Front Door in Living Room

Mutton_Geoff

Nobody has commented on the staircase. Good luck trying to get furniture and mattresses up there.

It's an awful shoehorned design made to look bigger than it is. If it bothers you now, that is a signal to keep looking, trust your gut instead of finding ways how this might work for you.

babyblade41

We have 3 similar new builds very much like this on the outside but so poorly designed inside that they can't sell them .  2 years on the market so far & only one occupied .

They keep dropping the price but unless the developer comes down to something that would entice many then they'd probably would have done it already so they just sit there .

It's one reason I would never buy a new build, all hat & no knickers 

DarrenNorthEast

I just wanted to say thanks for all the comments, a lot of great points and things I hadn't considered such as the stairs.

Much appreciated.

Thanks

Darren

Section62

movilogo said:

You can build an entrance porch. Up to 3 sq m does not require planning permission. 

Technically that is incorrect.  A porch is "development" which requires planning consent.  If all the applicable criteria are met, then a porch may be permitted development.  Permitted development is a form of planning consent.

The reason this is important to understand is that permitted development rights are often removed (partially/fully) from new build properties, specifically to stop people buying badly designed/shoehorned properties and then adding extra bits to them.

If permitted development rights have been removed then any alterations (including enclosing the open 'porch' or converting the garage) would need explicit planning consent.

This is in addition to any planning conditions imposed by the council, and as mentioned by others any covenants imposed by the developer.

Also, the roof pitch over the existing bay/'porch' would make it difficult to extend forward of the front of the bay window without re-roofing the whole of this area. So the process of obtaining planning consent (if needed) would probably be the easy part - and the cost (a few hundred pounds) is trivial in comparison to the costs of buying a new build.

Section62

MikeJXE said:

The porch could be extended under the roof but, why didn't the builders do that ?

I suspect probably because a tiny porch like that isn't likely to comply with accessibility standards, and the designer decided the easiest way to comply with those requirements was to build with the front door opening directly into the lounge.

baser999

We’re in a 1900s terrace that would originally have had a small lounge, dining room and kitchen. Over time middle wall was knocked down and so when I moved in it was just the one room, plus kitchen. Rather than walk straight in, a small section of wall had been retained, creating a small vestibule really no more than the size of the door opening (we term it the airlock 😀) with a secondary inner door. Our tv is then in the opposite alcove. 

Looking at OP plans, think the location of the tv is the issue

ThisIsWeird

It would seem your options are to (a) keep it as it is (surely completely unacceptable to most folk?), (b) section off a full-length hallway (what a huge compromise - a long darkish hallway, and a drastic reduction in the size of the sitting room - but it should 'work'), (c) add an internal vesti, little more than the size of that mat, but needs to be large enough to allow the outer door to swing inwards, with someone standing inside, and it would also compromise the size and shape of the sitting room), or (d) add the vesti to the outside with a door and glass flush with the existing bay. That would still leave the issue of folk traipsing through the sitting room, but that's for the owner to manage - the family can certainly be told to 'go round the back'.

Flushing out the front might seem preventable by existing covenants, I don't know, but my in-laws used to live on a Persimmon estate where the common design feature was open-arched covered entrance area which - by the time they sold up - most folk had fully glazed in with two large arched PVC windows and door. No idea if this was 'outlawed' by a covenant - I suspect any alternation to the front would have been - but once all the houses were sold, all sorts of rules were 'relaxed', like not permitting caravans to be parked outside.

Of course, Darren couldn't rely on this becoming the case here.

Section62

ThisIsWeird said:

No idea if this was 'outlawed' by a covenant - I suspect any alternation to the front would have been - but once all the houses were sold, all sorts of rules were 'relaxed', like not permitting caravans to be parked outside.

Of course, Darren couldn't rely on this becoming the case here.

I think the more problematic factors in the longer term for any alterations will be (non-)compliance with the planning consent and/or building regulations.

Also the potential impact on any new-build warranty.

Buying a new build with plans to make significant alterations to the building is never a good idea.

Stubod

..can't believe that somebody would be dull enough to design a house of this size with this configuration of front door with no porch, when there is clearly room for one with minimal imagination....must have been an apprentice in the office that day?

...would certainly put me off buying one.

ayupmeduck

Plenty of houses have front doors into the living room.