What type of house would you never buy?

[PinterandPirandello]

Just looking at a thread where properties are being recommended for £750k. One of the houses was completely open plan downstairs which we would hate as a family. Dh likes to sit at the kitchen table and have the radio on (loudly), dc like to game and I like to watch telly in peace. Plus the dishwasher and washing machine on. So we prefer at least a couple of separate rooms. However, I can see open plan could work with small kids but I’d still want private space.

Tbh, beautiful Victorian houses in London move quickly. I'd have bought it! We removed the wall between the (small) kitchen and (small) living room and it looks so much better - light coming through from both ends of the house, no more scurrying via hallway from one room to another. It feels so much bigger too

I live in a townhouse but the living spaces are mammoth because it’s Georgian. The new build townhouses are like little cubes just tiny rooms stacked on top of the other.

The other configuration I don’t like is where you enter into a small hallway and the stairs are directly in front of you and the lounge is on the left. You have to walk through the lounge to get to the kitchen.

Not a fan of a galley kitchen either, especially if it’s narrow. I was brought up in a house like this and we were forever getting in each others way.

This makes me so upset! I don’t understand why these people don’t buy a modern house to begin with. I wish there was more regulation around this sort of thing.

This should be illegal 😱

We’ve spent years and I hate to think how much money restoring the features that were ripped out of ours in the 60’s (and they didn’t even finish the job!)

A terraced house on a brand new estate.

Nothing that might flood.
Nothing on a busy road.
Nothing with difficult parking.
Nothing terraced or semi detached.
Nothing with bad neighbours!

I agree completely. It's the opposite of what people usually do, ie embracing the original features, painting in traditional colours etc.

The houses are 1920s/30s, so not protected in any way. It's such a shame. I have my original, stained glass windows & love them. We put the fireplaces back IN that had been removed over the years.

I really just don't understand it.

Anything rural, further than half a mile from regular public transport, ex-council or Grade I or Grade II listed, or in a conservation area. Layout changes are easily done so not a huge issue.

Currently live in a white rendered house- never again! It never looks clean.

New build on Barrett (or similar) estate. Cheap as chips materials, thrown up. Paper thin walls and tiny rooms, crammed close together. Would only have a new build if it was bespoke.

I know, it's criminal.

I owned a wonderful, tenement flat years ago. It was HUGE & on first look seemed to have quite a lot of the features removed, but the sheer joy we went through discovering they had all just been covered up: fan lights, moulded doors, original floors. The day we found out that all the bedrooms still had the original shutters glued behind wood sheets will be emblazoned on my memory (we danced!). I still miss that flat. I often wonder who lives in it now & is still enjoying all our hard work.

Our list of non-negotiables (we’re renovating to sell as desperate to move)

• Nothing without a double drive
• no open plan
• no stairs in the lounge
• No mid terraces
• nothing without a downstairs loo

An old house. No thanks. Grew up in a series of them due to parents love of the rural idyll fantasy. Beams, fireplaces, lovely features. Draughty as fuck, always cold, and cost a fortune to maintain ( according to parents) which meant money was always tight. Give me a well insulated cheap to run new build and some disposable income any day ( and yes, that's what I now have and wouldn't change it)

A house that didn't have a garden.

ex councils round here can be a real bargain. Usually soldily built with generous gardens

A house in a street, joined on to other houses.
I have had my fill of noisy neighbours and nearby people, noise coming through walls or from other gardens. I now live up a track in an old detached cottage, outside of a little hamlet, with one neighbour (well away and behind a tall fence). Absolute bliss. I'd rather like in a detached shed than a terraced house again.

But you do not get the depth of music with phones and speakers, surely? CDs are bad enough but listening e.g. on a laptop is often tinny. No good for Bach.

This is probably because they were built to the Parker Morris standards which gave minimum room sizes, gardens etc. These standards were repealed in the 80s which is why later houses are so pokey.

In the countryside
In a small village
In a small town
In the north of England
Anywhere that's not London really
Victorian terrace
No garden
Agree with OP about open plan

A good quality Marshall speaker does the job! No Bach in the house 😅

I’d quite like a dormer or chalet bungalow at this stage of my life. I’d use the upstairs bedroom but as I got older and possibly less mobile, I’d switch to the downstairs bedroom. They normally have a downstairs full bath/shower room.

Don't the dishwasher and washing machine annoy you? And everything must be put away in the kitchen, surely?

What, none? No Beethoven or anything? I suppose not. Maybe I am odd.

I would not buy a house with:
a joined on neighbour
any form of shared access
no external access to the back garden
no off-road parking, or parking for only 1 car
current or a history or damp or subsidence
declared problem neighbours
tenants in situ
open plan living
a cut through or pedestrian only pathway to any side of the house
close proximity to a school
a wood burning stove
fewer than 4 bedrooms
fewer than 2 reception rooms
wooden window frames

I think that’s probably it!