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?!!!!

Tethersend, French DH daily cursed the lack of mixer taps when we lived in the UK!

Why is a hot water tank in the loft less hygienic than a hot water tank elsewhere? (We have ours in the basement)

We got rid of our en-suite to create a 4th bedroom. We moved the shower downstairs into a downstairs loo.

I don't miss the en-suite, or having three loos. One of them was always unflushed/out of paper/haunted by a persistent turd. Two are easier to manage.

Will I agree when the DCs are teenagers? Possibly not. But not being lottery winners I dare say we shall cope in the same way as we'll cope with "only" having enough room for two cars on the drive when the DCs start driving. I think we are lucky to have what we have.

'Stop moaning some people have nothing !'

Some people are starving in the world, too, but if I paid for a meal in a restaurant and it were crap I'd still complain about it.

You have to spend £££ to have a decent home here.

coalition Here = surrey.

I quite fancy a mansion on Norfolk though (although would have to stock up on blankets and hot water bottles!)

Oh my mother couldn't get her head round the absence of mixer taps when she visited us in the UK.

Nor could she condone the lack of a bidet

I agree with Noddy that English old houses are just beautiful

Ex-council houses are spacious and airy because they were built to Parker-Unwin standards.

wiki

I also despair at the 'requirement' for an en-suite with every bedroom. I remember a developer taking me round a hideous house he'd built and showing me the little girl's room, with matching en-suite. Wtf?

I would never in a million years buy a new build.

There is a new fashion (round here, anyway) for townhouses on new plots, designed to look like Regency terrace knockoffs. So, your kitchen is downstairs, then your living room is on the first floor, and bedrooms on top.

Who the HELL wants to live in a house where the kitchen is on a different floor than the living room in a NEWLY dsigned house. Yes great if you are actually living in a beautiful regency terrace with loads of space. But imagine how shit it would be living like that purely because it has been designed that way to minimise the footprint. I have been in the houses and you can't swing a cat.

I grew up in Victorian houses, because I ived in a Victorian boom town, and that is my preferred design, purely though because of the original features, stained glass etc.

However, I live in a late 60s build. The house is as ugly as sin, however it is big inside and out - have a massive kitchen and sitting room, garage, laundry room, utility room, massive big storage areas, 2 bathrooms, great big garden etc. Very well designed and built. New houses seem to be built of paper, and anything older than Edwardian is bloody freezing.

Agree with expat and co. about English houses. (No utility room/laundry? - yuck! Not enough loos, etc.)

But then I'm Australian, and have lived abroad. I wonder how many of us on this thread who dislike stuff about English houses are either not English or have lived elsewhere.

And, as I grew up in a Victorian terrace with no heating and had ice on the inside of my bedroom when I woke up in the morning, this house is warm.

Im another one who dosent like en-suites. Two seperate bathrooms would be soooo much better.

I would not want to live in a house with no utility/laundry room, and only one bathroom/loo.

getOrf - Re the townhouse thing with the kitchen on the ground floor and the lounge on the first floor. SIL used to live in a house like this and the lounge used to get full of plates, cups etc all waiting for someone to trek back down to the kitchen with them.

Elter - it must be hell when you have small children, carting them upstairs and downstairs with you.

They are horrible houses. A friend has just bought one as she is expecting a baby, I think it is a poor choice.

Things I love about Swiss housing (where I live now):

• doors are actually made of solid wood, and close with a satisfying car door-type 'thunk'

• high ceilings as standard

• light switches (ie, at chest height next to doors) are also plug sockets. SO easy for hoovering, popping a mobile onto charge and dropping it on a table, etc

• we're in a house, but apartments here are awesome: fabulous build quality, underground parking/storage (no scraping windscreens or wet shopping), large balconies on at least one side of the apartment, big enough for a dining table/ BBQ/ laundry airer, communal play areas for kids

Darn it. Just realised I can never move back...

If I could afford it, I'd move to Switzerland like a shot.

I loathe en-suites, I married DH for better or worse, but not to listen to him piss in the morning.

I also dislike this "many toilets" thing. I don't want to be responsible for that many toilets. Also, to get value for money I suppose I'd have to pee in each one, in rotation.

If the worst thing you ever suffer is not having a separate laundry room, then you should consider yourself fortunate. Many people have far less.

On the other hand, most new builds are made of paper and string, can't get a pram in the titchy front door, can't swing a cat, 1 square foot of kitchen counter space and not enough power sockets.
The ones described as "luxury executive" homes are also a rip off they just have more toilets, a bigger sink in the kitchen and deeper skirting boards.

What is an 'executive' house? I really dislike this term.

re tank in the loft- a lot of water gets heated up and then stored. water goes off if not treated.
we live in a newish build and have a stupid water tank. would be the perfect place for the washing mashine. there are more efficient ways of heating the water.

Hk we lied in a three bedroom flat with 10 other people and the loo had the shower over the loo so it was a tiny wet room - I always made sure that I put the lid of the loo down so the soap didn't drop down the loo, the kitchen was in the hall and the lady that owned the flat had a two burner stove and a slow cooker for doing the food and a bowl to use with the shower to wash up.

it wasn't what I would call light and airy or lots of space

but it was very clean

HK is very very expensive for flats and even hotels - I went back years ater and stayed in a hotle where we had very little space in the room and only a shower no bath in the bathroom

Yes, but the UK is no HK. It's not that crowded here. That being said, after living in Sweden for 3 months, I can see why IKEA was created :o. And has a huge market in Japan, another place I've visited several times due to having a sister there, with a studio flat in Yokahama-shi.

"If the worst thing you ever suffer is not having a separate laundry room, then you should consider yourself fortunate. Many people have far less."

Absolutely true Miggsie, but if I have to spend over £400k just to get a reasonable 4 bed house that doesn't look like crap I don't think it's unreasonable to require a laundry room, and while we're at it, rooms of an adequate size, decent build quality and functional water pressure. The point being that in many other comparable Westernised countries this sort of thing would be standard. For a lot less money.

Those water tanks in the loft scare me. Do you remember a few years ago it was all over the news that one malfunctioned, the hot water went up into the (plastic) tank (designed to hold cold water) by mistake and it melted and all this boiling water came down through the ceiling? (Don't google it, it's pretty horrific) I didn't think they built houses with them at all any more. I'm in rented but we have a combi boiler.

I believe however that the water tanks in the basement/in the main living space are considered more hygienic as they are generally covered whereas ones in the loft are not, meaning rodents, birds, insects etc can fall into them and drown and fester. Yuk.

Don't have a problem at all with washing machine in the kitchen, or few toilets. As someone said above, it's less to clean! We don't have running water at all upstairs and it's annoying occasionally, but most of the time it's fine. I am completely baffled as to why having laundry in the kitchen is unhygienic - don't you have a BIN in your kitchen? Washing machine in the bathroom seems completely weird to me. I can't imagine having anything electrical in a bathroom - though I suppose a shower is electric!

For £450,000 you can get this near here - couldn't really complain

That's very nice lal. Now try south London.