Front Door in Living Room

user1977

ayupmeduck said:

Plenty of houses have front doors into the living room.

Yes, but much more likely to be ye olde 2 up/2 down terraces, rather than a not particularly small detached newbuild.

Section62

Stubod said:

..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.

Why do you think that?

Although many of us here wouldn't contemplate a new build house without a porch/hallway, there will be others who would look at the floorplan of a house with a porch and be working out whether they could 'knock through' to combine the spaces into a larger lounge, i.e. viewing the porch as "wasted space".

I expect the designer - apprentice or otherwise - was tasked with maximising the habitable floor space within a minimum total footprint, whilst complying with building regs.  Not providing a porch/hallway is an effective way of achieving this, albeit not to the preference of many people.

Overall the design is poor, but that just goes with a large proportion of new build properties.

RelievedSheff

For me there are far too many compromises with that property.

The front door straight into the living room is a big no, as are the stairs in the living room.

And I always feel that houses with integral garages feel top heavy. Not enough living space for the number and size of the bedrooms.

peter3hg

RelievedSheff said:

For me there are far too many compromises with that property.

The front door straight into the living room is a big no, as are the stairs in the living room.

And I always feel that houses with integral garages feel top heavy. Not enough living space for the number and size of the bedrooms.

That really depends on how many are living there. It is a three-bed house so it might just be a couple or a couple with one child, in which case the living space is plenty.

Personally I prefer a house with less living space and more "bedrooms" proportionally as areas are easier to segregate for things like an office and a room for hobbies etc. If I had children however I would no doubt prefer more living space.


When I was looking at new build houses it was obvious that some builders are more likely to go for maximum room dimensions by doing away with quality of life things like hallways and storage space. Other builders design their houses to be better for living in but as a consequence have slightly smaller rooms for a given footprint.
I would always go for the latter but some people might just want the maximum room space.

molerat

Maximum living space for minimum floor area, how to cram as many properties into a development as possible.  A few going up round here, no front porch and front garden is a one slab doorstep deep. No drives and a few detached garages in a rural area.  Cars just abandoned everywhere !

lika_86

RelievedSheff said:

For me there are far too many compromises with that property.

The front door straight into the living room is a big no, as are the stairs in the living room.

And I always feel that houses with integral garages feel top heavy. Not enough living space for the number and size of the bedrooms.

It's certainly not all houses with integral garages. My family home was a new build in the early 90s and has an integral garage, four bedrooms, two of which are proper doubles, one with en suite and an eat in kitchen, decent sized living room and separate dining room. It certainly doesn't feel top heavy.

The difference is the footprint and plot size. Nowadays builders prioritise profit much more than they did. We went to a consultation on some flats that were being built opposite ours and were told by an architect with pride how they reduced the head height of each floor by 6 inches to get another two floors in. The same is done with this property. Remove separate hallways, shorten the depth of properties and you get more properties on the land.

hazyjo

Lika_86 - same as the house I grew up in. Exactly the same rooms (although built in 1979 so I know you weren't a neighbour lol).

But there seems to be a floorplan showing just the lounge and kitchen diner. Does seem like it's prob a bit top heavy in this case.

GixerKate

I'm going against the grain a little here, I don't have a problem with new builds and think the outside of the house looks lovely.  The layout inside isn't bad either, providing you can put in a porch.  Without the porch I would have big reservations but with a porch I like that layout.  My parents have a very similar set up except their staircase goes straight up one side rather than twisting around and it doesn't have any issues with heating etc and they have their TV in the corner rather than on the wall.  

Getting things up that staircase is going to be interesting though.

Its worth checking with the developer and the covenants, its likely that you will be able to pay a fee and change the front of the house (our neighbours altered the front of their new build within weeks of moving in).

Section62

lika_86 said:

The difference is the footprint and plot size. Nowadays builders prioritise profit much more than they did.

It isn't just about the profit though.

A significant difference between the early 90's and now are the targets that local planning authorities are set for the building of new homes in their area, and this translates into expectations that developers meet minimum density levels... whilst simultaneously meeting requirements for outdoor space, car parking, communal areas and transportation (roads and footpaths).

Something has to give - and very often it is a compromise on room sizes and minimising 'dead space' within the property.

Builders have always prioritised profit, now they have a lot more to deal with such as CIL payments - which being based on floorspace result in a direct impact on the cost of new build property for every extra sqm added.

The pressures and drivers are complicated and involve much more than profit.

warby68

I think there would be very few buyers who would be expecting that kind of 'starter home' compromise on a detached with garage new build.

Step too far for me in cheapskating by builders. 

Although I suppose there will alway be the odd FTB for example who falls for shiny and new and does not 'see' the pitfall.

We made a mistake with a detached purchase once with an integral garage. There was a hallway but it was small and only covered the stairs, lounge and garage access. Had to go through lounge to kitchen/dining/Kitchen/loo. Seemed fine at first and rooms were all a good size but we got fed up of the layout. We moved quickly and interestingly the builder eventually changed the design of the previous house and widened it by 3 feet or so to make a full hall.