Would you live in a Bungalow?

mumps

fierystormcloud wrote: »

I am not having a go at you, I am just saying that the reasons you give for not living in a bungalow, seem to be problems that would not come up (very often.)

I am confused by the sentence that I bolded.

My neighbors bungalow, and many others in the area, have their bedrooms at the front so that you can enjoy the views from lounge/kitchen etc.

So are the bedrooms, or the lounge and kitchen, at the front? This sentence indicated (to me) that they all are.

Have to say, if any bedrooms are at the front, then that is rare. Every bungalow I have seen has not had them at the front.

I also stand by what I say, that the likelihood of people coming to the bedroom windows, and knocking on them and looking in, is very small.

Each to their own though. If you don't fancy one, that's your prerogative.

The views are to the rear so the bedrooms are at the front leaving the rooms you use during the day, when you can enjoy the views, at the rear. I can't think of how my saying having the bedrooms at the front could mean anything other than the bedrooms are at the front. I can't think of any bungalows round here, and there are alot, where the bedrooms are at the rear. If you think about it some people on here have talked about having a conservatory added and in my experience conservatories are normally at the back of your house off the lounge so that would indicate to me that alot of bungalows have the bedrooms to the front and the living rooms to the rear.

Well the old ladies who used to come into the police station where I worked complaining about teenagers running in their front gardens and knocking on their windows and frightening them must have been making it up. The one old lady who had someone nextdoor who had been released from a psychiatric unit who came and stared in her bedroom window must have been making it up as well.

Oh if only we had you to sort it all out and tell them it wasn't a problem.

If I came on here and said to the people in wheelchairs or with arthritic knees that they should live in a house because stairs are no problem would you think that was rather rude? Well I think it rude that people tell me, suffering from chronic insomnia, that it would be OK to sleep downstairs because in their opinion it isn't a problem and it would be OK to open a small window instead of a large one even though I know that I need the large window open.

I think SDW started this thread to ask if people would live in a bungalow not to persuade people that they should. Perhaps she could correct me if I am wrong. And yes it is my prerogative to live in a house and long may I do so.

SDW glad you are enjoying your bungalow, I don't want to put people off bungalows but just a bit fed up at being told I am somehow in the wrong because it wouldn't suit me. I am sure there are things I have or do that wouldn't suit you, doesn't mean either of us are wrong.

mumps

Missus_Hyde wrote: »

My parents lived in a chalet bungalow for the last twenty (father) and thirty (mother) years of their lives and loved the house very much. It was a very easy house to maintain and sell (within two days and before it was actually on the market) so obviously bungalows are very popular. My mother-in-law lives in one as well and it would lend itself very nicely to a lovely extension.

Having said that, I wouldn't actually want to live in one myself as I don't really like them very much. However, I would emphasise that it is only my own preference and nothing to do with bungalows per se. As for them being an easier option for older people, I can see how not having to negotiate stairs could be a bonus; however, I had a complete hip replacement last March and prior to that was almost completely incapacited and on crutches and yet I was able before and after the operation to go up and down our stairs, once I got my crutches organised!

I'd forgotten my spell on crutches. I was pretty hopeless on them, the nurses on the ward fell about at my first attempts, but I was also able to use them well on the stairs, isn't that funny. It was useful where I worked in an old building that was quite small and on 4 floors so most moving about involved stairs. Everyone thought it would be a problem for me but it really wasn't.

mumps

Davesnave wrote: »

"Bungalow legs?" Might have been me that said that, because I recognise the condition, although it has nothing to do with lack of exercise.

Here, I have no stairs, but 5.5 acres of land keep me pretty active, and with renovation work going on most of the time, I'm up and down ladders a lot too.

However, none of that activity is quite the same as going up and down stairs, with which I don't feel so adept, compared with when I lived and worked with them every day. I always used to run up, working on the basis that it was doing me at least a little bit of good.

I would liken it to writing, which I also find much harder now that almost everything is typed. So, it's not that I can't write or climb stairs, but I don't feel so good at it now.

I remember a thread where they mentioned bungalow knees, I think the idea was that your knees would get stiffer from not using stairs. I recognise what you say about writing, I hardly ever write now and my handwriting has suffered.

chris_m

mumps wrote: »

I recognise what you say about writing, I hardly ever write now and my handwriting has suffered.

Hehe, I've got that t-shirt too. I don't find writing particularly hard, but actually being able to read what I jotted down can be a real challenge

Contessa

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Someone on MSE made a quote about "bungalow legs" at one point. Think it might have been DavesNave???

I'd not heard that phrase before and it got me wondering whether people living in bungalows should do some "marching up and down on the spot" or similar exercise or no in order to keep their leg muscles in full working order.

I sorta rather forgot that phrase - because, living in West Wales, means there are a lot of hills round here anyway - so I tend to assume that would at least equate to going up and down stairs umpteen times a day. What da' ya think Dave? - Does that make logical sense?

EDIT; I just put that phrase "bungalow legs" in Google and it came up with quite a few entries. Must head back and read them....

'Twas I

"
I live in a house and relocating so I'm looking at both houses and bungalows. Of those I've seen it was a bungalow that was the largest. It would certainly be good not to have to hoover the stairs. I keep an old hoover upstairs so I don't have to carry one up and down the stairs. Stairs are good exercise though and prevent "Bungalow Legs" (whereby older people find stairs difficult as they don't get this daily exercise)"

Davesnave

Contessa wrote: »

'Twas I

Glad it was you, not me, because I didn't remember coining the phrase, although I instantly identified with it.

That's another thing that goes with age....um....whatever it was...

Contessa

Davesnave wrote: »

Glad it was you, not me, because I didn't remember coining the phrase, although I instantly identified with it.

That's another thing that goes with age....um....whatever it was...

Actually, I heard the phrase on the Jimmy Young show when I was driving down to Devon to visit my mother-in-law.

My M-i-L said she found steps and stairs difficult so I "diagnosed" her as suffering from "Bungalow Legs"

She bought herself a sort of pedal that she could use when sitting down which I suppose was a form of exercise but probably not as good as stairs.

strenkt

After growing up in the Caribbean where most of the houses were just one level I don't see anything wrong with it at all. A few that I have seen seem to be built on larger plots of land as well. I'm not quite sure why they are associated with home for the older generation to be honest. there are some really nice ones about.

S

Addiscomber

Davesnave wrote: »

Get a couple of foxes mating outside your bedroom window at 3am, :rotfl:

You don't need to live in the country to hear foxes mating. We hear them clearly in a totally built up part of Croydon. The first time I heard them I was convinced that someone was attacking a child

Forgot to say that I'd love to move to a bungalow, but they are as rare as hen's teeth around here, and I'll never convince the family to move away. I'm resisting having a stairlift as I am finding the stairs quite difficult, but I fear that it is coming.

Petra_70

I would move into a bungalow in a heartbeat. I would love it. I have heard from people who have them, that they are easier to keep clean, easier to get around, easier to sleep in, (as it's quieter in the bedrooms than it is in a house,) and they have cheaper utility bills. (No heat rushing upstairs.)

I also cannot see the fuss with the bedrooms being downstairs. What's the big deal?

I would think that the people who claim that people come banging at the windows and peering in, probably live in rough areas. Where I live (medium sized village location,) there are around 50 bungalows, and it never happens here. They all have the bedrooms at the back and the living area at the front too. I have yet to see a bungalow with the bedroom at the front.

As for people not being so fit if they have a bungalow. What nonsense. The older people who live in the bungalows in my village are much more active than the older people who live in a house.