House Layout Advice

oligopoly

It's tricky this house-searching lark. The other house we love (for similar money) is the following. It's only a 3 bed semi but much more living space with a large garden. There's me, wife and toddler with another possible little one in the future. Could convert this garage into a spare bedroom/office for £10k; could see us right for 5-10 years...?



Entrance Hall 4.04m (13'3) x 3.45m (11'4)
Lounge/Diner 7.04m (23'1) x 4.09m (13'5)
Conservatory 3.23m (10'7) x 2.59m (8'6)
Kitchen 2.77m (9'1) x 3.43m (11'3)
Breakfast Room/Utility Area 2.49m (8'2) x 2.77m (9'1)
Shower Room 2.74m (9') x 1.68m (5'6)
Bedroom 1 5.38m (17'8) x 2.46m (8'1)
Bedroom 2 3.2m (10'6) x 2.95m (9'8)
Bedroom 3 2.54m (8'4) x 2.26m (7'5)
Bathroom 1.93m (6'4) x 1.63m (5'4)
Brick Built Outbuilding 3.18m (10'5) x 4.9m (16'1)

Doozergirl

The three bed is hugely bigger than the 4 bed, without the conservatory, even.

With some estimation involved, you're looking at 1400 square feet - ish, which should be a sensible sized 4 bed.

The 4 bed is only about 1000 square feet.

Somehow, I have a four bed (three doubles) with an ensuite and a bathroom in a similar space upstairs to the three bed.

The brick outbuilding sounds like a good addition.

oligopoly

Doozergirl wrote: »

Somehow, I have a four bed (three doubles) with an ensuite and a bathroom in a similar space upstairs to the three bed.

That's really interesting. One of the drawbacks of this second house (in my mind) was that the upstairs was quite small... The sides are eaved, however, so we'd definitely need to see what it's like in the flesh.

Originally, our focus was on a 4 bed property - in part to maximise resale value - but I'm now starting to think that a large 3 bed semi could hold similar value to a poky 4 bed detached. Does that sound fair? I know there's no definitive answer :-)

Thanks for your input, Doozergirl and others.

warby68

We had a house almost identical in layout to the first one here but open plan kitchen/dining. It was a bigger footprint though throughout and with a dining area at end of lounge so kitchen only had to offer a breakfast area.

We HATED it due primarily to the lack of proper hall space especially with babies and prams and spent £10k moving to a preferred design 50m away when it came up for sale less than 2y later!! You live and learn.

teneighty

I think this illustrates the strange British addiction to numbers of bedrooms rather than floor area.

The 4 bed house is too small as the bedrooms are tiny, it really should only be a fairly modest 3 bed.

As for the layout of the "4 bed," I'm with missbiggles, knock through kitchen diner, move door along to utility to give more room for kitchen units in corner near cloakroom and new kitchen layout with small peninsular where wall is now. Possibly block off door to understair cupboard and make opening for extra storage from garage.

missbiggles1

oligopoly wrote: »

It's tricky this house-searching lark. The other house we love (for similar money) is the following. It's only a 3 bed semi but much more living space with a large garden. There's me, wife and toddler with another possible little one in the future. Could convert this garage into a spare bedroom/office for £10k; could see us right for 5-10 years...?



Entrance Hall 4.04m (13'3) x 3.45m (11'4)
Lounge/Diner 7.04m (23'1) x 4.09m (13'5)
Conservatory 3.23m (10'7) x 2.59m (8'6)
Kitchen 2.77m (9'1) x 3.43m (11'3)
Breakfast Room/Utility Area 2.49m (8'2) x 2.77m (9'1)
Shower Room 2.74m (9') x 1.68m (5'6)
Bedroom 1 5.38m (17'8) x 2.46m (8'1)
Bedroom 2 3.2m (10'6) x 2.95m (9'8)
Bedroom 3 2.54m (8'4) x 2.26m (7'5)
Bathroom 1.93m (6'4) x 1.63m (5'4)
Brick Built Outbuilding 3.18m (10'5) x 4.9m (16'1)

Much, much better!

teneighty

missbiggles1 wrote: »

Much, much better!

I prefer the first house but with the alterations to the kitchen and knocking bedrooms 3 and 4 into one.

albert_s

it really is a no brainer,
the 2nd house is much better,
why do you think the first house is in an affluent area? because some people are stupid enough to pay over inflated prices for property that is in reality worth much less.
the first house is in all honesty a 2up 2down that some idiot has even decided to put an ensuite into,
the mind boggles at some folks perception of added value,,,,

benson1980

Detached has a lot of benefits over a semi, particularly with kids- can make as much noise as you/they like without worrying about neighbours. If its on a decent sized plot with scope to extend then sounds promising. The first is obviously a lot more modern and generally the space is just utilized better rather than older semis.

Our four bed detached is around 53sq metres on the first floor and there's enough room for us and two kids. One room is obviously a box room but then we just needed three decent sized bedrooms.

cyantist

The lounge/diner in the second one is over 40% bigger than the living room plus dining room in the first. How big are the bedrooms in the first house? They all look very small.

It really annoys me when 4 bed houses have nowhere near enough living space for 4/5 people, and it doesn't help when there are huge garages eating up the ground floor space. That 4 bed just isn't big enough to be a 4 bed house.

If you did buy that one, best thing would probably convert the garage to a dining room, then have the kitchen diner across the back of the house. However then you lose the garage (wouldn't bother everyone but I'd never even look at at a house with a converted garage) and those changes may well cost more than 20k

I love having a detached house and it has a lot of benefits but if the choice was just based on space I'd go for the semi. The outbuilding could also mean you don't outgrow the house for a while as it could be used for so many different things. We are thinking of building one in our garden to use as a home gym.