House with a downstairs kitchen - annoying?

phoebe1989seb

I agree with Jo, a few extra stairs/flights of stairs aren't an issue if you're fit enough to cope with them I'm another one that will fall over anything - I'd 'fall over a pin' is what was said about me as a child, or more recently someone described it as being prone to tripping over the pattern on a carpet, lol :rotfl:

Despite that I never had any issues when we lived in our three storey plus mezzanine Victorian house - although we did have particularly wide, shallow stairs designed for an age of more graceful living no doubt

Whilst our living room wasn't on a higher floor *as such*, our kitchen was situated in the rear of the three storey part in a kind of semi-basement that involved negotiating several stairs to get from kitchen (former servants' quarters) to living room and dining room which were in the grander front section. Formal dinner parties/Christmas etc was fun - transporting meals from one end of the house to the other but no-one ever tripped and spilled food on the stairs. On a day-to-day basis we ate in the kitchen/breakfast room. Also, during the renovations (mainly done ourselves over a few years) we used an upstairs kitchen (from the house's former incarnation as four flats) whilst our living room was on a lower floor and we coped with this with a small child in tow

As a family we kept very fit running up and down stairs and having lived in a two storey house last move, I'm personally pleased to be back in a three storey house now - in fact we did actually consider reconfiguring the space to include a first floor living room (like a formal piano nobile) in our current Georgian house.......

Whatever you decide OP, hope it works out for you!

penguingirl

My friend has a house like this- they have a small kitchen (with a table for 2) and a dining room downstairs (similar layout to this but dining room where they have a downstairs bedroom http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-41300291.html)

I think it suits them, but they always eat in the dining room. If you are a family who eat in your lounge I think it would get annoying carrying things upstairs. One thing they noted was the increased privacy of having a lounge upstairs. We've stayed with them and I wouldn't say it made a difference in terms of entertaining.

Smith_007

Victorian townhouse?
Downstairs kitchen?

It's because the servants did the cooking downstairs silly.
You need to get yourself a maid and a butler





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EmmaBridgewater

Downstairs kitchen? As opposed to what?! Upstairs lounge is oddity. I had an upstairs longue in my student house and that was only a minor inconvience.

However I think it sounds charming!

ndf9876

lincroft1710 wrote: »

The problem isn't the "downstairs" kitchen, it's the "upstairs" lounge.

Most kitchens are on the ground floor, upstairs lounges are a feature of some new style 3 storey townhouses, although the idea dates back to the 18th century.

Absolutely this. Most new builds I know of that are 3-storey townhouses (we have various friends living in builds from TW, Bellway and Barratt) all adopt this ground floor layout - ground floor loo, large kitchen / diner, small study.

wildheart83

The house I grew up in was a similar layout. Kitchen, loo and spare room (utility type room) downstairs, living room and bed 3 on level 1, beds 1 and 2 plus bathroom on level 2. We loved it, although it wasn't big enough to have a sofa and kitchen table in there.
We were encouraged to go out in the garden to play while mum made dinner, she could get on with things while keeping an eye on us in the garden.

Yes there are stairs to deal with constantly (28 in our house from bottom to top) and it teaches you not to forget things! We were forever told not to play on the stairs but of course we did it anyway. We had many a carpet burn from falling/sliding down stairs!