We are pretty much boonies dwelling, anti-social hermits, and our entertaining is limited to a group of people who can counted on one hand, so we don't get a lot of remarks from folks we don't know well, but I do have two comments to share.

Our house is year round, but on a road with a group of seasonal dwellings (camp in Northeast parlance). A year or so after we finished building, an elderly camp owning neighbor died and her stepchildren inherited the camp. They showed up for a weekend with a group of friends, and while introducing themselves, the women asked for a tour of the house. I agreed and one asked if we hired Mary Engelbreit as our decorator. I had never heard of her, and said as much. They all said, oh, your house looks like her stuff, blah, blah. At some point I remembered to Google Mary Engelbreit and about fainted when I saw the decor, it didn't look like my house *at all* IMO. That day I learned that people see things very, very differently, and that what I perceived as garish, mismatched and cheesy, these ladies thought looked like my house.

The second comment was from a friend of my DD, who is taking a design class in school. She has seen our house dozens and dozens of times, but the first time she came over this school year, after starting the class, she spent a lot of time in the LR and kitchen, looking at all the stuff and asking questions about it. I am a layerer, and she was especially interested in the layering attempts. She said, "Oh, all my mom ever decorates with is family pictures, all your stuff is so much interesting, I'm going to talk about this in class!". It was very sweet, and when she was over last weekend, she spent some time looking at the harvest stuff (much to my DD's chagrin).

sandyponder

Three houses ago, my SIL was visiting us for the first time and said "Your house looks like a house in a movie". We were flat broke graduate students at the time, and she was looking at my kitchen windowsill arranged with little china animals, so I think she meant the house in the movie "Misery"!

My last house: "Wow, you have really done a lot on a shoestring budget." Thank you. I didn't realize my shoestring was showing. And word to the wise: one woman's shoestring is another woman's luxury.

I have often heard "I didn't think your house would be anything like this".... unless people have already been in my mother's house, in which case they say "I can tell you're your mother's daughter" or something like that.

And my all-time favorite: "It's easy for your house to look like this because you're a stay-at-home mom". At the time I was a homeschooling mother of four with three part-time jobs and I volunteered several hours a week. So yeah, I had a LOT more time for tidying up than a woman with two kids in school and a 9 to 5 job. Now her kids are grown and gone, and I bet if I went to her house today it wouldn't be one whit improved! Petty of me, I know.

My 7yr.old son's friend came to our house for the first time recently. I overheard him telling my son "wow, your house is sooo cool!" Two days later I see his mother, a good friend and she says to me "You gotta help me fix up my home...Tony came home and said "Mom you should see Z's house, it's amazing! You'd love it! We should live there..."
Now the only way I can make one understand why this kid (and so many others my son's age) think my home is cool, is if you see a sneak pic of my house (color selection...)

..off to try my new color samples!!!

We moved in two years ago to a home that we had made most of the design and many architectural choices on, in general we have gotten great feedback about our home. The only glaring exception was the only visit from my brother-in-law who commented on our wood accent beams in the dining and family rooms and the 22 ft cathedral vaulted wood lined ceiling in the study which he turned to me and said, 'as one realtor to another, you know these ceilings look cheap right?' Strange to think he's only ever going to have that one invite to my home...

My DD (10 yr old) had a new friend over recently. The kid walked in the door and said..."Whoa...my mom said you're poor, but I think she's wrong!"

Most comments have to do with either the size (7 bedrooms)or the view (water). Almost everybody asks how I keep it clean (ain't easy with six kids).

Many people are bothered by the fact that I don't have a door on my walk-in shower.

I think the biggest compliment is when people ask if I can help pick out colors, or general decorating advice for their home.

lori- I have a fairly large shower (5x7) tiled floor to ceiling and no door. People who see it are always saying what a great idea that is...no glass to clean!

And I give you props. Six kids and a clean house? Very impressive. I have 1 kid and struggle to keep my house clean, LOL.

I get, "Wow! How colorful!" I do get a lot of compliments on my drapes, which is preferable to people grabbing them and wrapping the fabric around themselves--which has happened.

But what really bugs me is the number of people who come in and say, "Is this house new construction?"

I bought a 1924 house. I restored missing trim work. I picked my color palette out of a 1929 Armstrong magazine ad. I put up reproduction '20s sconces by the fireplace. I have illustrations of flappers over my couch, and three pieces of original Chinese Art Deco art.

And I get, "Is this new?"

Our previous home was a gorgeous English Tudor on a park-like piece of property. When speaking to a name-dropping, social climbing acquaintance she remarked that she and her husband had just seen a magnificent home on the street where we lived.

As she described this dream house, I realized she was speaking about our home. I told her so and she kept on describing the house as though what I'd just said wasn't sinking in,saying "It's not your house" and continuing to describe it in more detail.

Finally, I told her that was our home. She got quiet and then, in astonishment, asked......"YOU live there?" How does one respond to that?

My MIL, who is not a cat lover, once told me people would never know I had 4 cats (meaning the house doesn't smell like a litter box). She meant it as a compliment and that's how I took it ;)

I don't have a home story to share because I am either I am too forgetful to remember any or no one has ever commented positively or negatively. I'll probably think of one as soon as I hit "submit message".

I do have a little story about a comment that still makes me chuckle, 20 years later.

When I was buying a car the dealer didn't have the color I wanted in stock so he had to get it from another dealer. I was showing the brochure, with the 1 inch color samples, to my Dad and said this is the color they need to locate for me. His incredulous response was "you're waiting for that color?". Hee, hee, hee...still makes me laugh when I think of his expression.

He claimed, when he saw the car in it's full Misty Dawn glory, that it was just too hard to tell the color on the 1 inch sample.

Great spinoff topic, Oakely!

Our previous home... I was usually prepared for whatever comments I got, but I was rendered speechless when an aquaintance walked in the front door, looked around and said...

"Gosh. I don't think I'm important enough to be in this house."

Tinycastles, how funny we have a very similar shower (mine might be 5x6???) but get opposing comments. Somebody recently said..."wow, you ARE busy, you still haven't had time to put a door on."

And I didn't say the house is ALWAYS clean, haha, but it usually is, at least for company. It's hard because we both work full time. My biggest issue is we're always on the move, so we come home, eat, then run to the next activity. Hard to stay neat, but I have lots of help and am proud of what I can do in general.

I think the key thing to remember here is most of us love our homes (unless we're doing a reno and living like cavemen..BTDT) and even if how we decorate is not attractive to others, as long as we're happy, that's all that matters. It's good that so many people brush off the "interesting" comments. Some people might say my house and its occupants are all wacky, but I love it and them!

I think the comments I'm stunned about are the "shoestring budget" and being "poor." What the heck? It makes you wonder what exactly people are saying about you while they eat their dinner! lol.

Kudos, though, to Leafy for such a perfect retort.

I laughed out loud at that.

People are such dolts...

Leafy, I can so relate to this part of your post...And my all-time favorite: "It's easy for your house to look like this because you're a stay-at-home mom". At the time I was a homeschooling mother of four with three part-time jobs and I volunteered several hours a week. So yeah, I had a LOT more time for tidying up than a woman with two kids in school and a 9 to 5 job. Now her kids are grown and gone, and I bet if I went to her house today it wouldn't be one whit improved! Petty of me, I know.

I used to hate it when people made those comments you wrote of. However, due to all those years of striving for perfection as a mainly stay at home mom when my kids were young and doing EVERYTHING (labor) myself... my house now that the kids are grown is no longer in perfect order and it never will be again most likely. My non-perfect house bugs me but I'm just too worn out physically. I'm aiming for #1 comfort and #2 visually appealing. By the comments I get now I think I have achieved it. I'm much easier to get along with now that I have reached a point where a jacket can be left out or a pair of shoes left out by the door.

Another one here who's home looks smaller from the outside, and the best part of my property is behind my house.

Everyone says that my house is so much larger than they would think from the outside.

My neighbors and I were talking about having another neighborhood holiday get-together ... we did it 2 years ago at my house, and people stayed and partied for a long time. It was a riot! They asked me to do it again since my home is so comfortable and perfectly set up for entertaining. I said sure. This time we're doing a potluck dinner since people stayed so long last time and we only had munchies.

I also have a small nursery and tons of gardens ... a woman was walking through my sale beds wanting me to give her advise on her landscaping. I was having a hard time doing that since she wasn't very verbal about what she liked.

I finally told her that I'm a gardener, not a landscaper ... and she looked at my gardens in front of the house and said in a condescending voice ... "Yes, I can tell." I just laughed when she finally left.

My husband's friend came over and said "Wow! So you're definitely going to repaint this room, right?"

Talking about a room that I chose MS seafoam green for - one of my favorite room colors in the house ;)

(note that the floors will be redone soon...i hope!)

[spaces design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/home-design-ideas-phbr0-bp~)

"What this house needs is more books!"

Said sotto voce (but meant to be heard) by a very charming guest -- and truly meant as a sarcastic joke as my house is positively layered with books!

What that guest said was both funny and truthful. We constantly battle a limit. We have all the bookcases we need, and most are glassfronted and lovely as furniture.

We are now going to E-Ink, as far as possible. Love my Kindle. If a book comes in -- 10 books have to go.

Having said that, I'm darned if I will get rid of my hard back copy of "Little Women" . On the front page is my Grandma's Christmas wishes and my own hand written addition -- read by *name* January, 1962 aged seven.

That is just representative of some of the books that are staying. Well worn and loved.

Book cases are good. Loved books are good. I still love my library because not everything I want to read is available electronically.

jterrilynn, please don't think I was working too hard toward perfection--I think her comments were based more on her standards being low than mine being high. With three dogs, three rabbits, a cat, birds, guinea pigs, four kids, etc. in 1400 square feet, I don't think "perfection" was even on the map. I just don't do clutter. Unless Eau du Barnyard is part of perfection, I'm not gettting anywhere near it.

Hi Leafy, oh no I wasn't really putting perfection out there as your personal meaning. I just remember getting pretty irked with some of the comments at the time. I'm guessing I must have made it all look so easy or something.

"So this is what the haunted house looks like inside."

:)

We have a very high-pitched roof - much higher than surounding houses. Other than that, it's just your normal surburban house...

@daisyinga:

""The most important item of her decor is her sparkling personality, and I always feel comfortable and welcome when I visit her home. I hope she feels the same when she visits mine"

"The above comment from AnnaC is my favorite comment in this whole thread. Maybe my favorite comment in all of the GardenWeb forums. Exactly, AnnaC, that is exactly the way I feel."

Thank you daisyinga. I can't help feel inspiried by my friend's outlook. She's a nurse by profession, a wonderful teacher of both animals and humans, very good with the written word and marvelous with a camera. She's always learning something new, or visiting a new place. She enjoys people, food, music, the outdoors, a good joke, and good times. She's also a cancer survivor. For her, making sure she doesn't miss a great experience trumps having a perfectly decorated house. It's just not something that's important for her, and it's not what's important for our friendship.

Here's to having your house, whatever it's style, feel like home.

My home is a fixer upper with literally every room in the house in some phase of change, so the main visitors I get are handymen, painters and other tradesmen. The number one comment I hear when they walk in the door is "Whoa, you've got yourself a project here". Yes, thank you for noticing. That is why you're here.

I bought a piece of furniture from a lady who owns a local store and she delivered it to the house I had just bought. She told me she lived in a condo but would like to own a house. As we were standing outside talking about househunting she asked what the houses on my street were selling for, probably not the most tactful question to begin with. When I gave her some ballpark figures, she looked at me, astonished, and said, "In THIS neighborhood??" LOL Now,*this* neighborhood is a perfectly respectable, even desirable, location with mature trees and well-maintained ranch and split-level homes. I decided not to take it personally since she said she hasn't been househunting in 20 years. She's got a lot to learn.

The nicest comment I've gotten was from a friend of my sister's who tagged along on a visit. She was walking around admiring things and finally said, "I just love your taste". It was amusing because even when she was out of my sight I could hear her "ooh" at something she saw only to hear her "OOOH" a few minutes later when she saw something she liked even better. Made me feel really good.

Our mountain house is about a 40 year old Swiss chalet with unusual pecky cedar siding. Didn't realize until recently that the boards are actually 1.5 to 2 inches thick. Several previous owners had tried various ways to refinish it, resulting in big blotchy areas of peeling lacquer and other unidentifiable substances. I worried about it weathering more every winter.

We were told under no circumstances to let someone powerwash it due to the spaces between the boards and some of the pecky holes. So it took two summers to find a painter who had the key--sandblast down to bare wood then spray two coats of Sikkens--a product formulated for the extreme conditions far north. This all cost a pretty penny but it totally changed the appearance of the house--which is quite visible from the streets in front and in back of the house.

The neighbors suffered through a week of sandblasting. From a quarter mile away you could see the plume of sawdust and I was still sweeping sand up inside five years later, so huge project.

The teens who lived below us told me, "We used to think your house was the ugliest, worst one in the neighborhood. But now it's the best." I guess if even teenagers approve, that's a good thing?

To the spammer - have you ever tried taking a flying leap into the river?

I just remembered the comment made by a sprinkler system repairman working at our house a couple of years ago: "So, do you get a lot of drive-by shootings around here?" Uh, yeah. That's why we live here. Idiot. We live in an older neighborhood surrounded by a working class neighborhood consisting mostly of Latino families. Because of his senseless, racist comment, he lost us as a customer that day.

There's a Sucker born every minute. Just call me a "sucker" Jen. lol.

Mostly Latinos did work on our remodel/addition. My dh minored in Spanish and he loved conversing with the guys. Best guys ever.

This was our old kitchen and you can kind of see the funky light in front of the window -- it's glass with cool little colorful swirls (it now hangs in the new mudroom.) When my DS was in 2nd grade he had a friend over for lunch who said "Mrs M I really love your light." I loved that kid for saying so!

{{!gwi}}

Fast forward until the boys were in 6th grade, the whole house had been renovated, and about 14 of the boys were over for lunch. They came in from playing outside and came to wash their hands in the kitchen, totally getting in my way. I told them to wash their hands in the power room, which has a high vanity with a vessel sink (below), and one of the boys said "Yes! I love washing my hands in there!" I got such a kick out of that. It's not really that different or special, but I guess he likes the vessel sink.

{{gwi:1501016}}

We have a guest bedroom in the basement that I had painted all red. (I love red.) The painters did NOT want to use that color and kept pointing to the paler/pinker colors on the strip. I kept insisting and one finally said, "Don't you know that if someone stays too long in a room with 4 red walls they go insane?" This was probably 11 years ago and still cracks me up. We have guests down there occassionally, and so far no one has ended up in the loony bin.

{{!gwi}}

Ya know, the heading of my topic has to be THE worst grammar I've ever used.

I don't drink, but I must have been drunk! LOL

In our previous home,my BIL's five yr. old nephew was visiting. He lives in a million plus house, no match for my 1200 sq. ft. humble abode at the time. He seemed perfectly at ease playing with my kids for a few hours, until he looked around and asked me where the rest of my house was! Until that comment, I thought a house was a house to a kid, even if they lived in a mansion. I was wrong. LOL.

I think this has been the most fun thread I've ever read on this forum. I guess the nicest but definitely the
strangest compliment I ever got on my house was back in the mid 1990s. I've long since moved from that house, but at the time I'd remodeled the kitchen just before Christmas. I was friendly with my ex husband and his new wife and they wanted to come over on Christmas Eve to see my girls. So, I offered them use of the house and and I scooted out to visit friends and go to midnight mass. When I returned home my oldest daughter told me their new stepmother spent a long time in the kitchen looking around and complimenting it quite a bit. Fast forward about six months and I drove my girls to Nashville to visit with their dad and stepmother for a few weeks. They invited me in for a soft drink before I began my trip back home. I walked into the kitchen and it was MY kitchen..cabinets...flooring...color choices...light fixtures. I complimented her house, but never did let on that I realized she had copied my kitchen down to the hardware on the cabinets. It was very weird. haha. But, I guess it's a classic example of the old saying that imitation is the best form of flattery. Still...considering she was imitating an ex wife is truly weird. haha.

I can't think of any negative comments about our house....people must wait until they are leaving to talk amongst themselves, lol.

I often hear something very much like this when people come in the first time,"if I lived here I would never want to leave the house!".

And then they go outside and say, "How can you ever force yourself to come inside?"

But the best compliment we ever received was from an older couple the year we were on a Christmas tour of homes. We were the first house they visited and they never left! We weren't present, the docents told us later that this couple inspected every room thoroughly several times, then went out on the screened porch and sat for about an hour, enjoying the view. When they got up to leave they told the guy who took them in the golf cart back to their car that they were just going home, our house had been worth the entire price of the ticket and they didn't need to see anything else!

kswl..I think that is the nicest compliment I've read thus far. Such a sweet couple.

I have a good friend I dearly love, but she has a way with her comments that I don't always know how to take...or how to reply :) It's funny that we like a lot of the same things, but decorate very differently.
Commenting on my kitchen walls, a deep marine blue that I love, "I would never paint my kitchen this color."
On my cabinets I pain-stakingly painted a creamy white "I don't like white cabinets, but yours don't look bad."
On the dark stained oak table my grandparents had and gifted to me, "Why do you have this Long John Silver's table?" That one bothered me, I have a lot of memories associated with it.
Her husband loves my black dining room, and says something nice everytime we have them over. She reserves comment on that one, too funny!
She has said some nice things about some of the art I've collected and a piece here and there.

One of the nicest things said was by the girlfriend of my male friend from work. She said that my style was so warm. That's the point of everything I do, to create the feeling of welcome and, at the same time, surrounding myself with things I love.

I'd love to see more photos with all the comments!

One of my good friends really likes my house. The first time that she came inside (a year or two ago), she said "Oooh, the inside of your house is so nice, it's a real 'grown-up''s house." She has made similar compliments since then, and often uses the phrase 'grown-up' to describe my decor. I've always found that hilarious because she's in her 40s and I'm 37 (it's not like we're college students); we've been 'grown-ups' for years, so I'm not quite sure why it's so surprising that my house reflects that.

I've loved reading through this thread.

We're only the fourth owners of our 105 year old house. The family before us owned it for 62 years. When we moved in, every single person that we met in the neighborhood informed us that the son was a landscaper, and that he kept up the gardens after the mom grew old and frail. He used to put in new tulip bulbs for her every fall and would put the old ones on the curb, free for the taking. We must have heard some version of that information a hundred times.

Since we've been here, all five of the kids that grew up here have come to visit. Most recently, the youngest son (the infamous landscaper) and his wife rang our doorbell about two months ago. They were in town and hoped it was OK if they dropped by to see the house again. I was thrilled and gave them the tour. My favorite comment that I've ever gotten about our house was when he walked into our kitchen addition that we built three years ago and said "Mom would have LOVED this!" Warmed me to the core.

On the other hand, no one has ever commented on how clean I keep the place. Hmmm...

My friend told someone, "You should see her house, it looks like a flea market". I'm sure I cocked my head like a dog blinked several times. She really meant that I have some cool stuff. (I think)

It's a 1937 tiny house. Yes, everything is old and used because that's what I like. Furnished from family, friends, ebay and CL.

This is the most enjoyable thread I've read in awhile. We have a 150 year old house that we've been slowly restoring for 20+ years - & there've been no shortage of comments over the years.

My mother: "Why on earth would you think you could ever do that much work?"

DH's brother after 9 months of work to move into the English basement: "It doesn't look nearly as bad as I expected."

An aquaintance who dropped by after we moved in: "Our starter home wasn't much either." At that time, we were in our 40's & our house was probably valued at more than her current surburban home, but she was a nice lady & meant no harm.

"When are you going to paint?" Really..... over the 1/8" of it that's already topping the nail studded & gouged woodwork???

After a kitchen was installed in a formal room with cabinets to the 11' ceiling, good comments were usually
"Wow, great cabinets" or "Those cabinets are REALLY tall" by the disbelievers. The best was from my BIL who did some work & my sister asked how the kitchen looked. "It looks like Hester's house". Mission accomplished!

A younger friend & decorator: "I love the flow".

And the topper - although not 100% house related - was made around Halloween by a dignified elderly lady walking her dog. I have large windows & clean them from the inside by sitting on the sill with my torso on the outside & my feet inside. It was almost dark & I was tired, cold, dirty, & utterly speechless when she commented in a refined, old-money accent: "From up the block, I thought you were the most ADORABLE Halloween decoration!" Yep, that's me - the witch splattered against the house!

antiquesilver:

There have been all sorts of postings in this topic -- sad, warm, funny, but yours was the only one that made me laugh out loud, you adorable decoration, you.

Suero, that incident has amused many of my friends who always bring it up around Halloween. You can't make this stuff up!

Shoe related: just yesterday I was telling a friend about the shoes I bought in so many colors because they are comfy, hide my bunions and look stylish at the sane time; she said "oh yeah, I remember your wearing those last summer,
I personally would never wear those, but they looked good on YOU"

was I dissed ?

I hosted a writing group meeting at my home which was built in 1865 with primitive, country decor. One of the gals had never been there before and when she left she told me my house was comfortable. Now what does that mean, comfortable. I took it as an insult but other friends thought it was a compliment. "comfortable" meaning I made her welcome and she felt at home. What does everyone else think.

I think that is the highest possible compliment that a guest can pay a host.

Now what does that mean, comfortable. I took it as an insult but other friends thought it was a compliment.

Definitely a compliment!

melaniesue, I guess she meant homey and warm, using the word comfortable makes it seem like she was talking about an old pair of shoes so I can see why you felt puzzled. I would have been too, lol....

Sorry mitchdesj, but you were dissed :-)

Before we bought our current 1925 brick bungalow farmhouse, we spent several months gathering estimates from contractors and tradesmen so we could make an informed decision and offer. Now granted, the house is in rather original condition (i.e., very few updates, mechanical upgrades, etc.), had not been lived in for about a year, and had quite an accumulation of possessions from three generations that the heirs hadn't cleaned out yet, but the house is very solid with great bones.

My favorite comment is from the HVAC contractor who walked around and then asked "Has the house been condemned?" Another favorite came secondhand after a general contractor looked at the house for a remodeling job and later told a mutual friend that he thought I had bitten off more than I could chew! Of course, the house wasn't ours yet when these comments were made, but we closed on it a few months ago and are happily restoring it. It wouldn't be charitable to say I want to make them eat their words, but I do sometimes think on what they might say in a year or two!

kk, thanks for your comment; I tend to be sensitive so I was questioning if I took it the right way, not that it matters that much but it's nice to know that I wasn't imagining this.

Same friend visited our condo for the first time and walking through the master bedroom , she exclaimed: "oh my god, I've been seeing those lamps everywhere" ,
( I bought the chandelier type lamp that has a see through silk string shade)

talk about someone needing a filter for her comments.
Her husband commented on my kitchen faucet and said:
"it's that an instrument of torture?".

antiquesilver..I too had to laugh out loud ! That is hilarious and no you can't make up the comments. Would love to see the outside of your home. c

Trailrunner,
- Without the live,'adorable Halloween decoration' on the outside of the main floor window!