ADVERTISEMENT

In the old days, people loved to say: “My home is my fortress!” And they were not wrong. Since ancient times, home has been kind of a sacred place where we feel protected and confident. A place of power, if you will.
However, any place of power also has its drawbacks. And we, as rational beings, must admit this. Any home, even the most beloved and cozy one, is not without shortcomings. We’re ready to put up with some of them, while other ones we try to correct to the best of our ability. And it’s precisely these shortcomings of their homes that people are talking about in this viral thread in the AskReddit community.

More info: Reddit

#1

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful Flat roof. We had our house inspected twice before we moved in and the roof passed because it was new. What no one told us is that a flat roof in the winter (we bought in August) is a nightmare in Michigan. After 8 years of living with it, we finally had the roofline rebuilt to a normal slope and never looked back. Twenty years later and never had a leak in that room again. Lesson - never ever buy a house with any type of flat roof.

mothernatureisfickle , Roger W Report

Add photo comments
POST
P Peitsch
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yaps, flat roofs are specific mainly to mediterranean countries for a very good reason.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#2

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful Open concept! I thought I would love it, but now I would kill for a separate kitchen area. It makes our house feel like an apartment.

readysetn0pe , Dept of Energy Solar Decathlon Report

Add photo comments
POST
Houndy
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I don't understand why someone would want to see (and smell) their kitchen from the lounge.

Load More Replies...
tameson
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I love open concept. I do most of the cooking (by choice) and when we had a separated kitchen I just felt so isolated. And when people did come into the kitchen to talk to me they often got in the way. Now I can be part of the conversation, listen to the music or the TV, all while cooking.

keyboardtek
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Some people like being able to socialize with one's guest while preparing dinner. My wife hates all the kitchen noise and living area TV noise interfering with each others activities.

P Peitsch
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I love it! It's called here 'american kitchen', when the living room and the kitchen is opened together. The best is, when it has a balcony too, when living in an apartment. But I'm living alone, so I can see, why someone with a family, won't be a fan of it.

The Starsong Princess
Community Member
4 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Love open concept and would never go back. It’s great being in the middle of things instead of in the kitchen while family life happens elsewhere or everyone underfoot. It might be ok if I had a huge kitchen with a sitting area.

deletemyaccount
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I love my open concept house. Its hot where I live cooking in a closed kitchen during the summer is like crawling in an oven. I also like to put on a movie or TV show while I cook and clean.

Shaggy
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Raised a kid in one, 1200 sq ft grate room w open kitchen off to the side. Never agin... The comments below, where there is no where to go, are 100% correct. I am currently holed up in my office (I WFH) as my MIL moved in and there is no where to go out of her site lines. I constantly take calls in the garage and am seriously considering building an office shed just to get the heck out. We have 4 tv's as no one wants to bother anyone with the big TV in the middle of everything, so everyone holes up in their room. Cooking, you can't have any tunes on if anyone is watching TV (too loud) so ya gotta go headphones. Even if you want to watch, YOU ARE COOKING!!! I can go on and on.... No Bueno.

PattyK
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Consider shoji screens or portable kitchen island to break up the space.

🤩🤯🤔🤣 🤣🤯
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You see that house without a open concept it would look so small and feel small

Vermonta
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Plus they'll find out that the "love" you added to the recipe was actually just dropping it on the floor and rinsing it off.

Bryn
Community Member
4 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think it depends on the size. My house is 1,090 square feet. The kitchen, dining room, & living room are all in one room & it works for me.

laura lee
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I love it personally I don't like walls anyway "let me live in the wide open spaces that I love, don't fence me in!" Lol

Load More Replies...
DeeDee M
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

open concept=no privacy. The fancy rich people of yesteryear would shudder in horror at the kitchen being the center of the home nowadays. Thats where you hid the help you pretended not to have.

StrangeOne
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I know how they feel. Sometimes you just want space and privacy, but not be holed up in the bedroom or leave the house.

laura lee
Community Member
4 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Love open concept, would love just a big open space like an abandoned warehouse or cathedral ❤️ wth a loft a plus

TheBlueBitterfly
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"But it's so much better for entertaining!" I don't WANT to entertain. I don't want extra people in my house. I want privacy. Also, open concepts are a pain to heat/cool.

AutumnGirl
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The open concept is called "cocina americana" ("American-style kitchen") here in Chile.

Joey Jo Jo Shabadoo
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I know people dont think itll happen to them, but open concept is also more dangerous. Fires spread quicker, and are harder to control. And because theres less support, the load bearing walls have to be sturdier, with steel. I hate to break this to you, but they might not have used steel in your open concept condo.

Pyla
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I saw one on House Hunters (is that show still on?) about 20 years ago. A woman was buying a fairly cozy condo, but the kitchen was right in the living room. It looked terrible and you really didn't want to cook because any mess or odor would fill the tiny living room.

Zobi123
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I just want the kitchen to be separate. I hate how people talk to me when I'm in there! I just want to focus on whatever I have to do there, then get out.

Daria
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Most (if not all) apartments here have an enclosed kitchen, and so many (me included) long for a spacious, open-concept living room + kitchen area. Must be the greener grass effect.

Beak Hookage
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I went to a school which was open plan. Sneaking out of class was stupidly easy.

Sharkfin6
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Any one of these "concepts" seem to be just a bs way of disguising laziness by the designer lol

Sue From Michigan
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It was always a dumb fad. I don't know anyone who likes their open concept now. There's no way I could keep my kitchen clean enough for company every time.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#3

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful I really wish all my lower kitchen cabinets were pull out drawers! I hate having to get down on the floor to rummage around to find that pan at the back of the cabinet.

jennya59 , Bill Wilson Report

Add photo comments
POST
Aussiegirl
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Put everything in big plastic tubs so you pull out the whole tub & put it on the bench. It’s much easier

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT

Some of the shortcomings of the houses discussed in these stories, collected by Bored Panda, are discovered only after the purchase of the house - and then, after the transaction has already taken place, the new owners have no choice but to accept it or begin repairs. Even if the real estate agent said that there are simply no flaws in this house. After all, it's their job - to say this, isn't it?

#4

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful I knew what I was getting into.

But at times, a second bathroom would be really nice.

TedIsAwesom , Christa Grover Report

Add photo comments
POST
Angela C
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Recently moved from a place with one bathroom to one with 1 and a half and having a second toilet is great. Especially this past weekend when we had people staying with us

View more commentsArrow down menu
#5

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful A flock of turkeys will encircle my car when I pull in the driveway on a semi regular basis. They are decently aggressive, and the only thing that I found to work is to repeatedly open an umbrella in their faces, and continue to scare them until they jump off the cliff next to my driveway.

This sounds made up, but is my life.

BoulderFalcon , Aaron Fulkerson Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#6

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful I second not having a pantry. I had no idea how much that would bother me until living with my food in the kitchen cabinets for 8 years.

586WingsFan , Lucia Sanchez Report

A separate category should include various manifestations of the unbridled architectural imagination of the builders or previous owners of the house. Especially when your idea of ​​home comfort is in clear contradiction with the gloomy genius of the architect.

This is how doors appear that prevent each other from opening, extra steps that have no practical meaning (but are a source of constant falls in the dark), or kitchen hoods that exhaust air back into the kitchen. Don't believe me? I didn’t believe it either until I read a couple of similar stories right in this collection!

#7

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful Hood over the stove that doesn't vent outside, in an otherwise good, functional kitchen. WHY DO PEOPLE TAKE THIS SHORTCUT (especially since in this house, you can see where the old one did vent out)???

fsu2k , HomeSpot HQ Report

Add photo comments
POST
Otto Katz
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Brand new house we built. I lived 400 miles away, so couldn't be on-site to babysit the contractors. During Covid. You would think the hvac guys wouldn't put the lines right through where the vent would go through to the outside. You would be wrong. My poor general contractor had to go through some tricky manuvering to get it through. Screenshot...2d-png.jpg Screenshot-2024-07-16-at-25155PM-6696c249c5d2d-png.jpg

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
#8

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful Black. Shower. Tile. and I'm the a*****e who picked it out.

Disastrous-Soil1618 , vedanti Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#9

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful A pool. We thought, "awesome, a pool!" Always thought we'd like one but didn't understand what goes into it and in all the excitement of house buying didn't really look into it until we got here. The costs outweigh the benefits for us. So now we have to either pay all the maintenance costs of running it to use it only a few times per week for a few months out of the year (in Ohio), or pay a bunch up front to demolish it. Every time I look outside it stresses me out, just a giant behemoth of a problem to solve.

Belle_triller , William Warby Report

Add photo comments
POST
H.M. V.
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Turn it into a pond, that's what my grandparents did (plants in weighed down plastic pots, solar powered mini fountain for oxygen, self sustaining population of goldfish and lots of tadpoles etc to eat mosquito larvae). Still some maintenance, but a lot less and also nice to look at.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu

And, of course, the neighbors. There are many tales about this - and countless more stories will be told. In a perfect world, neighbors are those with whom you BBQ together on the weekends and go to watch football with on Sundays. But this world, alas, is far from perfect... There are also a couple of stories dedicated to the neighbors in our selection, so go through the list, you won’t regret it!

ADVERTISEMENT
#10

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful The fact that the sun which should hit our house and garden is blocked out entirely from October to end of March by the building behind us. By 1 meter - my upstairs neighbor is in full sun. Now I know why previous owners put this place up in early spring 🤦‍♀️.

ActivatePlanZ , Madalena Pestana Report

Add photo comments
POST
Bec
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I on the other hand, dread the day when the gigantic tree behind our house (on our neighbors property) may need to come down. It somewhat shades the setting sun from hitting our house.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#11

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful Our living room is one step down from the kitchen. Why? Because f**k you, that's why. Can't tell you how many times my kids have tripped up/down that one step.

My house-to-garage door comes in at an angle and with only enough room to open the door. Go left to the kitchen and living room, right to the front door and upstairs, or straight into the bathroom. It's become a huge bottleneck with everybody always running into each other at that intersection. Also makes it hard to bring in furniture.

jeffreywilfong , John Coley Report

Add photo comments
POST
Bec
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My Aunt and Uncle had a sunken living room in the 1980s. Multiple older relatives got hurt at their house and their kids probably took a few tumbles too. I visited again in the 2000s and they had remodeled to make the whole house 1 level. They'd also redone their super steep driveway

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
#12

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful We bought this home sight unseen from 2,000 miles away- the first time we saw it was when we pulled into the driveway. My family had toured it for me and helped but a lot of things were a surprise.
Given that, I am remarkably in love with it after living here for 17 years and feel like we did an excellent job choosing it.

BUT there is a side door from the side porch that enters the kitchen and the door/stairway to the basement is right there in such a way that you have to close the exterior door to go down the stairs. You can't walk in the back door and go straight down the stairs to the basement, you have to come in and close the door behind you first even if the door to the stairway is kept open.

It's a small thing that only comes up when we have to move something from outside down the stairs like a mattress. Fortunately it's easy enough to take things around outside and in the basement door.

This home also has what's known as a tuck-under garage.
It is not visible from the front of the house- you have to drive around back and enter it next to the walk-out basement door. The way the patio roof support posts are arranged means there is zero way to ever get a car into it. Which is fine, we likely wouldn't anyway as we use it more for lawn equipment storage.

No one noticed that there was no dishwasher- I don't use one anyway, I just find it funny that no one ever noticed.

And when we moved in we thought the fenced yard was the entire property, but when we had it surveyed later on for fence moving possibilities we discovered that we also owned a huge portion of the woods behind us. We have acreage! It's still untouched but it's wonderful that there can always be woods behind me with no possibility ever of anyone building anything.

It's been interesting.

gooberfaced , Warren LeMay Report

ADVERTISEMENT

And still, no matter what the shortcomings in our homes are, this will not stop us from loving them, will it? Because these are homes where we grew up, or which we bought ourselves - and this gives them some certain sentimental value in our eyes. And, in the end, why not tell us some amusing story about your house? By the way, you, too, may well perceive this as a call to action, so please feel free to share your own tales in the comments here!

#13

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful No door to the backyard. There is one to the driveway, but its not the same

I too do not have a pantry. Very irritating. No real closets at all actually.

Since my house is over 100 years old, the attic that is now my bedroom gets hot in the summer and cold in the winter.

No second bathroom and no place to put one!

lepetitcoeur , GT#2...Off permanently Report

#14

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful Our last house... (and many reasons why we moved) had Cathedral Ceilings... love the look, always felt cold! And an open floor plan, there was no way to contain the toys bc everything was open and just out! I realize I like rooms.

but_does_she_reddit , Bill Wilson Report

Add photo comments
POST
Crescent 3
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Cathedral ceilings are the worst! Heating and cooling the house is a nightmare. The people who built this house had a ceiling fan and light installed in the ceiling - 25 FEET UP! The light doesn't drop down, so to change a light bulb, dust it, or to change the speed or direction of the fan requires a huge ladder!

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
#15

No window in bathrooms.

tansugaqueen Report

Add photo comments
POST
PattyK
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A huge disadvantage, not having windows in the bathrooms. Those ceiling fans are noisy and do almost nothing to remove odors and humidity.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#16

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful We have a Jack and Jill bathroom that connects the kids rooms and I absolutely hate it. They are younger(4 and 8) so they sneak through it at night and don’t sleep and worse part is we don’t even notice until we hear giggling at midnight🤦‍♀️. Plus if one goes to the bathroom it wakes the other one up because they don’t like to close the doors and the light wakes them. This is way worse when one is sick and in and out of the bathroom. Usually I make them to the spare room when this happens because it’s easier to have only one up not two kids.

Also I hate our open floor plan. We have two story with a finished basement. When the kids go to bed we can’t even hang in the main level because the stairs are open and you can hear everything(I mean it looks nice but god damn there is no privacy). Also bad when the kids wake early since then everyone’s up since it echos so bad . Only place we can go where they can’t hear us is the basement Luckly we added a door to that area otherwise we have the same issue.

Poctah , Max Vakhtbovycn Report

Add photo comments
POST
George Costanza
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I F-ing hate bathrooms that open onto multiple rooms. My SILs house has one and it's such a nightmare to use when we stay there because her parents inevitably stay in the other attached bedroom. Figuring out when the bathroom is in use and when it's okay to go in is obnoxious, and then when they use it at night they inevitably wake us up banging around and flushing. Absolutely hate it.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
#17

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful Having a crawlspace with a dirt floor. My next house will have a basement (I already bought it) and I am so glad I will no longer have the dark mystery under the house. Every major issue I’ve had with this house has been crawlspace related and because it’s dark, scary, and difficult to access, the issues go on longer than they would if they were somewhere you could notice them.

anon , Brent Report

Add photo comments
POST
detective miller's hat
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Years ago a friend's family moved into an old house with a crawlspace. About a year later, she and her older brother went down there to check on a leaking pipe or something (don't remember the details). The brother stumbled across a human skeleton. There was a lot of screaming and the police were called ....and it turned out the skeleton was fake. Probably someone's discarded Halloween decor, but my friend liked to think that a previous owner left it there on purpose just to potentially cause some mayhem.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#18

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful We bought a 1952 built house in West Virginia in 2020. The door from the house to the garage was a normal looking door, but 2/3 sized. It made exiting from the house to the garage (where clothes washer and dryer were installed) a challenge with a laundry basket in your hands. Why 2/3 sized? Never could figure out why. When we remodeled the kitchen in 2021, we had the contractor replace it with a regular, human sized door.

Edited to add: also, the clothes dryer had no vent to the outside. Vented into a 5 gallon bucket with 4" of water in it. The garage is made of concrete block clad with vinyl siding. Took me most of a day to drill a 4 1/8" hole through the concrete block and install a vent to the outside. How had no one thought of doing that in the prior 70 years of the house's existence?

marc_t_norman , Quinn Comendant Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#19

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful Our house is nearly perfect, but for a couple of things:

The outside HVAC units (two of them, the 4 ton main one and a smaller unit for the upstairs room over the garage) are both just outside the master bedroom windows. Noise, noise, noise. Who thought that was a good idea?

The other thing is the house is on a hill, so the front yard is very sloped and harder to mow, and has drainage issues due to underground water. This also makes our driveway steep and curved. I didn't realize how much of a pain all of this would be. Box trucks can't get into the driveway for deliveries or repairs, smaller trucks come in the driveway and then can't back out properly without trashing the turf on either side of the driveway. I feel like I spend my life fixing the lawn.

ItsRaevenne , William Murphy Report

#20

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful Not my current home, but I moved in somewhere that only had one drawer in the kitchen. I didn't realise when viewing, because who counts drawers? Anyway it was super inconvenient, and since then when looking at our current home we checked the number of drawers!

Current home: smoke detector is a foot away from the oven.

Flaming_bort , Scandi Homes Report

Add photo comments
POST
Angela C
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My old apartment had that same smoke detector issue. Plus no vent hood. I set off the smoke detector almost every time I cooked there. Thankfully the upstairs neighbor (it was a double and we lived in the lower) was almost never home and moved out 7 months before we did (we never got new neighbors upstairs either)

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
#21

My first house had plaster walls. Like the old school plaster on wood lath. Even the ceilings. Sure it looks good...but it freaking SUCKS if you need to cut a hole or even just hang a friggin' picture. When our bathroom fan died, I bought a replacement that was 1/8" wider than the original. When I tried cutting the opening larger for the new fan, huge chunks of plaster broke off and the hole ended up being all jagged and ugly. When we had the bathroom redone, we told them to take out ALL of the plaster and replace with drywall. I will never buy another house with plaster walls.

j_grouchy Report

Add photo comments
POST
Bec
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's infuriating to watch videos that say, it's super easy to hang this, just find the stud and do x, y. z. What if you have plaster? It's not so easy

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#23

Had a place with a sunroom. Such a nice feature.

Except that it was horribly cold 3/4 of the year and stifling hot the other 1/4.

It attracted carpenter ants that nested in the beams, so part of the summer would be spent killing hundreds of large flying ants (the males) while the females made sawdust out of the main supports.

The upper glass windows became permanently dirty from the sunlight, snow load, and crud from the trees and it was a pain to get up there to caulk them, leading to infiltration that I couldn’t prevent, manage, or afford to fix because of having little kids.

Tearing it down cost a ton but it was such a relief.

Sojournancy Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#24

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful My house doesn't have many windows that face the front. We have a bay window in the master bedroom, and small windows on our front door. But other than that we have little visibility to our front yard. It's actually not possible to see my whole driveway from inside. We have tons that face the back so natural light is no problem. But it's simply annoying that I can't tell when someone pulls into my driveway.

mikethomas4th , Warren LeMay Report

#25

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful Parents’ old house: wooden stairs. They had slightly rounded edges and no nonslip stuff. Apparently my brain turns various kinds of stairs into slides because I slipped down those stairs at least 20+ times while living there. It’s something about the wood grain, I think: the pattern + the lack of texture = woop!

(And later as an adult about 8 times over the course of 3 years in an apartment with carpeted stairs but those were horribly worn and loose in spots.).

CatCatCatCubed , van Ort Report

ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#26

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful We remodeled our kitchen years ago and installed a fancy Delta touch faucet. Great idea, we thought! Ability to turn faucet on with your chin or with the back of your raw chicken-handling hand seemed like it would be a luxury.

It's not. It works about 95% of the time, which sounds like a lot but means every 10 times you use the sink (to turn either on or off) it doesn't work and you have to touch it again. Not quite as bad as the hands free faucets in public bathrooms, but not that much better.

But the worst part about it is that it looks like a normal faucet... so it confuses the hell out of guests who try to use it. Touch the handle and push it forward to turn on the water... and the faucet turns on and immediately turns off. So they try again, and again, and wonder what the f**k is wrong with our faucet.

EatMoarToads , Steve Johnson Report

#27

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful Not in, but outside. We have 1/2 acre in a city - no fence. The neighbor’s dogs run like wildebeests around the neighborhood and poop everywhere. My other neighbor said he’s been taking the poop and putting it back on their front porch 💩 and it still doesn’t deter them. Fences for our yard have been quoted from 15-30k.

MeltedPeach , popofatticus Report

Add photo comments
POST
Dream
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Answer: Cattle Fencing. It's cheap and can do it yourself for 1/20th of that quote. Everyone out here where I live has it with the cheap green metal posts from feed stores. Can order online. Couple rolls, the posts and a post digger and you're golden.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#28

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful Windows that extend nearly to the floor. Can't put any furniture against that wall without blocking the windows and making them hard to open and close.

PagelTheReal18 , Skylar Kang Report

Add photo comments
POST
Otto Katz
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Keep them 2 feet away from the wall. It makes the room look larger, too.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#29

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful A corner lot.

It's a pain in the a*s with the shoveling and mowing with no benefit to me (garden in front yard isn't doable).

_6siXty6_ , aslam karachiwala Report

Add photo comments
POST
Bec
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Advantage is having fewer adjacent neighbors, but that benefit may be negated if either of the streets is busy

View more commentsArrow down menu
#30

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful Galley kitchen. Tiny, dark, and closed off. Cannot be enlarged or opened up without doing a home addition or relocating the kitchen into another part of the house ($$$$$). I knew that I didn’t like it but I didn’t anticipate just how much I would grow to hate it. 

Frankly I thought this would be our starter home and we would only be here a few years. Ha! At least we are in a pretty great neighborhood. .

night-born , Michael Coghlan Report

Add photo comments
POST
Hphizzle
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My friend's parents managed to do an expansion for their galley kitchen. It was a major overhaul. It’s like a completely different house. It looks amazing, though.

View more commentsArrow down menu
Continue reading with Bored Panda Premium
Unlimited content
Ad-free browsing
Dark mode
ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#31

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful Our home is a walkout from the basement, so built into a hill. It's nice to be able to walk out to a patio but a pain in the a*s to mow. I didn't think it would be a big deal but on hot summer days it really sucks.

Also, we back up to a wildlife area. Very pretty and we feel fortunate to have the view. However, that means lots of field mice to fend off.

Other than that the inside of our homeis great. This is our first new/modern home so not much to nitpick there.

ILikeTewdles , Roger W Report

Add photo comments
POST
P Peitsch
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Wow, wildlife comes with different kind of animals! What a surprise .....

View more commentsArrow down menu
#32

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful Ok this is a first world problem. I’m 5’11” and my husband is 6’4”. The kitchen sink is huge and sunken in already low countertops. (Standard height for older hothouse). If we want to wash stuff in the sink we have to bend way over. It’s really annoying.

Chinacat_Sunflower72 , Jupshaw Upshaw Report

Add photo comments
POST
Bec
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Our bathroom sink was almost comically low, it was nice to get it replaced with a standard height. I know a couple who are above average height who added extra height when installing their bathroom sinks.

View more commentsArrow down menu
#33

Sloping driveway with a garage.

The garage and basement are on the same level. With a sloping driveway, you have to shovel the snow UP (instead of the side). So if it get slippery, it's a struggle to push it up.

Also you have to be diligent because your car can't come out if it's snowed in. So you have to plan ahead and make sure it's cleared out, with no ice, so you can drive out when required.

SagHor1 Report

Add photo comments
POST
Upstaged75
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Our house is like this too. We hire a service in the winter that automatically comes to clear any snow with a truck when it happens. Totally life changing after spending decades of back-breaking snow shoveling!

View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#34

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful This one is silly, but we have a massive Palladian window in our foyer. I loved the look when we first toured it. It lets in a ton of light, but puts our upstairs on display at night if we use the hall light. Not a fan of people being able to see so clearly into our house.

Opening_Stranger_925 , Joffre Essley Report

#35

My fridge is right up against an exterior wall of my house. Think of my kitchen as having a dead end. I have a french door fridge that has a left side freezer and right side fridge. The right side door is not able to open all the way because the handle hits the side of the wall preventing the drawers from fully opening. Annoying as hell.

MISRYluvsCOMPNY Report

Add photo comments
POST
Bec
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My Aunt had to return a fridge because once they got it installed, it couldn't open (can't remember if it was a counter or door issue).

View more commentsArrow down menu
#36

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful 1. We have two bathrooms. The upstairs bathroom has a tub, but no shower. I did not realize how much I'd hate showering downstairs.
2. Our backyard only has one major tree. In the summer, the yard is shaded before noon and an arid hellscape after the kids get bored enough to consider playing outside.

valadil , Rene Terp Report

ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#37

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful The pantry is the one for me. When the house was built they opted to add a third toilet/sink combo right beside the kitchen instead of having a pantry. To combat this they added new cabinetry which is great except for its L shaped and the L stops literally in line with the garage door, meaning you can not bring anything large in and out through the garage door, which was wonderful on move in with the furniture. So now I have no pantry and guests get to do their business inches away from the counter I’m cooking our meal on.

tiny_tiina , Beck Gusler Report

#38

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful >we have to essentially turn the downstairs into a meat locker to be able to get the upstairs bedrooms comfortable. See if you have baffles coming out of the furnace, or get some installed.

anon , Open Grid Scheduler / Grid Engine Report

Add photo comments
POST
Sunny Day
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Put an outward facing fan in the upstairs window. It will pull out the hot air and the cooler air will replace it.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#39

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful Yardwork.

contractcooker , Tim Dorr Report

Add photo comments
POST
Verena
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Half of the Netherlands transforms their green yards into concrete or tiled yards. And then complain about the heat and the water that floods everything after some rain, because the drains and sewage were designed for open surface yards.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#40

Two bedrooms have light switches on the wall on the side where the door hinges are. Just inconveniently placed, but we can’t switch the doors because of room configuration so we’d have to pay probably hundreds of dollars to have the light switches moved just to satisfy that bit of inconvenience.

Rainbow-Mama Report

Add photo comments
POST
Gourdeous
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ulti do affordable switches where you replace the main light switch and then have a separate remote button in a convenient location, gets around this exact issue

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#41

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful I have a sky light in my guest bathroom. I love the sunlight, but I hate it when it rains. It is so loud that I have to close the door.

RudeAide6768 , Tom Page Report

Add photo comments
POST
Ruben Schelstraete
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I love it when it rains on my skylight, people buy an app for that kind of white noise.

View more commentsArrow down menu
#42

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful I have a very long driveway. It's 1000 feet from my garage to the street. Trash day is awful cause not only is it a decent walk, but it's uphill too. I stubbornly try to get the trash and recycling up in one trip. But usually both are very heavy. Often I'll end up leaving the heavier one about half way up, then come back for it after I get the lighter one to the curb.

gr8Brandino , Rebecca Siegel Report

ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#43

We purchased a home on a beautiful 1.25 acre lot. It looks like our own private park. In practice though, in two years we have spent $8,500 cutting down or trimming trees. Though we got a lot done, there is likely to be no end to the amount of money and attention this will take.

ButterscotchSad4514 Report

#44

Folks Open Up About 30 Things In Their Homes Which Sounded Great But Ended Up Being 100% Awful Master bedroom is upstairs instead of downstairs and separate. Drives me absolutely nuts. Granted, it’s nice while the kids are little and wake up in the middle of the night (3 y.o & 6 m.o) but in terms of privacy for.. activities.. is not ideal, and I think about when we’re older going up those stairs.

Also, having the downstairs bathroom very close to the dining room. Also not ideal especially when guests are using it.

LongAsWeBrothersLive , John Coley Report

Add photo comments
POST
Apatheist Account2
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Master bedrooms are normally upstairs here in the UK - aren't they elsewhere? Even the most basic houses (2 up, 2 down, as one would have heard in the Herman's Hermits song "No milk today") have bed & bathroom upstairs, kitchen and living room downstairs.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT