What is your biggest pet peeve when you walk into a house?

CoconutPete

So ....let's play a game. What is your biggest pet peeve when you walk into a house?

Let's just say when you walk into a house because you
A: Bought it
or
B: Are considering buying it

We don't have to rip on our friends houses haha.


My number ONE, definitely definitely number one is PAINT!

WAY too many people in WAY too many houses seem to think a problem can be solved with paint. Cleaning the wall before painting it? Removing outlet covers etc? Prepping properly? NAaaahhh... that's overrated, just paint over it!

Particularly outlets. 90% of electrical outlets in my house were painted over 5 times. They didn't even remove the cover, they actually painted the whole schebang to get it to blend in with the wall I guess. I'm 90% done replacing them because it's bothering me so much.


So let's hear what else....

sdsester

Filthy dirty carpeting and window coverings. Cigarette smoke or smoke smell. Obviously dirt cheap flooring---especially floated laminate that is supposed to look like real oak, or worse, marble. Any faux paint finishes and especially those that do not fit with the architecture of the house (castle dungeon walls look stupid in a ranch house with 8' walls and ceilings painted white). Faux stained glass or cloud films that don't quite cover windows. Blinds that do not fit. Wallpaper borders of any kind! Painted over coverplates and of course painted wallpaper really sends a signal to me nobody cared. Not interior things but tacky lawn ornaments usually give a clue as to what to expect from an interior. Dead or dying plants or pets. Living and crawling non pets. Greenish CFLs in lamps when everything else is warm white incandescent. Gruesome light fixtures. Hair grease stains on walls behind chairs, sofas and mattresses.

operagost

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that if I saw dead pets in a house I'd leave pretty quickly too.

Tscarborough

Clutter of any kind.

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tpolk

someone not handing me a bourbon

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toeey1

We recently went thru a new house search so this is still fresh for me. My biggest pet peeve was cat pee. In at least 2 of the houses we looked at, it was so overpowering we ended up leaving pretty quickly. Cat pee is one of the hardest substances to completely get rid of.

The irony is that when we fionally did settle on a house, we ended up with a house that had several cat pee stains. We didnt know it at the time because the sellers were diligent in covering it up. We replaced carpet in 2 rooms and before the new carpet was laid down, I primed the floor with KILZ so it wouldnt smell or bleed into new carpet. The OSB was stained nearly all around the entire perimeter of the room...it was awful.

Scuba_Dave

My last house I bought at 25% of its value as a short sale

Pet peeves:
I could not breathe in the house...cats & kittens & NO litter box at all
---big drum sander took care of that
Thousands of squatters that had to be exterminated
Windows screwed shut
After I bought the house they cleaned everything out from inside
There was a large clean spot where the mattrress had been on the floor
There was a big square in the middle of the floor that they did not stain/seal
They only did the area at the edges of the rug
So I hate idiots that should never have owned a house
But like the deal I got as a result

In general I hate the smell of wet dog

Bill7

No offense, but that was a long list for such a steal!

Bill7

Oh, and I was going to say something like not taking off shoes...

Scuba_Dave

3 houses that were a mess all together......mine was the most "expensive" of the 3 !!

Actually the list is MUCH longer
NO septic system...just a cesspool pit
Bees, termites & ants..sloped & sagging floors, very little to ZERO insulation
5 layers of roofing & still leaking
No foundation..rotting piers...few if any beams, caved in cement board enclosing the crawlspace, plywood up against dirt in the crawl space
A yard full of broken glass & mirrors
Live wires in the walls, hanging in the crawl space...& in the yard
....the list is much longer then this !!
I earned every penny of equity in sweat & blood

CoconutPete

My house was like that too! Even the stairs were only stained on the edges of the steps.

Was that the trend back in the day? Giant area rugs w/ wood floors on the edges?

operagost

You win the internet.

Willie T

Dark houses. I will never understand stupid 'mood lighting' that makes you feel your way around to keep from tripping over furniture.

I have 12, 4', 40 watt florescent lights in my kitchen ceiling, alone. My bathroom has 4 of the same lights.

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Willie T

Thurman

As a "Household HandyMan", my worst pet peeve is when the homeowner and I reach an agreement to do the work, then when I show up on time and prepared: There are animals within the house and small kids running loose. I love animals and kids-really. But it can be so hard to do a job with the dog/cat crawling under the sink with you and the kids taking the tools off while Mom is in another room watching TV or on the d**n phone loudly. Just give me room to do what I was hired for, then IF I want to stay a minute and play with the dog/cat or kids, that's my decision. David

Termite

Cat poo. Cat pee. Cat litter box. General smell of cat....Repulses me. I like cats well enough, but they ruin houses. And inevitably, the cat owner says "we clean up after them and keep the litter fresh so you can't smell them"....And they believe it. Cat people, your homes have an odor, if ever so faint.