viewed another house, but it has no hallway.... is this a problem.

stolt

we lost a house a couple of weeks back in the same new that we saw another today, the buyers had dropped out and we were the first couple to view it today, and its nice, very similar to the first house and cheaper. currently up for 385k the vendors have a house to go to and have been given 2 weeks to find other buyers.

the only problem with this house is that it doesnt have a hallway, its alot of money and you walk straight from the straight into the lounge, we could i suppose build a internal enclosure around the front door.

(((Click on picture for full size)))






front of house is this side.......

Doozergirl

By the look of it, they've removed a few walls!

You could build an enclosure around the front door as you say or you reinstate(?) a hallway by putting a stud wall down the right hand side of the door. It's a bit hard to say without dimensions.

The layout looks a little odd, if I'm honest!

icklejulez

Looks a nice house to me, ant you build a 'nice' porch to the front. Not one of these thrown up in a day malarky's?

Ms_Chocaholic

It depends on who is going to be living there .... if you have children (teenagers particularly) or intend to have children, then it appears from the picture that they will always have to walk through the living room when going from the kitchen to upstairs. If not then being without a hallway wouldn't matter as much but your lounge carpet may get extremely dirty.

I'm not sure of the size of the lounge - if you have enough room could you build a wall from the front door to the stairs making a hallway. I'd also consider knocking the wall out or putting double doors between the kitchen and dining room.

Doozergirl

Ms_Chocaholic wrote:

I'd also consider knocking the wall out or putting double doors between the kitchen and dining room.

I totally see what you're getting at but you could just make the 'sitting room' the new dining room?

I'd be scared of the house falling down if any more walls were removed!

stolt

thanks for the replies, i like the idea of a porch (but the wife doesn't) the houses are only 3 years old so there may well be something in the deeds stating that you cant build past the line.

the houses were built like this.... my ideas were that we either build a enclosure around the door (like a internal porch) or even a hallway done to the stairs. then knock through the lounge and dining room wall or at least a large through door into the back dinning room (at the moment its used a kids playroom while the mother cocks in the kitchen) thereby giving us a longer lounge, there is room in the kitchen to have a table lready so we can already have a family room which i think they call them now..

we curently have three kids , aged 4, 2 and 7 weeks so we need more space and this but for a few tiny tweaks could be it....


these are the rest of the house details.....

would love to here your ideas on it....

Designed for modern living. A 4 bedroom, 3 reception room family home which includes a 19' x 13' fitted kitchen with family room adjoining, a formal lounge open plan to dining room, double bedrooms with en-suite to master bedroom, detached garage and enclosed garden.

Room Dimensions
LOUNGE 17'9 X 15' MAX
DINING ROOM 11'4 X 10'3
KITCHEN 19' X 13'
FAMILY ROOM 16'5 X 13'7 REDUCING TO 7'5
GARAGE 17'4 X 9'


also lastly are there any decent websites to pick up ideas about these kind of things, ie, what can be done with pics of before and after.... so we don't even have the experience of thesse kind of things and would love to see what some people have done even if its way out of our budget.

thanks all again

Doozergirl

The amount of dirt my kids trundle through the house, I'd class a hallway as an essential these days, especially as they get older. The oldest kid is 34 and he just won't be told and he in particular treads half a building site through every day :wall:

Have a think as you are going to be paying full market value for this house. It won't be prohibitively expensive to move walls around but it will be a few thousand as almost without a doubt that wall you want to remove has to be structural! There will still be some evidence of the fact the wall was there (boxing around the RSJ above and some projection on the right hand side where it will rest), so the room *might* be a little awkward. Personally, I wouldn't pay full price for a house to start moving it around

I bet if you keep looking, you'll find something that fits the bill much better.

stolt

Doozergirl wrote:

The amount of dirt my kids trundle through the house, I'd class a hallway as an essential these days, especially as they get older. The oldest kid is 34 and he just won't be told and he in particular treads half a building site through every day :wall:

Have a think as you are going to be paying full market value for this house. It won't be prohibitively expensive to move walls around but it will be a few thousand as almost without a doubt that wall you want to remove has to be structural! There will still be some evidence of the fact the wall was there (boxing around the RSJ above and some projection on the right hand side where it will rest), so the room *might* be a little awkward. Personally, I wouldn't pay full price for a house to start moving it around

I bet if you keep looking, you'll find something that fits the bill much better.

yeah i know what you mean, we made an offer this afternoon after viewing the house (on at 385k, and we offered 378k) they bought the house 3 years ago for 365k. These houses usually go quickly and this very house was sold within 48 hours which i suppose is quite quick, buyer pulled out because they dont like the noise of a road nearby.

I dont mind the additional work if i can get a house that fits our needs perfect, I don't know why but I dont think there is a ever a house out there thats perfect in every way, upstairs the rooms are huge with big built in wardrobes, its just downstairs that is the problem.

epz_2

as far as i am concerned a hallway is dead space, i looked at a flat with a 34foot by 6foot hallway, i mean what a waste of space for somewhere to wipe your feet and spend i guess at most 5% of your time.

i would be perfectly happy to walk straight into a lounge and if dirt got to be an issue you could hardwood floor it with a few rugs.

clairefun

Having lived in this sort of thing, I'm looking forward to having a hallway in the house I'm buying - somewhere to put coats, damp puchchairs, shoes, etc without cluttering up the lounge. Also, it feels quite weird to have post & papers delivered straight into your front room, less private somehow. SO a hallway was an actual requirement of ours when househunting.

barnaby-bear

Ms_Chocaholic wrote:

It depends on who is going to be living there .... if you have children (teenagers particularly) or intend to have children, then it appears from the picture that they will always have to walk through the living room when going from the kitchen to upstairs. If not then being without a hallway wouldn't matter as much but your lounge carpet may get extremely dirty.

I'm not sure of the size of the lounge - if you have enough room could you build a wall from the front door to the stairs making a hallway. I'd also consider knocking the wall out or putting double doors between the kitchen and dining room.

It's not the dirt, I lived in a house like this, problem with stairs straight up was a) noise you can't ever shut that room off and feel cosy b) heating it's a big chimney funnelling all the warm air upstairs...