Weird features spotted while house hunting

[Sirius]

My parents' house where I grew up had bright Christmasy red carpet and red flocked wallpaper. They couldn't afford to replace it when they moved in, so my early childhood memories involved playing dolls on the floor of Dante's Inferno.

*snorf*

*Note to self, do not eat yogurt and read ehell*

I went into the ladies' room of a church at which my band was singing.  The carpet was red shag.  The walls were covered in red, gold, and white striped flocked wallpaper.  The lampshades were red, gold, and white to match the wallpaper, and were very frilly and ruffly.  There was a huge gold-framed mirror on one wall.  It looked for all the world like a bordello's waiting room.

[wyozozo]

They couldn't afford to replace it when they moved in, so my early childhood memories involved playing dolls on the floor of Dante's Inferno.

So wasn't what I was thinking! 
I thought maybe Barbie went into the "entertainment business"!

[pwv]

I used to live in an efficiency apartment where you had to go through the walk=in closet to get to the bathroom.   Said bathroom was in  yellow; three different shades of yellow:  tub/sink/commode vs. wall tile vs. floor tile.  The stove was brown and the fridge and metal cabinets were painted a sort of aqua/turquoise.

[faithlessone]

I once saw a house with 2 bedrooms with a chain and hook lock on the outside.  (was visiting)  Turns out that they were little kids and the parents didn't want to pay all that money for child gates so they locked their kids in the room. 

I once babysat for a family who did this. They told me over and over again to make sure the doors were locked when I put them to bed. The two kids (aged 3 and 5) weren't even allowed to go to the bathroom in the night - they were both still in nappies. It made me feel a little bit sick, to be honest, and I didn't babysit for them again.

[Ms_Cellany]

I bought a house in the early '90s that had one bedroom sponge-painted bright pink. (Plus avocado green shag carpeting through most of the house). I got rid of the carpeting to uncover golden-oak hardwood in perfect condition.

The pink grew on me, though. I not only kept it, I bought a pink oriental carpet at a thrift store to go with!

ETA: when we fixed the place up to get tenants, it turned out to be painted wallpaper, and took three days to strip. The room is beige now. I still miss the pink.

[kherbert05]

A house that glowed Pink. The shag carpet was pink. The walls were "white" with a tint of pink. I had to get out of there because it made me feel sick.

[LazyDaisy]

The first was the house where the entire downstairs had really nice crown molding that went through each room, hall, etc. Apparently it was stained a lovely color and would have looked nice....but it had been installed 6 inches below the ceiling....and upside down

I've seen some DIY decorating shows where they actually encourage people to do this to make the ceilings "look taller." Sometimes when I see those shows I just go  by their suggestions.

In the 80s my parents bought a brand new house with carpeting in the bathrooms, right up to the shower and tub and around the toilet; it was not previously owned so it was designed like this by the builder. It actually took them about 10 years to finally get around to putting in tile instead.


edited to add a missing word

[Maggie]

Well I guess the house I live in now might qualify.  It was built in 1947 by the government as base housing.  It has what I think are oak floors.  For some really weird reason that I cannot even comprehend, they painted these beautiful floors dark brown   The reason I know what they are underneath is that they used acrylic paint which peels anytime you move furniture or anything else across it.  It's sad and I'm hoping to sand them and bring them back someday!
 

[RingTailedLemur]

The first was the house where the entire downstairs had really nice crown molding that went through each room, hall, etc. Apparently it was stained a lovely color and would have looked nice....but it had been installed 6 inches below the ceiling....and upside down

I've seen some DIY decorating shows where they actually encourage people to do this to make the ceilings "look taller." Sometimes when I see those shows I just go  by their suggestions.

In the 80s my parents bought a brand new house with carpeting in the bathrooms, right up to the shower and tub and around the toilet; it was not previously owned so it was designed like this by the builder. It actually took them about 10 years to finally get around to putting in tile instead.


edited to add a missing word

It never would have struck me that carpeting in the bathroom was particularly unusual.

The house I grew up in, my brother had to walk through my room to get to his so I couldn't get any privacy from him and his friends (not even while sleeping or changing).

[MorgnsGrl]

Then there was the mystery room house.  It was listed as 3/2, but none of us could find the master bedroom and bath.  We thought it was listed incorrectly.  We found it on the way out.  When the front door was open, it completely hid the doorway and there was kind of an optical illusion from the outside where you couldn't really determine the depth of the house.  It was strange.

We saw a house like that! It was the den/sitting room that was mysteriously hidden when you opened the front door. Also, the only bathroom in the house was off the kitchen and strangely enormous. It was like this big, empty room with a shower stall and toilet and sink. So weird.

Then there was the one-level home that was completely carpeted throughout. Not with one color, though. Not even with one color for each room. No, the owners had apparently decided that the best (or possibly cheapest?) way to carpet the house would be to get small scraps of carpet in various colors and textures, then SEW THEM TOGETHER. It was like a big patchwork puzzle carpet. We couldn't even express our horror because the owners were present during our visit, so we had to plaster on wide smiles and say nice things...

[Elfmama]

A house that glowed Pink. The shag carpet was pink. The walls were "white" with a tint of pink. I had to get out of there because it made me feel sick.

Was this in Maryland?  Our realtor told us about a Pink house somewhere in this area where everything was pink.  Walls, rugs, exterior -- even the appliances had been overpainted with pink.   And the sellers insisted on a covenant with prospective buyers that they wouldn't change anything.  It was on the market for years, even though much of that time was a seller's market.

Re pink rooms: my MIL's guest room was pink.  No, that doesn't do it justice.  Nor does grabbing the unfortunate bystander by the lapels and shrieking "It's pink, I tell you, PINK!!!

It was .  Walls, carpeting, bedspread.  It was like trying to sleep in a giant Pepto-Bismol bottle.

[Elfmama]

Then there was the one-level home that was completely carpeted throughout. Not with one color, though. Not even with one color for each room. No, the owners had apparently decided that the best (or possibly cheapest?) way to carpet the house would be to get small scraps of carpet in various colors and textures, then SEW THEM TOGETHER. It was like a big patchwork puzzle carpet. We couldn't even express our horror because the owners were present during our visit, so we had to plaster on wide smiles and say nice things...

That was a suggestion in one of the craft magazines in the 70's!!  I remember it because I thought it was so cool.  (In my defense, I was about 14.)

[wheeitsme]

The feature that sold us on our house was that it had it's own Narnia.  When they were digging out the daylight basement, someone wasn't paying attention.  They accidentally dug out an extra 300 square feet off of one of the bedrooms.  So there was a door in the closet to a big storage room.  Which we, of course, nicknamed Narnia. 

[Just Lori]

When we were househunting, we checked out a house that had "all new carpeting in the basement."  We were looking for a finished basement, so this sounded promising.  We checked out the house and discovered a completely unfinished basement, save for the brand new carpeting on the floor.

My parents still live in the home where I grew up.  I was going over some pictures and saw a picture of my mother sitting in a room with gorgeous hardwood floors.  Looking closer, I realized it was their living room.  They took the picture when they pulled up the old carpeting and put down new carpeting.  Beautiful hardwood floors - covered by wall-to-wall carpeting.  Back in their day, only poor people had hardwood floors, and that mentality has stuck with them.

[CLD]

I had a mid-60s lakefront house in FL. It had a built-in cutting board in the kitchen with the zodiac signs on it. Weird but kind of cool at the same time.

Ohh!!! My current house has one of those! 

It used to strike me as odd, but after 11 years, it seems normal.