General Chat

I have been so lucky with housing, well until I bought my own unmodernised places !
My parents moved with me and my baby brother into a brand new council house in 1950 and it was our family home and lovely long garden till Mum died in 1995 and we had to return it to the council.
I first rented a bedsit in a big house in Cambridge which wasn't bad for the money altho the bedroom in the loft space was freezing in winter and hot in summer. A fan heater and putting my clothes inside the bed ready for morning (undies anyway) to have them a little bit less chilled to put on did the trick there and the opened skylight and window in the other room next door cooled the place down in summer.
My first rented house was modern and clean, I decorated and carpeted it in my colour choices and so it was always clean and bright.
My first council flat was brand new so a blank canvas and easy to clean, and my next council flat with two bedrooms which I asked for, was also brand new and all mod cons.
When I was in Cambridge and in a relationship, we applied for council accommodation, and were offered a house in a lovely village, but had to turn it down, the previous tenants had a dog which had obviously been left for long periods in the kitchen, the wooden draining boards and skirting were chewed to bits and the place stunk of dog urine. We split up before a second offer was made!

I always made sure my flats were clean and ready for someone else to move into but even so the first one was left empty for 6 weeks before a new tenant moved in. I had left them a message saying I had carpet and lino to fit the rooms if they wanted to buy as I had only been there 18 months before moving to a larger flat so didn't want to leave the floorcovering down for the council to rip out and get rid of which is what would have happened. The new tenant did buy the hall carpet and the lino and a friend bought the other carpets.

My son moved into a housing association flat a few years ago and altho it was supposed to have been checked and cleared by the staff, he found the contents of plant pots emptied in the loft along with other equipment that showed they were dead cannibis plants. In one cupboard he found a large preserving pan and the skeleton of a cat or similar creature in a plastic bag along with lots of bits of wood and other stuff. After numerous calls, the H.A. did come and take away all the rubbish.

Lizx

Maggie dear

you have been most unfortunate with your residences both before and during marriage!

Just remembered, ex & Ilived in a series of 'tied' houses.
The first one had an extension that was the kitchen and bathroom.
In the winter,there was ice on the INSIDE of the walls in these 2 rooms.
We had one source of heat -an open fire in the living room.
We never used the 2 front rooms upstairs and downstairs, they were too cold.
We moved to another house, owned by the same employer. This was much warmer,but the oak front door hadn;t been oiled enough and had shrunk. The first winter there, we had a snowdrift through this door- it was 6 inches deep!! LOL

When we moved,and ex had yet another low paid job with accommodation, we (me, ex and two children aged 14 months and 3 years), moved into a prefab,where half the kitchen floorboards were missing!!

We were assured that it would be repaired - I also suggested they replaced the woodworm ridden joists too!!

maggie- who proceeded to 'clean' all her wooden furniture with woodworm stuff!

Susan

May be that's what I should do with my ironing board as its almost always 'put away' Hate ironing and hoovering.

My late sister in law RIP never washed heavy things in her washing machine in case it damaged it and used to hand wash a lot. However she was not excessive with other things.

I suppose we all have our little foibles but its a shame when it makes a visitor
feel uncomfortable. I think some people have a problem, with my daughter's house and her cream carpet.

Regards

Vera

OMG Susan,

had a sister-in-law whos was very very houseproud. Her OH used to complain she was downstairs at 2.00 a.m. ironing. Visited one summers day, kitchen floor was like glass, so highly polished and invited into lounge where OH noticed a dead fly in hearth and said OMG not even the flies live around here'. I could have killed him!

Susan, I couldnt live like that! Imagine not using a washing machine in case it gets dirty...sorry but the mind boggles.

One relative is guilty of the following.... tying cloth to the feet of her ironing board so it doesn't leave marks on the wall when put away, when we visited one time our son scuffed the lounge wall with one of his toys, it wouldn't wash off so was painted over with paint saved for just such events, when we have a shower there we have to use old mats to stand on in the shower also the ones we stand on when we dry ourselves putting the others back when we've finished.
The washing machine isn't used cos it will get dirty, she hand washes everything.
There is not a speck of dirt anywhere in the house and I am not very comfortable when we do the duty visit which thankfully isn't very often.

RomantStar

I would never wash tea towels with underwear - wouldn't iron them either.

Vera

For council housing, you shouldnt have to move their rubbish if the house was empty of occupants. If it was a mutual exchange you have to accept the house in whatever state its in, it becomes your liability.
I love Chris, Maggie and Quoys posts!!! These deserve a thread of their own! In my culture we dont wash teatowels and underwear together, and some of us add a drop of bleach to the washing up water....
Oh Maggie I remember your bus story a few years ago, I loved it!!!

Perhaps there should be a deposit, like with private renting and a months rent in advance too?

Well my first council House I moved in the Floor boards in the front room was covered in car oil, I had no front window just a board for about 1 Month, the back garden you could not get out to as It was so over grown it was a joke you could not even see the garden path, when it was cleared the amount of rubbish which was in the garden could have easily filled a skip (I could not afford one and the council would not pay for one) I done so many trips to the dump I lost count, The loft was also filled with so much junk so more trips to the dump, and Gas Leak from the Gas supply from the Front Garden. Which turned out to be quiet funny as the Gas company found quiet a few along the road so the new neighbours new I had arrived. :)))


Then I was offered a bigger house well It all started again I was offered a bigger house after 4 Years Well all the floor boards had to be bleached as they all smelt like a uncleand toilet, I had no back window this time for again about 1 month just wood where the glass should have been, No wall paper on the walls, and this time a water leak where the water board decided to renew our road with new water pipes so again the neighbours were not that happy again and the back garden was like a jungle. and the loft again was filled with junk

what really upsets me Is that when you leave the house the inspector comes around and makes sure that it is left correctly, so how the two previous people got away with it I will never know.

Deb K

Vera2010,
I have a friend, who is an ex-army wife, as opposed to an ex wife, if you see what I mean. I always say to my OH that I am sure she polishes her lawn, and that her OH cuts it with nails scissors. So perfect is it, that it is just like the baize of a snooker table. It is the 'in' joke in this house.
Julia in Derbyshire

When the Queen came to visit in Germany the troops had to paint the grass green because it had gone brown

Susan

I know of someone who washed the pavement oiutisde of her house to the kerb and also a near neightbour who got the scissors to the lawn after it had been mowed and strimmed. We always felt forced to mow our lawn when we lived there.

Its good that your happy where you live that's what counts.


Regards

Vera

My dad was in the Fleet Air Arm -and my mum refused to live in married quarters!!
This led to some very interesting rented accommodation - there were 6 of us (I have 3 elder siblings).
The windmill at Climping - now on a golf course. It now has a flat top - thanks to my mum who built the fire up a bit too much!!
Shared accommodation with a family in Malta -where I got my love of 'black' bread, and learnt (at the age of 3) how to pick and eat prickly pears without getting pricked!
A converted double decker bus in the middle of a field of cows in Arbroath.
A bed-bug infested cottage in Suffolk. Various caravans in both Arbroath and Lossiemouth.

I moved into a council house when my marriage broke down.
Turned up on December 22nd with our furniture, to find the workmen behind with the decorating - they were painting the stairs - so we (me and 2 children aged 3 and 5) couldn't move in. Had to stay with my brother until after Christmas.
When I went to dig the garden to plant some veggies, I found the remains of a fire, and 3 recently buried mattresses.

I got a transfer to my current house. It was fairly clean,but they'd left a a cat & dog flea infestation,which took me 6 months to eradicate!!

My house would never 'pass muster'- I follow my grans wise words - the housework will still be there tomorrow, it's not going anywhere.
However,with 3 cats, even I object to bundles of fur rolling like tumbleweed across the floor - the cats are regularly de-flead, and the house is regularly sprayed with insecticide-'just in case'!!!

My 9 year old grand daughter loves staying here - she's away from her brothers (aged 3 and 1), but insists it's because my house is 'interesting'!! LOL

Quoy,

whenever our quarters were decorated I used to get the painters to give me jars of the various shades of emulsion and then the day before we marched out I would go round with my little brush! Same with the gloss.

OH met me with the children and said we had all new furniture in quarter and the painters were coming in two weeks time - that should have warned me! When I washed the curtains I had to put them in the washing machine 5 times before the water ran clear and then they shrank! I dropped the hems and they were still short of the sills. Then the stair carpet was filthy could not see the pattern on hands and knees several times with the sponge and 1001 and yes the carpet shrank!!

I opened back door and was busy slinging laundry and linen baskets out into garden (they had been kept in coalhouse) and were black with spiders in them. Saucepans were following, lifted lids and they had not been washed inside after cooking. Path led past garden gates and a lady introduced herself as my next door neighbour and asked how I was settling in and at least I had a good quarter. I kept the cool and invited her in for a tour of inspection and to look behind cooker where there was 2" high of grease and everything else and OH was going to buy rubber gloves before he would tackle it that night.

I could go on and the final straw was the bin - the lid fell into it and it was a very hot summer.

OH went to ordnance and reported carpet/curtains/bin and was told I had done it deliberately!!! He exploded and two civilian quarters Managers ended up arguing with one another.

We got the new bin/curtains and carpet and were warned they would be watching very carefully on a march out - they did and I did not pay one penny!

Some quarters were worse than that - regt arrived with wives and children on posting and shown quarters late at nght. One wife told me before she could let the kids use the toilet she had to scrub the walls as best she could before they used it. After all one did not expect to travel with Vim and bleach.

The most houseproud woman I ever saw was polishing her bin with furniture polish - what was it called Min cream? Her OH had to take his boots off when he went home for lunch - mind you she did have a breakdown later I believe.

Vera, I used to be very houseproud but now like you I can restrain myself and mine would not pass inspection either, but we are happy here and it wouldn't take to long to make it presentable for a royal visit.

My lovely Mother in Law says "a blind man would love to be able to see it."

Susan

I do think one person's standards can vary from anothers although I don't doubt yours was bad.(the condition of the house not your standards)

I can restrain myself from dusting and cleaning windows (my friend cleans hers weekly) but I feel I am reasonably hygeinic without being houseproud - could do better mind you.

Would never leave rubbish and would always wash milk bottles before I left..
But would not pass inspection.

Regards

Vera

Goodness knows what they would have done to the previous tenants of our house on march out, shot at dawn probably, it really was (almost) unspeakably horrible.
We were newly married and didn't have much of an idea of how to complain just got on with it really.