New "Have a Look at This" thread

[Deleted User]

briskbeats said:

People are wanting bigger homes. As think WFH will continue post Covid (whenever that will be) and children don’t move out when they are 18 permanently. Go to Uni and return after.

Yet the new builds are tiny! Plus none of the garages can fit modern cars. Architects not increased the size of the garage. My parents’ home built in the early 00s - they can park their VW Golf in the garage but unable to open the driver’s door in order to leave the car! One of their neighbours, has a P reg Honda and just has a ladder in there and parks the car in the garage.

Hence why you go to new build estates, the roads are full of parked cars as with adult children living with parents, some families are 4 car families.

Yep, that's standard for new builds. The garage is basically useless because a car won't fit in it. It's so bad that many local authorities have stopped accepting a garage as off road parking and mandated that the developers include a driveway as well. Naturally the driveway is also too small for many vehicles, but these days you are lucky if they bother installing a pavement to block.

When looking at used properties on Rightmove, it's amazing just how many of them have been adapted for adult children still living at home.

One of the biggest problems in the UK is the prevalence of terrace houses. They were always a terrible idea, and now are preventing us from upgrading housing stock because demolishing just one in a row is very expensive and difficult, and offers limited choices for a replacement. The UK has very old housing stock, much of it unsuitable for modern living. Things will really come to a head when sales of fossil fuel cars end and millions of households need somewhere to charge up their electric cars.

lincroft1710

[Deleted User] said:

peter3hg said:

[Deleted User] said:

GDB2222 said:

Surely, the space marked study/store is Bed3? It's 7x7, but that's at least the same size as the Bed 3 in the first house I owned.

That's a walk in closet.

I spent my first fifteen years in a bedroom slightly smaller than that. Of course it's a bedroom.

Why do people put up with this kind of thing?

We have the smallest houses in Europe, smaller than Japan. People act like it's some kind of virtue.

Because that is what was built. From the late 1920s to the late 1930s huge estates of mainly 3 bed semis were built on the then outskirts of the cities and medium to large towns in England. Despite there being dozens of different builders and different styling, they virtually all followed the same layout of 2 reception and small kit on GF and 2 double and 1 small single/boxroom plus bathroom on FF. Many council houses built in the period had a similar layout



After WW2 this house type continued to be built well into the 1960s even 1970s, although these tended to have slightly bigger kitchens.
 

JuzaMum

[Deleted User] said:

GDB2222 said:

Surely, the space marked study/store is Bed3? It's 7x7, but that's at least the same size as the Bed 3 in the first house I owned.

That's a walk in closet.

My bedroom 4 is 1.9m x 2.2m and my middle son used to have his girlfriend stay over with him in there!

JuzaMum

I have found some lovely properties to rent on Facebook. 
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=114260541099765&set=pcb.114261507766335
If you look on her profile you can see the range of 'quality' accommodation on offer. It disgusts me the prices and quality of rental properties locally. 

briskbeats

With regarding charging points for terraced housing- one idea was to incorporate charging points in lampposts as not everyone wants to charge up their car every day- same as the way we don’t fill our cars with fuel after every journey.

know somewhere where there’s terraced housing down an unadopted road where there’s no council street lamps - how is that going to work?

peter3hg

[Deleted User] said:

TripleH said:

[Deleted User] said:

peter3hg said:

[Deleted User] said:

GDB2222 said:

Surely, the space marked study/store is Bed3? It's 7x7, but that's at least the same size as the Bed 3 in the first house I owned.

That's a walk in closet.

I spent my first fifteen years in a bedroom slightly smaller than that. Of course it's a bedroom.

Why do people put up with this kind of thing?

We have the smallest houses in Europe, smaller than Japan. People act like it's some kind of virtue.

Technology means you can condense a music video and book library to the size of 3 books.

I hate excessive bedroom sizes. If you get a bed and wardrobe in what else do you need? (I disagree with tvs in bedrooms). I grew up in a victorian house with jasmine bedrooms and they just felt so wasteful.

A desk to study at would be rather handy for any children living there. Some space to play maybe. TV so they don't have to use the lounge one for the game console.

Given that the rest of the house is too small as well it's not like there is anywhere else to do that stuff in peace.

When I lived in a box room slightly smaller than that I had a cabin bed with a desk and wardrobe underneath. 14" portable CRT on a stand at the end of the bed.
Other than that there was space for a single wardrobe, tallboy chest of drawers and bedside cabinet. I'll grant you though there was little floorspace remaining.

[Deleted User]

lincroft1710 said:

[Deleted User] said:

peter3hg said:

[Deleted User] said:

GDB2222 said:

Surely, the space marked study/store is Bed3? It's 7x7, but that's at least the same size as the Bed 3 in the first house I owned.

That's a walk in closet.

I spent my first fifteen years in a bedroom slightly smaller than that. Of course it's a bedroom.

Why do people put up with this kind of thing?

We have the smallest houses in Europe, smaller than Japan. People act like it's some kind of virtue.

Because that is what was built. From the late 1920s to the late 1930s huge estates of mainly 3 bed semis were built on the then outskirts of the cities and medium to large towns in England. Despite there being dozens of different builders and different styling, they virtually all followed the same layout of 2 reception and small kit on GF and 2 double and 1 small single/boxroom plus bathroom on FF. Many council houses built in the period had a similar layout



After WW2 this house type continued to be built well into the 1960s even 1970s, although these tended to have slightly bigger kitchens.
 

Exactly, and it's nearly 2022 and we are still building rubbish like that!

Japan has the right idea. Houses are depreciating assets and worth basically nothing after 50 years. They get pulled down and replaced.

The UK is basically screwed, we made a catastrophic mistake and lost the will to innovate, and are now stuck like this forever.

[Deleted User]

briskbeats said:

With regarding charging points for terraced housing- one idea was to incorporate charging points in lampposts as not everyone wants to charge up their car every day- same as the way we don’t fill our cars with fuel after every journey.

know somewhere where there’s terraced housing down an unadopted road where there’s no council street lamps - how is that going to work?

That can work, but there are issues. It will create a divide between those who can charge on their home energy tariff, and those who have to pay public charging prices.

There will need to be a way to book charging spots, people will need to charge for the next day and be unable to wait. There will need to be enforcement to move people who have finished charging. Basically it's not really viable.

Same with ideas like trailing cables over pavements, only works if you can park close to your house.

In Norway the solution has been to put chargers all along streets, one for each parking space. Set the system up so you tap a card and it bills the electricity to your home energy bill.

briskbeats

Why can’t builders build a decent 3rd bedroom? Reduce each bedroom by 50cm max in both width and length. People are buying 4 bedrooms houses instead of 3 etc. My parents’ four bedroom house the smallest two aren’t box rooms and was built 2004/5

[Deleted User]

briskbeats said:

Why can’t builders build a decent 3rd bedroom? Reduce each bedroom by 50cm max in both width and length. People are buying 4 bedrooms houses instead of 3 etc. My parents’ four bedroom house the smallest two aren’t box rooms and was built 2004/5

They need to increase the floor space. Houses are just too small.

They also need to make better use of available space.