Front Door in Living Room

tigertrio

People really will buy anything. If you are not happy with it, don't buy it.

katkatmachine

I don’t like it. There’s no privacy. Anyone could see you when the door is open for example when you have deliveries and you’re on your PJs relaxing in the living room. Awkward. Also, I think that would be expensive for the heating during winter. 

RAS

Well there is a porch, open sided. Which will keep the worst of the rain off while you find the keys.

elsien

katkatmachine said:

I don’t like it. There’s no privacy. Anyone could see you when the door is open for example when you have deliveries and you’re on your PJs relaxing in the living room. Awkward. Also, I think that would be expensive for the heating during winter. 

Privacy isn’t an issue. Can’t remember the last time a delivery person hung around long enough to actually look through the door and if you don’t fully open it  the view is blocked by the door anyway.

Ditzy_Mitzy

I've been in plenty of houses with front doors into front rooms and, whilst I don't like the arrangement personally, it is something one can live with.  Exceptions need to be made, however, particularly with regards to dirt being tracked into the front room and the need for coat and key racks on the wall by the door.  The room becomes dual purpose.

The bigger problem with that house, which hasn't been mentioned yet, is that the bottom of the staircase is in the sitting room.  Heat rises, meaning that any coming from the sitting room rads will have a tendency to flow out of the room and up the stairs.  I remember my parents deciding, with regret, not to purchase a beautiful sixties modern place for the same reason; it was cold in the sitting room - which was the location of the staircase - because all the heat disappeared through the enormous hole in the ceiling.  You might, in the case of the new build, be able to get away putting a curtain over the entrance to the stairwell, or even a door, but would you want to?

Martico

Looks like you can get straight to the utility room back door down the side. I'd use that entrance I think, if I had to live there

michelle09

I've lived in this type of set up twice - once as a lodger (me and one LL) and once in a houseshare (4 tenants). 

As a lodger it was fine. I didn’t spend much time in the living room and only one other was coming and going. In the houseshare the living room was mostly abandoned. Four people plus guests coming and going meant you couldn't sit undisturbed in the living area in the evenings. Plus coats/shoes pile up and mud is easily tracked. So it partly depends on how many people you intend to live with.

I'd only deal with this set up if I could build a porch and put a door at the bottom of the stairs. It's also a small living room so hooks and shelves are going to encroach a lot of the space. 

YBR

I wouldn't buy based on what I've seen here.
I'd be forever annoyed with people passing between me and the TV, letting the heat out as they come and go, dumping stuff by the door etc.
I'm not taken by having the stairs directly off the living room for reasons others have mentioned.
I also think the bay window is too awkward in size/shape to be a useful part of the room, and adds nothing helpful to the space/layout - only additional external wall to heat and a problem with hanging curtains round 3 sides.

Not for me.

Boat_to_Bolivia

It does seem very strange that they haven't put a porch on this property? As suggested, it's probably down to cost!

I lived in a Victorian terraced house with a front door into the lounge. The main problem was with the draft even though I hung a thick curtain across it in winter. For this reason, in your case, I would not be putting the sofa along the wall where the TV is now.

I would use the side/back door into the utility room as your main entrance, where shoes and coats can be deposited, and also want a door to the stairs to avoid heat loss.

Having said all that, if you are not happy with the layout, then perhaps this isn't the property for you! 

MikeJXE

If I was buying a detached house that large with garage, utility room and downstairs toilet,  front door and stairs into the lounge would get a no thank you from me