Was there anything you didn't notice as quite common until looking to buy?

GoldenShadow

Until we viewed the house we are buying, I didn't realise how many houses have windows directly opposite to each other allowing peering in if so desired.

For example, windows looking straight onto pavements directly opposite other houses. Lounges, bedrooms etc. as a result most have net curtains or closed blinds. Certainly helped me re evaluate and compromise a bit more.

Did you notice anything that turned out quite common when searching that you hadn't considered previously?

GwylimT

Carpets in bathrooms were more common than I realised, all with a smell of stale urine!

G_M

Architects always take householders' need into consideration.

Gorg

Sizeable houses with tiny box kitchens. Almost every house we looked at had the same thing, which was a deal breaker for me.

Innys1

Gorg wrote: »

Sizeable houses with tiny box kitchens. Almost every house we looked at had the same thing, which was a deal breaker for me.

Why do people do this? Don't they realise that kitchens and bathrooms sell a house?

rosyw

Gorg wrote: »

Sizeable houses with tiny box kitchens. Almost every house we looked at had the same thing, which was a deal breaker for me.

Couldn't agree more! there's a lot of otherwise lovely houses that have minuscule kitchens, took me ages to fine one with a kitchen I could actually cook in! I have no idea how people cope with these tiny kitchens when they're cooking for a family, I couldn't cope with just me! The same seems to apply to bathrooms, lots of so called "family" bathrooms no bigger then a cupboard.

Gingernutty

An odd arrangement where the front door is at the side of the house.

A single gate and garden path serves the two detached neighbours.

If you're stuck between a noisy attached neighbour and the detached neighbour is also some sort of wazzock, then life is going to be as hard as living in a terrace.

Brown_Eyed_Girl

Boilers in bedrooms, in some cases not encased in a cupboard. It's the "has to be on an outside wall for tenanted property" rule. But so very weird, especially in a very small bedroom.

Gingernutty

Talking about bathrooms....

Nice apartments, well presented and maybe a shot of a bathroom that's gone scuzzy round the edges towards the end.

Mould, scale, general dirt, grimy grout...puts me right off.

Not outright :eek: but nasty looking 'edges' that says the occupiers haven't been looking after the place.

http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/37387594?search_identifier=f7679d0eca1231c9dff8883fc588c80b

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-53857331.html

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-46980373.html

moneyistooshorttomention

Yep...when I was looking for my first house.

I went looking "knowing" that back gardens are private, kitchens are decent-size, nothing needs obvious maintenance, neighbours' noise isn't a problem, the area doesn't have litter or graffiti etc around, most houses have conservatories

........and then I realised that I'd been assuming its the norm for houses to be like my parents' house and the only difference I had thought there would be in a starter terrace house would be that it was physically attached to one or two other peoples' houses/would probably not have a garden/wouldn't have a garage.:rotfl:

That was now decades ago and I confess to still feeling a bit "shocked" that that isn't minimum standard for even many "higher up ladder" houses now.

********************

On swopping house recently - I've been surprised how old-fashioned many secondhand houses are and surprised at lack of maintenance on houses that people don't seem to have regarded as "climbing the ladder" houses. I'd always assumed that people would be all the keener to maintain houses they regarded as "permanent homes".

GoldenShadow

Gorg wrote: »

Sizeable houses with tiny box kitchens. Almost every house we looked at had the same thing, which was a deal breaker for me.

YES!

I don't much like open plan anyway, but having 2 x dogs, a 7ft x 7ft kitchen as the only downstairs room with a door really doesn't cut it...