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

Snav

If anything is dirty, messy, unclean or odorous - I know I can clean it and sweeten it up so that doesn't bother me, actually.

But real peeves are:

Lack of lighting in kitchen/hallways
Linoleum sheet flooring (some of it is high-end and nice - but most is junky crap)
Hardboard walls in a bathroom instead of tile (you know, tub-surround stuff)
Faux wood paneling *everywhere* (not just in a livingroom or kitchen as is traditional)
Dark colors in small areas - closets, hallways, bathrooms (carpet/ceiling/accessories/etc)
A defined entry way (if it's small) is a waste of space.
Lack of doorways in/out of rooms (kitchen should have at least one outside door - livingroom should have more than one doorway to the rest of the house)
Lack of a back door - I *must* have a backdoor so I can get to the backyard.

All of these things, though, I can fix - just give me a hammer and 10 grand and I'm bacon
All of these things were present in our home when we bought it - I'm still working on them :D

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Leah Frances

We've got four doors out of our kitchen Two go into the back yard. One into the house. And one up the back stairs. On top of that we have four windows too. No need to say we don't have any cabinets hanging on the walls - no room!

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If I could only remember to THINK about what I was doing before I did it.

Snav

YES! Another point - not enough cabinets and storage space!

ACK!

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racebum

they make a product called molecular modifier that's pretty decent with cat pee. {i own a carpet cleaning business btw} the biggest problem with cat pee is the soak into the pad. small spots i can usually treat by soaking modifier, letting it sit and then using the van extractor to steam it all out. a 18"18" area often gets a good 5 minutes of steam extracting after treatment. MOST of the time i can get it out or so faint you have to have your nose on the carpet to get a whiff. if the carpet isn't too hard to get up; replacing that section of pad can really get the odor down.

racebum

that's a crazy deal. most the shorts around my area sell more like 25% off, not 25% of

Jim F

Cigarettes! I realized it's your right to smoke in the privacy of your own home but does it really take that much effort to take that smoke outside? Or at least in a bathroom with a good vent fan. And no, a HEPA filter doesn't get it. Plus all that second-hand smoke makes kids sick. And it really smells disgusting.

Sparky8370

That has got to be one of the most irritating things to come by, especially when they were just smart enough to get themselves in trouble. My BIL just bought a house like this and it's obvious that the homeowner did most of his own work. The most frustrating part is knowing that this guy was probably proud of the "great job" he did and sat back and admired it.

Shamus

If it’s a home I’m working on or one I’m interested in buying it’s the same peeve.

I want to see everything structural. What was added or modified? If I see poor workmanship in the basement, the attic or an addition, I can assume that anything done was probably, if not always, done in that same manor.

I can remove stains, odors or correct a bad paintjob for a small amount of money. Structural gets expensive.

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Shamus

Red Squirrel

I saw a lot of crazy stuff but my #1 pet peeve while looking for a house was how dirty some of them were. I don't expect everything to be spic and span, the owners need to continue with their lives even if they're trying to sell it, and getting called by the agent at all sorts of times of the day can be annoying and often don't have time to clean, but at least cleanup major messes, like dog pee! This one house I went into, I nearly stepped in a puddle of dog pee! They had their dog trained to pee in this one spot in the basement, where they just put a small piece of carpet to absorb the pee. EWWWW!

Mike in Arkansas

Put me down as being bugged by painted woodwork in old houses
Went to an open house in our neighborhood Sunday just out of curiosity. House was priced WAY over it appraised value. Last owners just paid too much for house (I'm talking 100,000) but that's neither here nor there. What bugged me about this house other than all the pink walls was that the wood work had been painted the same pink color. Now this house had a beautiful quarter sawed white oak mantel that completely surrounded the fire place. Very elegant and decorative and one of the most beautiful I've ever seen. Yet all the rest of the woodwork was painted and I couldn't help but wonder what it looked like before painting
House was probably built in the 30's and if the trim was anything like that mantel it would have been spectacular unpainted. Couldn't help but feel sorry for the sellers as it's been for sale at least 3 years and they've reduced the price from over 300K to 290K and now 265K. No way is this house going to sell anywhere near that. Knob and tube wiring, no AC, all pink walls and wood, bad kitchen, faux painted shelves right beside that beautiful mantel. I'd gladly pay big dollars for the mantel if I had a place (maybe even if I didn't) for it and for what I believe were original lighting fixtures. Also the original edge sawed old growth pine flooring. Many of the boards ran the entire length of the rooms. Breaks my heart really for a family to make a mistake like that and I wish them the best where ever they are.

Leah Frances

It's tough with historic homes. Chances are the trim was painted originally.

My house (1805) has scads of gorgeous trim - all of it was originally painted dark brown (almost black) and faux finished with a brown grain. I'm not going back to that, but stripping the trim and staining it would be really contrary to the house.

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If I could only remember to THINK about what I was doing before I did it.

DownRiverGuy

Cats and cigarette smoke are killers...

We toured one home that the agents brother owned... one of his family members was living in the home while they were trying to sell it... PS she was there smoking and in her robe... classy... the home was FILTHY!!! And there were three cats running around during the tour... add ontop of that the fog of smoke anddddddddddd we're done with that house. (The house was also just trashed and alot of noticeable hack work).

We've been touring alot of foreclosed homes so they are NEVER clean. I'll agree with you guys thou... I can tear down ugly stuff... I can't redo a foundation.

Jim F

Just know that if you have dogs or cats in your house, that is what your house is going to smell like. My wife loves her dog and 3 cats so we do the best we can to change the litter and let the dog out. Fortunately, the cats stick to the litter box and the dog has bare minimal accidents. A bigger pet peeve for me is people who get dogs and cats as pets then either let them run loose or tie or otherwise keep them outside all the time. What's the point of having a dog outside annoying your neighbors? What sort of pet is that? They are social animals that need to be part of a clan.

Mike in Arkansas

Have to agree with Jim F here. If I were looking at a home to buy and there was a neighbors dog that barked constantly while I was in the yard I would never consider a purchase. Nothing makes me madder than owners who won't keep their dogs from barking. Now i don't mind an occasional bark or two but consistent barking when I'm out makes me want to throw poison meat over the fence.

racebum

you mentioned a lot more than i'm addressing BUT, most smells wind up in the carpet. most can be steam extracted by the pros. if not new carpet often runs as low as $10.50 per linear foot on a 15ft roll. it's not too crazy to recarpet. hardwoods run 1-6 bucks a square foot and so does tile. floors aren't super crazy especially if you're DIY