Front Door in Living Room

Jonboy1889

For what it’s worth we bought a new build with a door that goes straight into main room, and the front door is fully glass! We thought we would hate it to start with, and that people would peer in, and we looked into a porch (but planning difficult to get for it given the location/next to listed building) but we just got used to it- it helps that you can’t look through the door from the street (it’s set back plus we have a wall outside partially blocking view and some bushes in the way), but it’s not as big an issue as we expected, you just make it work. Plus no one ever peers in, delivery men just ring the doorbell!

UnderOffer

Jonboy1889 said:

For what it’s worth we bought a new build with a door that goes straight into main room, and the front door is fully glass! We thought we would hate it to start with, and that people would peer in, and we looked into a porch (but planning difficult to get for it given the location/next to listed building) but we just got used to it- it helps that you can’t look through the door from the street (it’s set back plus we have a wall outside partially blocking view and some bushes in the way), but it’s not as big an issue as we expected, you just make it work. Plus no one ever peers in, delivery men just ring the doorbell!

That layout looks so much better than the OP potential home. Your layout doesn’t involve you walking the whole length of the living room past the tv/sofa to access the kitchen (I.e. carrying shopping to kitchen), it looks much more direct and with more usable space in the lounge. Plus your plan seems to indicate it is a flat, I’d expect to compromise on a few things with a smaller property, the OP has reserved a 3 bedroom detached home with what I think is a compromised main living space. 

DarrenNorthEast

Agreed, that’s a much better layout. 

Jonboy1889

UnderOffer said:

Jonboy1889 said:

For what it’s worth we bought a new build with a door that goes straight into main room, and the front door is fully glass! We thought we would hate it to start with, and that people would peer in, and we looked into a porch (but planning difficult to get for it given the location/next to listed building) but we just got used to it- it helps that you can’t look through the door from the street (it’s set back plus we have a wall outside partially blocking view and some bushes in the way), but it’s not as big an issue as we expected, you just make it work. Plus no one ever peers in, delivery men just ring the doorbell!

That layout looks so much better than the OP potential home. Your layout doesn’t involve you walking the whole length of the living room past the tv/sofa to access the kitchen (I.e. carrying shopping to kitchen), it looks much more direct and with more usable space in the lounge. Plus your plan seems to indicate it is a flat, I’d expect to compromise on a few things with a smaller property, the OP has reserved a 3 bedroom detached home with what I think is a compromised main living space. 

It’s actually a 4 bed detached house (stairs on the left go up to 2 further bedrooms)- but I take your point on the media location (above the fireplace in our case), and having to walk through the lounge to get to the kitchen (we had to do this on our last house and it was ok) but the point was more around having a door straight into the house isn’t as bad as it first seems. 

NameUnavailable

I think the lack of a hallway will put off too many potential buyers for that type of home (younger couples/families with small kids).

I was looking at buying a Victorian house with door off the street into the living room - my plan was to use the front room as a dining room/home office and use the rear room as the living room off the kitchen as I was thinking about winter time when the room would lose a lot of heat anytime the front door was opened (plus whether or not the doorway could be draft free).

The Victorian cottage, built down to a size and price at the time for workers accommodation, didn't give much thought to creature comforts, it was make the most out of the space available. It's not really acceptable for a new build house designer to think that a detatched family home today should compromise the space and useability of the living room by having that layout, IMHO.

GiantTCR

ProDave said:

DarrenNorthEast said:

ProDave said:

That's an odd floorplan, what it in that "void" to the right of the living room?  i.e. why is the house wider at the back than at the front?

That’s the garage.

That is crying out for the space under the tiled canopy to be made into a porch by the addition of another door in line with the front of the bay window.

That's exactly what you want to do with a new build: mess it up and patch it up by adding a porch.

If it was an old property in need of renovation, sure, great idea. A new build should come in move in conditions and with no need to change anything. If I wasn't 100% happy with the house, I wouldn't buy it.

[Deleted User]

I'll let you in on a secret. Most British new builds are not designed. They are put together by a technician with a checklist of stuff to put in. Zero consideration to practicality given.

I'd pull out, this is awful.

Sapindus

warby68 said:

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

There will probably always be enough people who fall for shiny and new, looks good from the description and dressed for a quick sale, plus all the tempting extras the builders throw in, I've seen it myself more than once. Then they either realise how unlivable it is within a couple of years and incur all the costs of moving again.  Or they just carry on with a vague feeling that their life is somewhat uncomfortable but they can't quite work out why.  But they think they must have done well in life because the house looks pretty from the outside.

My SiL bought an older cottage with two poky downstairs rooms which they knocked together, which then meant a door into the lounge.  Eventually they put a porch on the outside which was what I call a "porch for the sake of it" because the front door opened into it so there was nowhere to actually put anything in it or barely shut the outside door before you opened the inner one.

I wouldn't be seen dead in it.

RelievedSheff

Sapindus said:

warby68 said:

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

There will probably always be enough people who fall for shiny and new, looks good from the description and dressed for a quick sale, plus all the tempting extras the builders throw in, I've seen it myself more than once. Then they either realise how unlivable it is within a couple of years and incur all the costs of moving again.  Or they just carry on with a vague feeling that their life is somewhat uncomfortable but they can't quite work out why.  But they think they must have done well in life because the house looks pretty from the outside.

My SiL bought an older cottage with two poky downstairs rooms which they knocked together, which then meant a door into the lounge.  Eventually they put a porch on the outside which was what I call a "porch for the sake of it" because the front door opened into it so there was nowhere to actually put anything in it or barely shut the outside door before you opened the inner one.

I wouldn't be seen dead in it.

Equally there are those of us who buy a new build and are completely happy with it. 

4 years on we have no intention of moving. This house suits us perfectly. 

That said we have a hallway and no front door in the living room. We certainly wouldn't buy that!

BlueTeal

Absolute deal breaker for me. I'd go even further and say having no hallway, just an entrance into a closed in stairway would be. It's honestly ridiculous how common it is in this country for the main room to be a corridor. Understandable, if annoying, in an old 2 up 2 down cottage or terrace, but absolutely criminal in a newbuild detached. Please don't support this kind of planning! Houses should be livable at the bare minimum.