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

RobertoMoir

PasturesNew wrote: »

That sounds like a big room... how many feet?

Hmm... "more than big enough for me" is my usual answer because I don't usually have a tape handy, but as its you and as I'm decorating/modernising at the moment and do have a tape handy, I've just checked and the tape says 15.5 by about 10. It's a 70s council house development, the living room used to be a living-room/diner but my parents put up a dividing wall and knocked a door between the dining room half and the kitchen, and the diner is about 10 by 10. Both areas work well enough that's for sure.

PasturesNew

As a single person, looking at house sizes, by the time you've got on the ground floor what you want/need, upstairs you're often paying for lots of tiny bedrooms.

I'd just like a living room, L shaped into an open plan kitchen, with breakfast bar dividing them. French doors leading to outside. A utility room, downstairs loo. A garage.

Upstairs one master/en-suite, one other bedroom and a bathroom, would be enough.

But here it's all about "the number of bedrooms you can squeeze in", which doesn't do anybody any favours.

RobertoMoir

PasturesNew wrote: »

I want to layout my parents' room better... but it's their home and they won't let me. Yes, I asked .. several times. I sit there most of the time mentally changing it round... but not allowed to touch it.

Also, radiators are often in bad places... right where you want to put something.

I know what you mean. I think my parents would be very... uh very surprised if they could see their old house right now. I've made a lot of changes, not the least of which are knocking down a couple of old cupboards I thought were in wasted areas and running network cable through the house to stream movies and interweb access all aroudn the house easily.

baileysbattlebus

Really2 wrote: »

Is it a town house style? (they are usualy big beds and small on the ground floor.)

Often if a house has an integral garage the downstairs is quite small as a large proportion of the footprint is taken up by the garage - the bedrooms are usually decent sizes though.

We have a decent sized family house - it was built in the mid 1960's by a local builder.

The kitchen is 12ft x 13ft - the living room 19ft x 16ft and the dining room 17ft x11ft, we have a study and a decent sized utility, and the hall is 15ft x 12ft, the hall sold the house to us when we first viewed it, we used to tell the kids and now tell our grandson to go and play in the hall! It's like an extra room - no coats though - they go in the utility. It was ideal for our needs when we bought it. And great for parties and Xmas as the main rooms have big archways and not doors - even the kitchen into the dining room. Good for mingling.

We are looking to move and downsize at the end of next year - however our plans to look for a brand new house have fallen by the wayside - because of the room sizes - I've been quite surprised that a 4 bedroomed house can have a living room that is about 10 feet wide (they are supposed to be family houses) - I know we want smaller but my idea was that we would reduce the bedrooms from 5 to 4 or 3 but still have a decent sized living area. If we bought a new build with similar size rooms to what we have it would cost us a fortune.

If we were younger I'd buy a plot of land and go down the self build route - but with a builder.

NEH

Really2 wrote: »

Is it a town house style? (they are usualy big beds and small on the ground floor.)

No it's a normal layout... it just seems for the lounge/dining room downstairs there does seem to be more room upstairs....

We're currently renting and the way they've done this place (this one is a town house layout) with it's converted loft there is very little room for storage....We use the hallway in the converted loft for storage and things like a trunk coffee table works wonders....though one of the two bedrooms downstairs houses not only husband's office but where we have to store two bikes as there is no room outside except to park two cars. How they can say this house is suitable for a family I don't know. My husband's tools passed down from his Grandad have had to be sent up to his parents loft as there is no room and some of my stuff like books and dvds has had to stay with my mum.

PasturesNew

baileysbattlebus wrote: »

We have a decent sized family house - it was built in the mid 1960's by a local builder.

The kitchen is 12ft x 13ft - the living room 19ft x 16ft and the dining room 17ft x11ft, we have a study and a decent sized utility, and the hall is 15ft x 12ft,

That's a bit of a monster size isn't it.

puddy

im confused as to why all the 'newly converted or refurbished' flats and houses have en suits on nearly every bedroom. i saw once a flat, not new built but i think newly converted and it was 3 beds and had 3 en suites but no general bathroom, which means that when you have guests visiting (not staying) they have to go into your bedroom to use the loo. i cant understand this

PasturesNew

One of today's TV programmes was a couple and their 6 kids (all boys, probably all under age 10). They had a 3 bedroom house. Bed1 housed 2 boys, Bed2 housed 2 boys, Bed3 was a junk room but it was a bit bigger than a standard box room. The parents and toddlers slept downstairs.

The programme turned Bed3 into a 2-bunkbed room, Bed2 into a 4-bunkbed room and Bed1 into a master bedroom for the parents. It just beggars belief that they hadn't thought of that themselves.

NEH

PasturesNew wrote: »

One of today's TV programmes was a couple and their 6 kids (all boys, probably all under age 10). They had a 3 bedroom house. Bed1 housed 2 boys, Bed2 housed 2 boys, Bed3 was a junk room but it was a bit bigger than a standard box room. The parents and toddlers slept downstairs.

The programme turned Bed3 into a 2-bunkbed room, Bed2 into a 4-bunkbed room and Bed1 into a master bedroom for the parents. It just beggars belief that they hadn't thought of that themselves.

I am one of these weird people that will look at layouts of houses both new build and old but especially new build and I mentally re aarange the whole place or realise what is not working...I think I am a closet architect....:rotfl:

Really2

TBH I would have gone slightly older if this house was not a 2 story house with a seprate garage.big house and economical

I wanted a big house that was economical to run and it wass by far the best deal I could get.

I still could not buy a cheaper house of similar size, If I was looking now I would have to spend at least £35K more.

I am happy with a new build, but if it was a commuter box I would never have purchased it/one I suppose.