What would put you off a house...?

seven-day-weekend

ancientofdays wrote: »

I know you have one and I'm sure it is lovely but I just don't like them. I think some of my dislike may stem from being brought up in an area close to the coast, where the serried ranks of identical bungalows looked so dismal.


ETA I have lived in a bungalow, my parents bought a new build bungalow when I was a child. It had the nicest garden, gorgeous as my dad was a very keen gardener but I never liked the actual building.

I agree with you about most bungalows. Ours, however is very pretty and doesn't look like a home for old people. There are only our pair of semis like it in the street, the half-dozen or so other bungalows are not as nice and the rest of the properties are houses.

ancientofdays

Davesnave wrote: »

We bought our bungalow because a massive turn-off feature, a flat roofed extension at the front :eek: was just one of the weirdness factors which made it highly affordable.

Realising that our council's planning dept must be a soft touch, we then obtained PP to add another floor, but looking at the plans critically, it was a large outlay for a small area of usable floor space, so we extended elsewhere. Now, I never give the bungalow situation a second thought; it's our normal.

I can understand people who don't want a long term home ruling places out over relatively trivial things. Not everyone wants the fuss and bother of remedial work, or knows how to go about it. However, if it's a long term home, being more flexible can pay dividends, especially with ugly ducklings in a good situation.

We have no flat roofs now.

EDIT: This great example of what we haven't ended-up with just happened to pop into my in-box......It might be roughly what you mean too, being coastal.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-53240802.html

Yuk!

Yes, that would not be to my taste but our house search seems to have ground to a halt. My criteria are few compared to my OH's restrictions. He doesn't like the idea of being on a main road, whereas I need public transport. He has got a thing against corner plots, for no sensible reason that can be discerned. He has another thing about stairs going up from a sitting room. The list goes on. Most things I show him are Too Small but he wants to buy in an expensive area.

I bet we end up buying an open plan bungalow and I'll just have to mime going upstairs at bedtime. I suppose that really, what I would like best is a large vegetable patch with a bit of edwardian ir victotian house attached. If we could afford it, I'd really like an annexe, the tidiness of which would be nothing to do with me. And a potting shed, I do like my own batcave

seven-day-weekend

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

I agree with you about most bungalows. Ours, however is very pretty and doesn't look like a home for old people. There are only our pair of semis like it in the street, the half-dozen or so other bungalows are not as nice and the rest of the properties are houses.

Ours is a bit like this, but two-bed (i.e without the loft conversion) and a semi:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-63691834.html

Slinky

Davesnave wrote: »

EDIT: This great example of what we haven't ended-up with just happened to pop into my in-box......It might be roughly what you mean too, being coastal.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-53240802.html

Yuk!

Now that has one of my no-no's a sloping plot. We looked at a bungalow that came on a massive plot, the vendor admitted it was a trial to mow the front garden which had banking down to a public path, which looked like you'd have to haul a mower up and down on a rope.

We'll be extending our house when we move to it, we're considering getting away with the remaining lawn in the back garden as there won't be much of it left, and with no direct access from front to back, the garden waste has to be got out through the garage. There's a stupid yard wide strip of grass out the front that will go as well.

moneyistooshorttomention

Davesnave wrote: »

EDIT: This great example of what we haven't ended-up with just happened to pop into my in-box......It might be roughly what you mean too, being coastal.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-53240802.html

Yuk!

First impressions - not good.

The rest of it isn't bad though. So the yellow paint on wall could soon enough be replaced with a soft white/cream. I guess there are attractive garage doors around? - so one could replace that with something nicer-looking (important - with it being so prominent).

The rest of the front garden is a challenge two ways over - the slope and being so ungarden-like and I do know "ungarden-like" is a challenge to turn into "proper garden" - as I've got that problem myself and am gradually turning it "normal".

wantonnoodle

Personal no-nos when we were house hunting 18 months - 2 years ago now:

- Small north facing garden (too small to get any sun)
- Small kitchen / galley kitchen (a lot of houses in our area have long very narrow kitchens)
- Trees overshadowing the (south facing) garden
- Small windows (I love natural light)
- No offstreet parking (or opportunity to park offstreet - where we bought does have offstreet access, but the location of a shed makes it very tight indeed - not ideal but long term options)
- Small rooms in general

We bought a corner plot with south west facing rear garden. The side faces north west so doesn't get a great deal of sun (except the strip next to the fence by the road). Front faces north-east and we have a weeping birch in our front garden in the corner by our boundary with the road and next door, so doesn't get a great deal of sun. I like to grow things and sit out in the sun. Our living space is in the back (dining room at front) and we have double french doors out onto a decked area. Main back and side garden is gravel, though longer term we may get rid of it and turf or fill it with plants. Kitchen had originally been long and narrow, but had been extended to make a good sized square kitchen which ticked that box.

Silvertabby

When we were house hunting a few years ago we made lists of:

1. What we had to have.

Reasonable sized but managable garden
Decent sized kitchen with separate utility room (cat litter tray for the use of!)
Downstairs cloakroom

2. What we would like.

En-suite
4 beds rather than 3

3. Absolute no-no

Downstairs cloakroom right next to the front door
Shared access of any description.

I expect that most people will have other priorities.

shortcrust

It's a bit heartbreaking to see how many people wouldn't touch my lovely house with a bargepole!:D

LadyL2013

Front door that opens straight into the living room. - Feels less safe somehow and don't like having to walk through lounge to get to everywhere.


Open plan kitchen and living room. Don't like cooking smells in the lounge.


Downstairs bathroom only. Pain having to go downstairs in the middle of the night and traipse downstairs and back up to have a shower.


On street parking if the street is always busy for obvious reasons.


On a main road. Death trap for the cat.


No garden.


My garden is actually North facing but is a right little suntrap in the summer, which is unusual for North facing gardens. It's also on 3 levels, which isn't ideal but didn't have the budget to be too fussy. But actually I've grown to quite like it. The bottom level is the shed level, the middle level is the nice lawned pretty bit and the top level is the BBQ/social/sunbathing area.

maisie_cat

I can't think of many things on the actual house that would put me off, most things can be changed. For me it would all be location and outside related. Busy road, shared access, commercial neighbours & not enough plot to buffer if next door decide to build to the boundary.
My last house had a lovely hallway but narrow rooms as a result, this house has a lobby and wider room space and frankly we have not missed a hallway, in fact it seems a bit of a waste of expensive square metres.
I would also be put of by a newly refurbished or new kitchen & bathroom because I know from experience that it is likely to be a cheap to sell job. This house had a new bathroom that had to be taken out because it leaked.