A rant about how shit houses are

[TheGreatIndoors]

Hello

I don't think I'm looking for anything outrageous but every house I look at has one of these deal breakers:

• No toilet upstairs
• No toilet downstairs
• Not enough space for dishwasher AND washing machine in kitchen (Yes I am British!)
• Bedrooms you couldn't swing a cat in (am I the only person who wants to fit some fucking furniture in there as well as the bed itself?!)
• No parking

This goes for both new/old properties, ones in town and more suburban.

All I bloody want is 2+ big bedrooms (4x4m), living room, kitchen, garden and parking. Having a bungalow would solve the toilet issue but there aren't many round here.

And that's before we get onto things like:

• no space for a proper table to eat at
• garden has been concreted-over
• no window in the kitchen
• open plan kitchen door - I prefer to close the door on mess and smell
• Living room is just a box with no focal point apart from TV hanging on wall
• place is a massive do-er upper or has some hideous damp/roof issue

It doesn't even seem to be a question of budget. Even very expensive houses with way more bedrooms than I need have the same issues.

In many ways, my current flat is actually better. 2 large bedrooms, living room, kitchen (not open plan and has window). The trouble is I have only a shared garden, no parking and obviously stairs to climb.

Fed up.

YANBU. I once viewed an "executive" new build where the "master bedroom" was 8 feet wide, with no room for a wardrobe. the agent actually said that wardrobes were "old fashioned" and no one had them anymore.

Like we all just stopped owning clothes and shoes overnight.

To your list I would add:

Nowhere to keep vacuum cleaner, ironing board etc.
Nowhere to keep recycling
No windows in bathroom

And stuff that can't go in the tumble dryer gets chucked over a radiator/the door.

I'm only one person so can't imagine how hard it is to be trying to dry a family's clothes without a tumble dryer.

I get worried about damp circulating in the air as well.

Just finished this

They don't exist by the looks of it. Certainly not in the 2/3 bedroom bracket.

Maybe if I buy a proper full-on 4 bed detached but that's way bigger than I need and sentences me to working until I die.

Bedroom

@billysboy love the beams and French doors (or bifold or whatever) It's a bit too big and open plan for me tho - I'm in Scotland so I need cosy-wozy. And I'm too short to sit on those high stools.

@GinForBreakfast that's ridiculous. It's as if builders/agents don't understand life. Of course you need a wardrobe and somewhere to put your vacuum cleaner. (And Christmas decorations and suitcases etc etc).

And having a bathroom without a window that can be opened should be a criminal offence!

This is why I live in a 300 year old house..it has nine of these issues

I kind of see some of that as a bit of a challenge for what can be done to make it the perfect home. I don’t think you ever find exactly what you want initially so you do have to compromise and then work on it to get it where you want it to be.

You have to do these things yourself sometimes or compromise and not have everything on your list.

I don't have a downstairs loo, space for a dishwasher in the kitchen and can only fit one car on my drive. I have survived.

It would be a lot easier if I had a useful husband/brother, especially say one that worked in the building trade and could do it up for me.

Our previous 1930s detached house checked all of your boxes! We added in the downstairs toilet as it was initially a fixer upper and we had a utility room - can't bear washing machines in the kitchen. I wouldn't have thought that's a really difficult list to fulfill - is it that there aren't any like it in the area or is it that they're out of budget?

And why does the kitchen sink always have to be under the window? I don’t wash up for hours staring out the window. I can’t stand in/on the sink to clean the window whereas if it just had a regular worktop it’d be easy.

If you only want 2 bedrooms upstairs, the square footage won't be big enough for everything you want downstairs. More bedrooms = a bigger plot size.

Aha that's so weird, to me that's the natural place for the sink!

I actually have a 3 bed, detached new build with all those things. Next to a field that can't be built on, with a utility room for washing machine, private garden. And a garage.

I love it. They are out there!

I think the issue is that you only want 2 bedrooms. Generally, for newer houses at least, 2 beds (or 3 where one is basically a cupboard) are starter homes where there's just and maybe another adult. To get the living area for a family, you need to be looking and 3 double bedrooms as a minimum, with the associated massive jump in prices.

Around where I live, the solution seems to be extended long a semi detached to the back and side, converting garages etc, but that then increases the cost...

We earn comfortably more than my parents (adjusted for inflation) but house prices have increased significantly faster than salaries. If you didn't buy before 2007, you'll always be at a disadvantage

Funnily enough it was 2007 that I bought my current flat!

You'd think there WOULD be houses like I want, given more people are WFH and living alone.

Having just bought a house, I think the things you list in your first post generally make it go up a price bracket.

I'm also looking at ground floor flats as well as houses. For the easy access to the garden. The newer ones come with parking.

My house has all that and built in 1996. It’s a 4 bed though.

I think the problem is you want all that in a two bed. Why would there be two toilets in a two bed house.

Yes, and when you get a new kitchen, you can ensure there are no massive gaping holes around pipes for mice to pop in as they wish!

Nice beams, decor spoils the room, it looks very dated, that amount of grey was in about ten years ago.

We are in the process of buying a house. We thought what we wanted was impossible for our price bracket.

We did a list of must have's and what we would like

Must haves included, close enough my son could get into school, a 2nd bedroom that was big enough to swing a cat, a garden, a largish living area

Nice to haves included driveway, separate toilet and bath, a pantry, room for a dishwasher.

What we got was a 3 bed house, 2 double rooms and a single room, office space, pantry, separate toilet and bath (bathroom has a shower as well) garden

The only thing we really have sacrificed was a driveway but there is parking.

So they are out there, but christ we saw so many houses before we found this one.

@Traceysgoingtobelivid That's very rude. Everyone has their own taste.