What are some of the most unique eye catching things you have seen in a house viewing?

jonneymendoza · 9 May 2022 at 12:08

As title says whats yours?

For me i have seen a few interesting stuff:

I saw someone had a PS5(still quute hard to get)

Saw another property that had a racing sim setup in there summerhouse(i stood and looked at it for 5mins lol)

One property diddnt have a pics of all rooms so when we checked out one of the rooms upsatirs, it was basically another kitchen....

touch · 9 May 2022 at 12:18

One house we looked at had a climbing wall in the garage. We talked about how it would be easy to remove and make space for our bikes and stuff.
We didn't buy that house but less than 2 years later, and completely coincidentally, we've taken up climbing and considering building a climbing wall in our garage.

mid_gen · 9 May 2022 at 12:25

Saw a house for sale round here that had eight foot murals of both Thatcher and Churchill's faces on the living room walls.

potatolord · 9 May 2022 at 12:30

Went to a hoarders house.

I could tell it was special from the outside.

There was literally a path through the house with old magazines etc stacked about 4 foot high on each side, and a small space in the centre of the living room where they watched telly. The kitchen was full, floor to ceiling.

The really sad thing was that they had a 12ish year old son. His room, however, was immaculate.

Didn't buy that, despite keen pricing.

jonneymendoza · 9 May 2022 at 12:33

potatolord said:
Went to a hoarders house.

I could tell it was special from the outside.

There was literally a path through the house with old magazines etc stacked about 4 foot high on each side, and a small space in the centre of the living room where they watched telly. The kitchen was full, floor to ceiling.

The really sad thing was that they had a 12ish year old son. His room, however, was immaculate.

Didn't buy that, despite keen pricing.

God,whoever purchased that, i hope the previous owner at least cleared it out before the new owner moved in

potatolord · 9 May 2022 at 12:37

jonneymendoza said:
God,whoever purchased that, i hope the previous owner at least cleared it out before the new owner moved in

I guessed they probably had at least 3 skips full of junk.

I saw another house that had an 19th century bakery (with bread oven) in the back garden. Dead cheap and would have bought, but got messed about and suspected some sort of scam there...

turbot1984 · 9 May 2022 at 12:43

Viewing in York 20 years ago, fleeting glimpse of an old woman in a nightgown with light blue flowers on at the top of the stairs.
The agent told us the owner had lived there for 60 years, but had passed away the previous month.

Rroff · 9 May 2022 at 12:44

jonneymendoza said:
it was basically another kitchen....

Something I didn't know until moving house - if you have a second room which is clearly designated a kitchen additional to a main kitchen it can be considered there being two dwellings in the property and liable for 2x council tax (it will also depend on other factors).

Where I'm living now the previous owner had done up a utility room (22x8 foot) as a party room - fully decked out like a nightclub with mini-bar complete with taps, etc. and could also be used as a cinema or games room. With doors leading out to a rather glorified pagoda/gazebo thing - they liked their partying apparently.

potatolord said:
Went to a hoarders house.

I could tell it was special from the outside.

There was literally a path through the house with old magazines etc stacked about 4 foot high on each side, and a small space in the centre of the living room where they watched telly. The kitchen was full, floor to ceiling.

The really sad thing was that they had a 12ish year old son. His room, however, was immaculate.

Didn't buy that, despite keen pricing.

Only ever encountered this once - old guy my uncle lived next door to (they were vaguely related) - literally just a path through near ceiling heights of stuff throughout the whole house - absolutely horrendous.

mattyfez · 9 May 2022 at 12:53

Rroff said:
Something I didn't know until moving house - if you have a second room which is clearly designated a kitchen additional to a main kitchen it can be considered there being two dwellings in the property and liable for 2x council tax (it will also depend on other factors).

Where I'm living now the previous owner had done up a utility room (22x8 foot) as a party room - fully decked out like a nightclub with mini-bar complete with taps, etc. and could also be used as a cinema or games room. With doors leading out to a rather glorified pagoda/gazebo thing - they liked their partying apparently.

Interesting, I wonder what the difference is between a utility/wash room and a kitchen

Rroff · 9 May 2022 at 12:56

mattyfez said:
Interesting, I wonder what the difference is between a utility/wash room and a kitchen

Apparently a lot hinges on the presence of an oven (and the configuration of entrances).

Efour · 9 May 2022 at 13:03

House hunting in Sweden we went to one that was literally a timewarp to the 1970s.
It wasn't in a horrible state that made it even weirder. Retro cool

Pawnless Endgame · 9 May 2022 at 13:05

When I was looking for a flat / bedsit to rent, one of the flats I viewed got broken into the night before. I didn't go for that one

Andreworex · 9 May 2022 at 13:08

Rroff said:
Something I didn't know until moving house - if you have a second room which is clearly designated a kitchen additional to a main kitchen it can be considered there being two dwellings in the property and liable for 2x council tax (it will also depend on other factors).

Where I'm living now the previous owner had done up a utility room (22x8 foot) as a party room - fully decked out like a nightclub with mini-bar complete with taps, etc. and could also be used as a cinema or games room. With doors leading out to a rather glorified pagoda/gazebo thing - they liked their partying apparently.

Only ever encountered this once - old guy my uncle lived next door to (they were vaguely related) - literally just a path through near ceiling heights of stuff throughout the whole house - absolutely horrendous.

I used to rent out my annex (vaguely connected to the house) on airBNB and one of the neighbours reported me to the council for it, they came out and assessed and due to it not having a kitchen, they couldn't do anything as it was just classed as a separate room to the house, it has a shower, toilet etc but the standing point was the lack of kitchen, thankfully!

Since covid I've been using it as a home office, its a lovely space and able to lock the door and forget about work.

potatolord · 9 May 2022 at 13:16

A new build house with a huge kitchen, all fitted cupboards, cooker etc.

Unfortunately, whichever idiot put the kitchen in didn't leave room for a fridge/ freezer.

That was in the garage.

I mean, come on...

Dis86 · 9 May 2022 at 13:19

mid_gen said:
Saw a house for sale round here that had eight foot murals of both Thatcher and Churchill's faces on the living room walls.

Chris, is that your place mate?

Rroff · 9 May 2022 at 13:25

One house I was looking at had a flight of stairs in the hall which went around a 90 degree bend bridging over a small gap, probably no more than 18 inches wide, in the hall which was the only way through to the rest of the lower floor of the house and the top of the stairs kind of ended against a wall with similar narrow gaps left and right, left leading to most of the first floor, right leading to a study.

From looking on Rightmove most of the other houses of the same style on the street were originally the same but the owners had reworked them either knocking through to the front room on the left and making the stairs go straight up using the whole space then using the space under the stairs as a pantry from the kitchen or putting in a spiral staircase. Seemed to be some kind of design flaw in the original build.

Strangely enough not photographed in the listing.

Chrisc · 9 May 2022 at 13:27

Viewed a house around 15yrs ago, the owner insisted he took us out in their car for a local tour, where he pointed out takeaways and local shops. Didnt have the heart to tell him I lived around the corner

Chris Wilson · 9 May 2022 at 13:32

Dis86 said:
Chris, is that your place mate?

Possibly some relation, sounds perfectly normal to me

I did view a house with full frontal nude photographs and drawings of a really tasty bint in several rooms. The bloke showing us around never commented despite me dwelling on a couple. On the second viewing his wife was in, and they were of her.

`Er indoors had me out of there in ten minutes and suddenly decided she didn't really like the place

I did consider a third solo viewing, but looked in the mirror and told myself to know my limitations these days

lookitsjonno · 9 May 2022 at 13:38

Saw a fairly newbuild looking house that had a 'mezzanine floor' dining room installed in their hallway, which was quite odd

Rroff · 9 May 2022 at 13:54

lookitsjonno said:
Saw a fairly newbuild looking house that had a 'mezzanine floor' dining room installed in their hallway, which was quite odd

One of my dad's friends has something like that - the whole area has pretty disjointed buildings - lots of them converted from bungalows into 2-3 story houses.

They have a garage on the front of the house which is about 4 foot lower than the ground floor, above the garage is a large room which was fully open where it joined the house to the hallway with a mezzanine half-way between the 2 floors which they used as a dining room.

EDIT: I've noticed with quite a few new builds when having a nosey at the ones around work, etc. that some weird attempts at mezzanine type stuff isn't unusual.