Would you live in a Bungalow?

SailorSam

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

One of the reasons we like our bungalow is that it doesn't look old person-y. It did when we first bought it, with the disability ramp up to the door, but we have got rid of that and it's a nice 1930s bungalow with timber detailing.

I'm in quite a big semi at the moment, but as i get older if i was to have a disability i've already got a stair-lift. It was here when i moved in i'm not sure where the key is, but it's somewhere around the house.

Brighton_belle

I grew up in a bungalow so they feels very natural to me. I now live in a house but have made the sitting room upstairs, next to the bedroom so still kind of living on one floor


The only thing I didn't like about it was not feeling safe to open the window at night. But I would certainly choose to live in one as I got older and would find ways to overcome that issue.

rosyw

I have a chalet bungalow, so I still have to go "up to bed" :rotfl: I hate the old person-y type bungalows, I wouldn't want one if I live to be 100! Mine's fairly contemporary, having been designed and built with a young family in mind, so I have open plan kitchen/diner/living room which I love, but I also have the option of living entirely on one floor if I need to when I get "old", the main bathroom is downstairs and I have a downstairs study/3rd bedroom - best of both worlds really. There are plenty of new build bungalows in my area, but they are quite small and I haven't seen another that I've liked & could afford, since I bought my place 5 years ago.

Callie22

I'm not elderly but I really like bungalows - we did think about buying one but they were very much out of our price range. What I like about them is the flexibility of space. My OH works from home and to be able to have an office space 'downstairs' would be much easier for him than our current arrangement, where he has an office in an upstairs bedroom.

Having said that, it does depend very much on the design. I really don't like those tiny bungalows with inside bathrooms and tiny 'afterthought' kitchens, but the bigger 'ranch-style' ones can be lovely.

oystercatcher

We would love a bungalow, both mid fifties and health reasons mean it would be far more convenient to live all on one level. I am soooooo fed up with humping baskets of laundry up and down the stairs etc..

However , two of the children still need a room with us as a home base while they work/study away. We just can't afford a similar sized bungalow to our current house . The most basic 3 bed bungalow , still smaller than our house would be 100k more than the value of our house.

It's all very well people saying get a stairlift but it's not the same, you still can't move baskets of laundy (it's a person OR the basket not both) . My friend had to downsize to a park home instead of a bungalow, she has spinal problems and an unstable bladder and the stairlift just wasn't quick enough to get her up to the toilet !!

There are a few newbuild bungalows appearing, with a combined kitchen/dining/living room (the same size as a normal living room) and two bedrooms, that's just not enough space for us.

Mr_Costcutter

I have had a couple of strokes and for a time was in a wheelchair. Life would have been so much harder had we been living in the house we had whilst bringing our family up. However, we had moved into a bungalow about twelve months before my first stroke - feel it was obviously 'meant to be'.

We really enjoy living in our bungalow. Life on one level as you grow older is certainly a bonus.

scaredlady

Knee problems mean that when we move I will be looking at bungalows.
Although there will just be me and OH I think I will be looking for 3 bedrooms.
Not sure why but I have the feeling 2 beds would be small (silly I know)
I am also not a fan of open plan, so would want a separate kitchen and 1/2 reception rooms, ooh and a proper hall..no coming in the front door straight into the lounge.
Of course I am only dreaming at the moment, when we actually are in a position to move......what will I end up with then?

moneyistooshorttomention

SailorSam wrote: »

I'm in quite a big semi at the moment, but as i get older if i was to have a disability i've already got a stair-lift. It was here when i moved in i'm not sure where the key is, but it's somewhere around the house.

I can follow the logic of keeping one if its already there - but I must admit that and those bathrooms with half height shower screens would be the first thing to go if I bought a place with them. The bungalow I bought had a couple of minor level disability adaptations and they were ripped out quick sharp:rotfl:. I look at various public sector bungalows in the area and see all the ramps and handrails and they would be gone within weeks (if not days) if I had them.

PasturesNew

Round my way there are loads of bungalows for sale .... at prices higher than equivalent sized houses.

To put some figures on it, the last few 2-bed bungalows that've sold went for £55k more than 2-bed houses sold for.

moneyistooshorttomention

scaredlady wrote: »

Knee problems mean that when we move I will be looking at bungalows.
Although there will just be me and OH I think I will be looking for 3 bedrooms.
Not sure why but I have the feeling 2 beds would be small (silly I know)
I am also not a fan of open plan, so would want a separate kitchen and 1/2 reception rooms, ooh and a proper hall..no coming in the front door straight into the lounge.
Of course I am only dreaming at the moment, when we actually are in a position to move......what will I end up with then?

I think what you are thinking re feeling 2 beds would be too small probably stems from the fact that bungalows that are built specifically for old people tend to be very small and I have often wondered how on earth they are supposed to get everything into ones as small as that.

Mine is just a 2 bedroom one - but it has a through lounge size reception room, a pretty decent size kitchen, 2 reasonable size bedrooms, hallway, storage space. The bathroom is smaller than I want unfortunately - but I've ripped everything out of it and redesigned in a way that makes it look bigger.

My bungalow is pretty decent size and in fact has a little more square footage than some recently built 3 bedroom/2 bathroom houses in the area.

Can never understand this "old people can be crammed into a shoe cupboard space" mentality. I would think that the older someone is then the more interests/hobbies/possessions they will have got and will need more space if anything.