to think that unless you spend £££, houses in the UK are not very functional??

[PussinJimmyChoos]

Seriously...what is it with houses in this bloody country (and yes, I am English!)...they are so NOT designed for family life....poxy pokey 3rd bedrooms, kitchens you can't swing a cat in, only one bathroom in most houses and no space for entertaining....

It pisses me off!! Struggling with space in our house atm and just thinking that if a bit more thought went into the design of it, it wouldn't be as much of an issue

And why are so many new builds so small?!!!!

People will trot in with the whole 'oh, it's a small island.'

No, Hong Kong is a small island. No houses, but even the flats I saw there were better laid out.

Grew up in a 1930s ex-council house - 3 big beds, big kitchen and separate pantry / utility, big lounge, family bathroom, downstairs toilet, cloakroom and porch. Outside, large garden, drive and garage.

All these houses still exist but people need to be preared to live in an ex-council house to get this amount space for an affordable amount of money and many just prefer new builds (snobbery?).

Why is there no storage facilities in most new homes? Viewed a lovely, large 4 bedroom house on Saturday but without a single cupboard - I know you can put free standing furniture in (or build your own) but surely its not too much to expect understairs storage/airing cupboard etc. In all these beautiful show homes you never see where people keep their 'stuff' do you?

We have a 30's house, and although it has a huge garden- 120 feet- the house was so badly designed.
4 bedrooms, but one you could only use as a baby's room/office, a long thin lounge which no matter how I try, the furniture doesn't look right (that's why I never go in there) and the smallest kitchen in the world.
We've added on- loft extension and huge 45 sq metre kitchen/den across the back- but we are still about 2 feet from the next door neighbour.

For once, this isn't entirely the builders' faults.

Main reason for small high density housing is Government policy which effectively prevents the grant of planning permission to anything except gulags.

Govt policy in turn was formulated to protect the green belts and agricultural land - you're running out of space over there so either you build higher density or the public have got to be prepared to build some new housing on greenbelt.

Funnily enough the (wealthy) NIMBYs aren't prepared to allow that so the (poor) first time buyers get shafted with high rise, pokey houses with no storage space/ laundry/ pantry/ garden etc.

Although, yes, the builders could do more with the space if there was greater control over internal specs. I can really see that happening post-credit crunch though.

My dirty clothes get put in bathroom in linen basket. They only come into kitchen to be put into the machine so I don't get why it's so awful. They then get pegged on line or hung on drier.

OK I do handwashing in the kitchen sink, but the food is hidden in cupboards and the fridge so the "evil" washing can't "contaminate" it or whatever some of you think may happen.

The kitchen is a handy area with work surfaces and a large sink. Why should't it double as a room to wash clothes in?

Sorry, Azazello, missed your post first time round!

I think I recall reading once that only 1 or 2% of greenbelt and agricultural land would need to be freed up to meet current housing needs.

I just want to join in with the 'why shouldn't a washing machine live in the kitchen?' confusion.

We live in an ex-council house. 3bed semi built in 1950. Originally had 3 medium sized bedrooms and one TINY bathroom. Someone years ago swapped over the bathroom and 3rd bedroom, which means this house has effectively become 2 bedroom. 3rd bedroom now is my walk-in wardrobe. (extravagant, I know).

We have based our decision to only have 1 child on this, because it would cost us at least £25-30g to extend or move somewhere as nice with a decent 3rd bedroom.

I do have a utility room though.

"I refuse to buy a house that doesn't have a laundry room, the thought of having dirty/clean laundry in the kitchen of all places is just so weird. I do not understand that at all. If there really is no space for a separate laundry room, better off in the bathroom or (if you have one) garage or cellar surely?"

Well we'd all love a laundry room, but the reason most washing machines are in the kitchen is because of the plumbing. It is against the law to have electrical sockets in the bathroom in the UK, which makes that a problem. I would hate to cough up the plumbing bill to have a drain installed in a garage and most places don't have a cellar.

I suspect the real resaon that most washing machines are in the kitchen is tradition. Hand washing was usually done in the kitchen. Twin-tubs needed filling from the tap and emptying into the sink, again kitchen the most sensible place. When automatic washing machines were invented they were notoriously unreliable and would frequently leak gallons of water all over the floor (did anyone have one that used to wander around the kitchen). So it made sense to have it a) where there was an uncarpeted floor, for ease of mopping and b) somewhere where you could keep an eye on the bloody thing.

YANBU

We have had three extensions now on what was supposed to be a '4 bed exec'. It had two bedrooms you could barely fit a bed in (built over the garage to fix that) and next to no entertaining space (knocked through into the back of the garage to fix that). We also did a loft conversion as DH works from home most of the time. Finally, after 17 years in this home, we feel it works properly... I certainly don't miss all the crap and clutter that used to fill the garage and loft.

TA, can i join too, really can't understand why my washing machine needs a room of its own. I know it gets used a lot in this house but it aint a fifth kid and is just fine under my worktop. Should i ask it if it's happy? do washing machines have rights?

I cook dinner in the evening in the clothes I have been wearing all day. Why do they suddenly become toxic when I take them off to wash them?

I now have a utility room which is my favourite room in the house I have a huge airer in there and as it's warm, things dry in no time.
Everything gets thrown in there and the door can be shut.
Also I can't hear the washing machine (which apparently is one of the quietest drums on the market, but I remain unconvinced)

We have a huge front garden too. In a conservation area so difficult to convert any of it to driveway, wouldnt get permission for access anyway as we are on the corner of a tricky crossroads. Beginning to wonder why we love this house so much...

Houses built today have their pitfalls, not least the quality of some of the workmanship, but there are some definite practical advantages, like being able to see your car from your house.

I'd so love a laundry/utility. I'd especially love one of those ginormous washing machines like my sister in Australia has - where you can open the bloody thing when it's going and shove something else in - ahhh what luxury.

When we were looking for a 4 bedroomed house we were at the amount of 4 bed detached places that had a nice lot of room upstairs but the downstairs was all bloody garage! Now that's something I don't get, that seventies architects believed that people would rather have space for their car in their house than for their children to play.

I don't mind washing machines in the kitchen but its just that my kitchen isn't that big so would be lovely if had the extra cupboard space and a utility room instead. Would like to be able to hang clothes in there and shut door instead of having clothes drying around the house!

We have viewed a lot of houses as looking to move and it seems that in order to just get the functional living space as a family (we are not even after acres of land with room for a pony and swimming pool you understand), you need to spend ££££ which is crazy

DH is from Syria and Damascus is very heavily populated. Having said that, the flats (more apartments really) that his family/friends live in are sooo spacious! Kitchens you can cook in, big spaces for entertaining and more than one bathroom

We live in Germany, and before we built our own home we rented a flat. It was in a purpose built 'house' with 6 flats all together. Nicely maintained communal areas, very roomy - a lot of families here live in flats. I don't understand why people in the UK seem to look down on them - it was much nicer than the house I grew up in in the UK.

BTW I also don't see the problem with washing machines in the kitchen. Utility rooms are often dank and poky. Lots of people in Germany have theirs in their bathroom but I can't come to grips with it!

Luckily for us we have a cellar so it goes down there.

having lived overseas I have a simple list of requirements:

4 double bedrooms
1 en suite
1 family bathroom
1 downstairs toilet
Kitchen big enough to put a table in it.
Utility room with space to hang washing to dry.
3 reception rooms (dining room/sitting room/play room)

Not a lot to ask I always think.....although you'd need £1million + to get anywhere near close to that here

I doubt the new builds we're putting up today will still be here in 100 years time anyway (about the time we pay the mortgage off lol)

I've often wondered what would happen if you bought land and just built on it, how long would it take for anyone to notice and would they just grant retrospective planning permission as they did with my neighbors ugly extension.

it's not just builders / governemtns fauts, though - all you have to do is watch location location location to see what people demand from a home that they didn't 30 years ago - must be detached, ensuite bathroom (why?? I don't want to hear DP having a morning piss while I'm in bed), utility room, a gazillion bathrooms, all the children having their own rooms - we are spoilt, to be perfectly frank, and as other people have explained there are reason for houses being smaller, but now we're throw all our toys out of the box because we can't have it all.

Grow up! It's perfectly possible to exist without some of these things - you want more room, then don't insist of living in a new build detached house - I'm in a 3 bed terraced house, over 150 years old - no, I don't have an ensuite, a utility, more than 1 bathroom, a separate shower cubicle, off street parking - but, it's big. Massive through lounge, long (though narrow) garden, bedrooms are all doubles, big kitchen. But I know plenty of people who wouldn't even consider living here because it doesn't tick all their precious little boxes.

Yes, I agree that new houses could be better designed. But if you just took a few things off your list, you would get a better designed house! We live in a tiny, overcrowded island, in case you hadn't noticed.

Mamatomany - plenty of examples out there of houses being torn down for lack of planning permission. The Council can enforce for 4 years after the event and most are pretty good these days about getting injunctions as soon as you've got a spade in the ground anyway.

If you want more space, then the Government needs to be persuaded to lower the housing density limits and allow some building on greenfield sites. Of course, that won't be too popular with the CPRE, Ramblers etc.

Not too popular with houseowners either, funnily enough, because if we actually had enough houses for everyone to live in then house prices would fall even further...

It's a small country, land is expensive - we are never going to have big, American-style new builds with walk-in closets and huge utility rooms at prices affordable for the average Joe.