hit.
• Preferably semi-detached. If terraced a real check of how thin walls are between houses.
• More than one double bedroom. Enough room for two wardrobes (standing ones) and a chest of drawers in both. (This is why no new builds, sure they might have an en-suite, and occasionally a walk-in wardrobe but the rest of the room sizes suffer for it)

And all this will cost more money than I'll ever have... the boyfriend's parents' house fits the bill though... They even have a wine cellar and a separate shower, not one in the bath.

That sounds like my dream house. I also really really really want an Aga.

I look at house listings for the town I live in all the time and really love these (but as I'm in a low paid job and live in a council flat I'm nowhere near buying a house)

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-47585307.html

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-59145766.html

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-56401795.html

[victoriasponge]

@Bushes of Love that middle one is gorgeous! (and to my southern upbringing cheap as fuck - to my realistic side, hahahahaha I'll never afford it)

I posted one dream home on here before but here's a few I'd love in my home city: (for you Americans, the cheapest is $1.02mil in today's conversion... god rest my poor non-lottery winning soul)

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-68923610.html

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-50567697.html (everyone. it's a windmill. an actual windmill.)

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-70647158.html

[Bushes of Love]

@victoriasponge Those are lovely.

I'd love to live in Brighton, but as I'm a massive fan of a band called the Levellers I'd spend 99% of the time stood outside The Metway on Canning Street stalking them!

Low housing prices are one of the benefits of living in the north. Before I moved to Barnsley I lived near Durham in the North East in a 2 bedroom victorian terrace, with a huge kitchen and separate dining room. The rent on that place was only £250 a month. I can't comprehend spending more than £350 a month on rent!

[livinginthelight]

@victoriasponge That windmill home!

[SapphireSlytherin]

1 hour ago, Bushes of Love said:

That sounds like my dream house. I also really really really want an Aga.

I look at house listings for the town I live in all the time and really love these (but as I'm in a low paid job and live in a council flat I'm nowhere near buying a house)

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-47585307.html

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-59145766.html

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-56401795.html

OK - these are amazing. And I showed DH the two terraced houses (within our price range!!!!) and he agreed that they were decent!!! And I got all excited!!!11!1!!11 Until he asked where they were, and he said NO!   He wants to live closer to London. So, closer to London + a two-man tent it is... lol

[JillyO]

My grandparents' house was built in 1754. It's a really fun and quirky house, and I have so many fond memories from my childhood. But it will cost an arm and a leg to bring it up to modern standards when my grandpa passes (hopefully, not for many, many years)!

[missaudrey]

I live in a 350 year old converted cowshed/hay loft. I've grown up here and adore this house, but my mums says she regrets buying it. She is always telling people not to buy older houses unless you: A) Have a ton of money; or  Have a family made up of builders, roofers, carpenters, plumbers and electricians. We have neither and I do see that this house has been a money pit for us, but I still won't take her advice if I ever buy a house!
I would always like to live in houses built pre-1900 if I can, I just love the history and thinking about the people who lived there hundreds of years ago. There's been a fantastic series on BBC2 the last few weeks called A House Through Time, all about the people who have lived in  a single house in Liverpool over the last 150 years, well worth a watch if you can find it. 

[allthegoodnamesrgone]

3 minutes ago, missaudrey said:

I live in a 350 year old converted cowshed/hay loft. I've grown up here and adore this house, but my mums says she regrets buying it. She is always telling people not to buy older houses unless you: A) Have a ton of money; or  Have a family made up of builders, roofers, carpenters, plumbers and electricians. We have neither and I do see that this house has been a money pit for us, but I still won't take her advice if I ever buy a house!
I would always like to live in houses built pre-1900 if I can, I just love the history and thinking about the people who lived there hundreds of years ago. There's been a fantastic series on BBC2 the last few weeks called A House Through Time, all about the people who have lived in  a single house in Liverpool over the last 150 years, well worth a watch if you can find it. 

As an American I can't imagine living in something 350 years old, I mean that in a how cool would it be to live in a building that is 350 years old.  

[Berty K]

2 hours ago, Bushes of Love said:

I look at house listings for the town I live in all the time and really love these (but as I'm in a low paid job and live in a council flat I'm nowhere near buying a house)

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-47585307.html

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-59145766.html

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-56401795.html

House Hunters FJ Edition: #2!! Pick #2!

loll!

[missaudrey]

21 minutes ago, allthegoodnamesrgone said:

As an American I can't imagine living in something 350 years old, I mean that in a how cool would it be to live in a building that is 350 years old.  

It's pretty cool! The outside walls are almost a meter thick -still don't keep in the heat though! The owner before us, who was a university lecturer, used to break into empty old houses that were for sale and rip out the fireplaces and granite window sills with the help of his students! We still have the lovely Victorian roll top bath he stole and four fireplaces. I think that's my favourite thing about this house actually - I adore having a fireplace in my room 

[WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo?]

5 hours ago, missaudrey said:

I would always like to live in houses built pre-1900 if I can, I just love the history and thinking about the people who lived there hundreds of years ago. There's been a fantastic series on BBC2 the last few weeks called A House Through Time, all about the people who have lived in  a single house in Liverpool over the last 150 years, well worth a watch if you can find it. 

 

5 hours ago, allthegoodnamesrgone said:

As an American I can't imagine living in something 350 years old, I mean that in a how cool would it be to live in a building that is 350 years old.  

In the western part of the US, there haven't been Europeans (and their descendants) here all that long. My state hasn't been a state for 130 years yet; my city is just over 150 years old. 350 years ago, the people who lived here put their energy into other things than building permanent houses. 

The oldest homes that are still around here are the big homes of the wealthy. The small homes from "way back" have mostly been torn down or fallen down. If I were suddenly a millionaire, I suppose I might consider a huge house that always needed repairs, but most likely not.

[Bushes of Love]

8 hours ago, allthegoodnamesrgone said:

As an American I can't imagine living in something 350 years old, I mean that in a how cool would it be to live in a building that is 350 years old.  

See, 350 years old isn't particularly old for British buildings. For normal everyday buildings 350 years is somewhat unusual, but when we have catherdrals that are over 900 years old (there's a small church near where I used to live in a place called Escomb that dates back to 670AD) then 350 years is nothing!

Here's a list of oldest buildings to show what I mean. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_buildings_in_the_United_Kingdom

This is the church I was on about.

Spoiler