Am I the only one fed up with houses being so small? do others feel the same way?

Niv

I have also found it frustrating when house hunting to find that all modern houses (in my price range) were tiny with tiny or no garden(s). I ended up buying a house built in ~1600 and the rooms are a fantastic size with a large garden and the place cost about the same as a poking new 4 bed with 'management fees' for common areas (another beef of mine!).

user1168934

SuzieSue wrote: »

I bought a 3 bed new build 20 years ago. The downstairs is ok, but the bedrooms are very small compared to the house I grew up in. There are only 2 of us and we find the space ok but I don't know how a family would cope.

I would rather have larger bedrooms and at first it did concern me but then I realised that there was nothing I could do about it so I have just accepted it.

Thanks Suzie. I guess this is pretty close to what I am feeling. I suppose part of the reason for me is that I am not yet at a stage where "there is nothing I can do about it" although if leave it for another couple of years then it might be too late. I mean I have the option to migrate again to another country .... I would rather not because I love it here but just saying it is an option.

user1168934

LuSiVe wrote: »

I'm not sure my house is too small. I think my stuff may be too big though....

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

lincroft1710

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I've done all the above and could still do with more space in my house (ie 2 bedrooms/1 kitchen/1 bathroom/1 sitting room - taking 1000 square feet of space) - but am aware that some new-builds here have got 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms crammed into marginally less square footage than that.

How much space do you need???

The average 3 bed house from the 1930s onwards has a gross external area of 1000 sq ft, 4 bed houses (without ensuite) would have a net internal area of 1000 sq ft. Families of 3 or 4 can live quite comfortably in houses of this size

AlexMac

Lovely thread this! Lots of good and interesting points, prejudices, rants, envy and Glass half empty- v - Glass half full stuff; with a good example of the latter at #27;

ripplyuk wrote: »

I moved from an ancient farmhouse with huge rooms, and lots of them, to a 1950's council house...
I felt claustrophobic at first ...But now, I love it. It forced me to declutter massively...!

Everything is relative. My first home was a caravan in a field. And I don't mean a proper trailer home; just a little old wooden thing. Then a succession of cr4p hostels, HPUs and bedsits... When we got allocated a poky 2 bedroom Council flat, with a copper boiler, single coal fire and bath in the kitchen, my mum and dad thought it was great, even when sharing with two lodgers.

To them, my current fairly compact 4-bedroom 1,300 SqFt gaff would seem Palatial. How lucky we are; better than a cardboard box!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAdlkunflRs

user1168934

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

As you can see - a lot of us get frustrated with this issue.

It boils down to = too many people in the country and therefore land is expensive.

So houses get smaller and smaller basically with each passing decade and are now "way too small" for standard type houses.

There are only two solutions imo - move to a cheaper part of the country (ie that's the one I took basically) or chuck out even possessions you intend to keep/are hardly "over the top" by any reasonable persons definition.

Either way - most of us have to start being a bit "ingenious" to cope with the small housing most of us have to cram into in this country. So multi-purpose furniture and maximum utilisation of space is necessary. So that means things like:
- buying beds that have storage drawers underneath them
- buying sofas that convert into guest beds (ie if there isnt a guest bedroom available)
- shelves/shelves/shelves everywhere
- choosing the highest height kitchen wall cupboards one can get into the kitchen (and ensuring one has a safe stepladder to get to the highest shelves in those units)
- careful choice of bathroom fittings to maximise use of space

I've done all the above and could still do with more space in my house (ie 2 bedrooms/1 kitchen/1 bathroom/1 sitting room - taking 1000 square feet of space) - but am aware that some new-builds here have got 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms crammed into marginally less square footage than that.

It's not easy to adapt to that being how things are for many of us in this country:cool: - but that is the best you can do, ie "Think outside the box and make absolute maximum possible usage of whatever space you do have".

There are a lot of us in the same boat - and the only consolation is things like viewing photos of those "hell holes" in countries like Hong Kong - where one can even see that one bedroom flats have been divided/sub-divided and there are people that only have one room (or even a bed's worth) of space to call their own. Those poor people - but Hong Kong is even more over-populated than we are.

Thanks mate. I mostly agree with what you have said. In the absence being able to affored anything out of the ordinary I think you are right the option are to either think outside the box (move to a cheaper area where you can buy higher end of the market and then use space saving techniques) or may be just accept it and live with it.

moneyistooshorttomention

lincroft1710 wrote: »

How much space do you need???

The average 3 bed house from the 1930s onwards has a gross external area of 1000 sq ft, 4 bed houses (without ensuite) would have a net internal area of 1000 sq ft. Families of 3 or 4 can live quite comfortably in houses of this size

There is going to be a personal element with very many people - in order for their house to match their lifestyle.

Some people cook - rather than just take a readymeal out of freezer and put into microwave.

Some people want/need to be able to put up friends/relatives from elsewhere in the country up for a night or three.

If living in a harsher climate - that might create its own extra needs for extra house space (eg exercising at home - because sometimes the weather is too harsh to walk to a gym).

There is very much an individual element to things imo.

user1168934

SuzieSue wrote: »

I think that most people are bothered, but realise that there is nothing they can do about it unless they win the lottery.

Yes suzie I realise that. I wrote this after reading the first few replies and it seemed at first people were not bothered by it.

hazyjo

When you say '15 miles outside the M25', that would put you in some of the most expensive boroughs in the country! If you're comparing Berkshire to say Essex, you'll notice a vast difference with what your money will get you

Aylesbury_Duck

SuzieSue wrote: »

[STRIKE]Most people's[/STRIKE] Everyone's ancestors were immigrants at sometime, so yes, it is everyone's fault for wanting to live here.

Something I remind one or two of my more nationalistic acquaintances who delight in telling people how British they are and how that confers greater rights on them than on others. Einstein said that "Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind." He also said that "I am against any nationalism, even in the guise of mere patriotism." He'd worked it out way back in 1929.

This video always gives me a giggle when the UKIP Gammon Army start chuntering: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KVO378tjsw