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.

My house ticks all these boxes ! I don't have a bath though , only a shower which ironically was a post on here earlier .
You can specify certain things when searching on right move , so it rules out straight away any that don't fit the bill

Oh what I would give for a separate washing/utility room! We have exactly this problem. We're in a tiny 2-bed new build and the washing can only go in the hall and we have to squeeze past it, and if two of us want to get through, we inevitably get trapped there! It's hilarious when we're having a good day, but infuriating when we're pissed off!!

I’m quite amused by your post. Our house, dating to 1903, went up for sale today! It has:

• bathroom upstairs
• bathroom downstairs
• integrated dishwasher
• utility room with washing machine and dryer
• Three huge double bedrooms
• drive for two cars and further on road parking
• kitchen and snug with three windows, lantern, French doors and space for four to eat at the island, with double doors to close
• dining room with proper table for six to eat at
• garden with patio, lawns and veg patch
• Living room with original fireplace
• Fully restored, new boiler and heating system, replastered, rewired, extension, insulation, damp proof course…

The houses are out there OP. It’s taken us seven years to restore but only older houses seem to offer this type of potential.

And yes, I am wondering why I’m selling it!

You need to look in a cheaper area. Here in the NW, for less than the small 3 bed terrace we had in Hertford we have 4 toilets, large kitchen diner, utility room with washer and dryer, 3 double bedrooms and a single bedroom, off street parking, in a lovely community in a village with everything you need, but with 2 large towns and a city within half an hour, two major cities for theatres etc less than an hour away. Good schools, some of the best countryside an hour away, (Yorkshire Dale's and the Lake District). We had 10 years in the South East, sold up and used the collateral in the house to buy a house and business up her 35 years ago. Yes we would have earned more in the SE, but you get so much more for your money up here.

Agree. We need four decent-sized bedrooms. We both work from home, so two workspaces. Ideally we'd have a utility and second reception space. But everyone has knocked their entire downstairs into one massive room and the fourth bedroom is always poky. Or the house has been extended badly with random rooms stuck on, so you have to go through the utility to get to your snug or something. Can't I just have a well-planned, spacious house? We've got a decent budget, but even stretching beyond it I'm struggling to find what we need.

Where we leave (North), it depends on the decade the house was built in. We used to have a three bedroom house that met all of your criteria and that was reasonably priced.

I haven't moved from the first house we bought.

It is a Victorian terrace with 2.5 bedrooms.

However:

1. It has two huge bedrooms
2. It has a shuttable kitchen door
3. It has a separate dining room
4. I have space for dishwasher and washing machine
5. I have a toilet both upstairs and down.
6. I have a garden that isn't concrete.
7. We do have on street parking and you can usually find a space.

And people wonder why we don't want to move ... (DH was asking what your budget was and location 😂🤦‍♀️)

Another one here who thinks that comment was unnecessary. As my mum always said, if you can't think of anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. I don't think you would be so rude in real life.
Someone has put time, money and effort into this home. Please remember that an actual person is behind the screen.

I kid you not, we viewed over 50 properties before finding one that ticked most of the boxes, and I nearly discounted it “because it looked ugly on Rightmove”

You sound like you want a 1960s/70s house - they tend to have parking, reasonable gardens, decent sized rooms and at least a loo downstairs if not another bathroom (in addition to one upstairs). However they tend to be 3 or 4 bedrooms at a minimum so may be too big for you / out of your price range.

We live in an 1800s 6 bedroom farmhouse which has all the things you would want except the bedrooms - the biggest is probably 4mx3m but we seem to be able to find room for furniture in all rooms. our previous cottage would have also met your requirements and was only 2 bedrooms BUT we have had to renovate both properties to get them exactly how we wanted them.

There is no rule on mumsnet that says you have to be nice or say nothing at all, don’t be so ridiculous, what a bore fest this site would be if that was the case. If you put a picture of your house up you are inviting people to comment you have to take the rough with the smooth and if my comments on saying grey is dated upset you or touched a nerve best you don’t venture onto the property section, you will get the vapours.

Thanks everyone.

God yeah I need to not buy a soul-less box either that will just make me depressed every time I come home!

You can get all those things but you need another £100k

True.

And it's not really "just" another 100k. It's the mortgage interest you have to pay on that. And the lost of all that money into your pension and the interest it could have gained you. So probably overall net loss of like 150-200k over the rest of your lifetime. :-(

Oh come on..you're single? So you don't need a downstairs loo

That's silly

We had this, to get the useable space like a decent garage and utility room they were nearly all 4 bedroom houses way out of budget.

You have to compromise somewhere unfortunately. As if buying a house isn’t stressful enough!

I was planning on getting old one day and not wanting to depend on going up/down stairs all the time.

Also in true MN style, maybe I'd prefer guests not trampling upstairs to use my only bathroom.

What a beautiful building, also love your light fittings.

I miss my 1930s semi. We bought it and had plans. Most people in the area seemed to have built over the garage and extended back as well. All have added a utility area and downstairs toilet as well as a decent 4th bedroom. Ours had a small back yard but most others seemed to have a garden of a decent size. And a drive away as well.some kept their garages and some converted them as well.

When we bought it there were loads of similarly built houses but many in dreadful condition due to the possible original owner from the 1930s having passed away and the family selling on with the house still having a lot of the original fixtures. Those that were in renovated condition were out of our price range. We did well to get one we could move into as it had been modernised but nothing had been knocked down or extended.

we sold it as we moved and our circumstances changed and we ended up in a 1900s terraced house, old miners. They’re very sturdy houses but the dimensions aren’t great. Our small room is tiny. Some of the houses are 2 bed meaning 2 decent doubles. Some are 3 bed like ours and are the exact same house, walls just added. You can see where over the years the kitchen was extended out and then a bathroom was added upstairs - some of the outside toilets are still there on the street but used as sheds. Some are just the coal sheds from those days. We’ve a back yard rather than a garden. Some are used as driveways but the streets are so overcrowded with cars now it’s hard to get on and off the drive as the road is too narrow - designed for horse and carts rather than cars. lol. Front is just open and communal grass for the whole street. No one uses their front doors as everyone has cars so comes in the back. We only have the one bathroom. I am desperate for a second toilet now we have kids. But there is literally no where to put one. The under stairs area that many 1930s houses have turned into loos is tiny in comparison in these houses. Stairs are very narrow and steep so they don’t seem to stretch long enough or wide enough.

I did quite like the new build we grew up in as kids. Built in the 1980s. They were actually decent builds. Good sized bedrooms. Downstairs loo and en suite in the massive double. Second bed was also a massive double. Gardens front and back were huge. Ours didn’t have a utility but many did extend the back of their garage up to the kitchen and made space for one. I noticed though as the builders took over more land the plots became smaller. Our 3 bed house became the blueprint for the 4 bed houses. Downstairs look the same but the upstairs rooms were all smaller to allow 4. Gardens were smaller. Spaces between houses were narrower. I would actually love to buy our old ‘new build’ from the 80s if it ever came back up. I drove past it a lot. They’ve all had external renovations (the Tudor effect has gone out of fashion) but they were all decent houses. And most were actually detached or pairs of semis where the garages were the bit that joined with next door.

Would love a second toilet or a utility room. A garden would have been great when the kids were young but not being green fingered I’m not massively missing that!!

We extended a 1930s semi amd converted the loft.I do prefer a built in wardrobe though to maximise on storage

If you get a garden, you don't need a tumble dryer.
Dehumidifiers exist too.

You won't find many 2 beds with 2 toilets.

Half of your points describe my house. One toilet, no parking, kitchen not big enough for dishwasher and washing machine/tumble dryer.

It's a great family home. Yes id like a bigger kitchen or another bathroom would be nice but i can't afford it and i wouldn't move now anyway, i love my little house . Too many people are looking for houses that tick every box, if you can't find that then you're going to have to work out what you're willing to compromise on. For example if you work from home do you need to be in your expensive city or can you move further out?

When we bought this house I had two minimum requirements.

A driveway where we could both park
A downstairs toilet.

I got neither 😫 - our single width driveway is behind the house with the garage that is a completely separate unit to the house and connected to the neighbours garage and there is one toilet.

It's a lovely house in a lovely area but I'm always looking at local houses for sale wishing we had bigger bedrooms and an office on top of what I wanted before. We moved from a 70s 3 bed semi to an 80s 3 bed detached and lost a lot of space and a loooot of storage.

The cost of adding an extra bedroom etc just simply isn't worth it to us as much as I dream.