British Shoeboxes Aren't Big Enough for a Jolly Good Xmas

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

PasturesNew wrote: »

we had less stuff in those days, making rooms seem bigger.

Hit the nail on the head there....

BitterAndTwisted

I don't think it's so much when older houses were built but more about who they were built for. There's a tiny little terraced house which I've been admiring for a long time down in Deal where some chums live and I swear the house is no wider than six feet. Definitely not built for the middle classes.

Some new-builds I've seen have reception rooms which wouldn't be big enough for a three-seat sofa. Family home? Only for midgets maybe

puddy

we moved in here recently and i have to say that the rooms are a bit small for me, the living room is about 10x12, dining room about the same, kitchen is miniscule, our bedroom is i think 12x12. this was built 1929, although we are having the utility room 'done up' as i speak, which is vital for extra storage and washing airers, ladder etc etc

my previous 60's flat was 16x16 for the living room, 14x14 for the main bedroom, 8x12 for second bedroom, kitchen smallish but square so units all around, unlike this one with one three walls, 2 of which have doors in. i do miss the big rooms and feeling of space but i cant really grumble, i now have a garden and am living where i want to

PasturesNew

the_ash_and_the_oak wrote: »

tho tbf don't think i've ever actually been inside a new-build

My friend bought one 9 years ago, to live in alone. 4 beds, detached, integral garage.

Her kitchen's literally the size of a bus shelter. If you count it round in terms of cabinet doors, it was 2,4,2.

Her garage was so small she couldn't open the doors of her car, so from day one turned it into a storage/utility area.

The living room was OK for 4 people sitting sedately on a suite, but no room to spread out. The dining room was too small for her table, so she had to get a smaller one - and once the table was out there was no room for free movement around the table... first two in and sat down had to stay there until the end.

It's a good job it's just her really... and when I would go round I couldn't stand and chat in the kitchen while she made a coffee, I had to sit in the other room until she brought the tray through.

More recently (in the past 2 months), I've been round a new build that's not finished. When I went round it had all the walls, first fix, radiators hung, windows/doors in place, kitchen units fitted .. it's difficult to gauge how big rooms are for where furniture will go when it's like that.

puddy

apparently you have to look at the ceiling although ive always thought that it makes the room look a lot smaller (now i know everyone reading this is looking at their ceiling)

BitterAndTwisted

It's also difficult to imagine how it will look with your own furniture in there when the b@st@rd developers put miniature furniture in there. I viewed a show-flat and house across the way and even the kitchen counters were shallower than normal. Dolls houses they were.

NEH

My mum's house is a new build and it's the other way around, her downstairs is quite small but her bedrooms are all doubles except one....and the garage well you'd only get a tiny daewoo in it or whatever they're called now....At Christmas if there is 4 of us staying then furniture has to be moved before we can all see the telly and goodness help you if you need the toilet, it's an assult course worthy of the Krypton factor to get there...

I do notice though a lot of new build lounges are getting narrower and narrower....Some of them on the internet I have seen when we were looking at properties to rent I did wonder how you could get a sofa in and anything else in front of it....Some of them by the time you had a sofa in were about as much use as a corridor...

PasturesNew

NEH wrote: »

My mum's house is a new build and it's the other way around, her downstairs is quite small but her bedrooms are all doubles except one....and the garage well you'd only get a tiny daewoo in it or whatever they're called now....At Christmas if there is 4 of us staying then furniture has to be moved before we can all see the telly and goodness help you if you need the toilet, it's an assult course worthy of the Krypton factor to get there...

I do notice though a lot of new build lounges are getting narrower and narrower....Some of them on the internet I have seen when we were looking at properties to rent I did wonder how you could get a sofa in and anything else in front of it....Some of them by the time you had a sofa in were about as much use as a corridor...

My parents' house is like that ... the sofa can only go on one wall, opposite the chimney breast. With the long coffee table in front of them it's fine while it's just them, but the minute any of the rest of us are there it's an obstacle course every time any one person stands up or wants to leave/arrive. There's not the room for enough furniture for all of us, and I always get the short straw.

NEH

PasturesNew wrote: »

My parents' house is like that ... the sofa can only go on one wall, opposite the chimney breast. With the long coffee table in front of them it's fine while it's just them, but the minute any of the rest of us are there it's an obstacle course every time any one person stands up or wants to leave/arrive. There's not the room for enough furniture for all of us, and I always get the short straw.

With my mum's place she has two small sofas opposite each other, one against the window next t the telly but you have to swing it around to see the telly....I always make sure I've been to the toilet and have enough food and drink it's ridiculous, like going on a journey...:rotfl:

carolt

Agree - anything less than 12" wide is really just a corridor - OK for a smaller bedroom maybe, but wouldn't consider a living room under 12" x 12" minimum.

Not true about kids seeing things differently, though. As a kid, we used to go religiously to the Ideal Home exhibition - no idea why, as my parents haven't bought any new furniture in the last 50 years, let alone a house....

Anyway, I remember being shown round all the show homes and thinking they were miniscule even then. Certainly most of the recent newbuilds I've been in are miniscule - though some (60's? 50's?) do have better size rooms.