to ask what you would not choose again if moving house

[chaletdays]

Just been reading the open plan thread. When I move again I would definitely not choose an open plan layout, or to buy a place right beside a green or any other communal area where children and teenagers will gather 24/7.

What would be your no nos if moving again?

Yep, the world is waking up to the beauty of 60/70s homes. Round here, just a few years ago they were very much the cheap option as everyone wanted the Victorian terraces. Now, the prices are booming. I had never really considered one, then visited a friend who lived in a beautiful ground floor 60s flat. Every room had huge windows looking onto stunning communal gardens, but the best thing was the storage: massive communal storage space for bikes and buggies, huge storage cupboard outside very front door, then storage cupboard inside the front door. Every room had a really sizeable built in storage area, and still there was loads of light-flooded space. And it was about half the price of the equivalent space in a Victorian house. Not any longer, though.

Thinking more about this thread overnight, the one thing that I would be really burning to get right in my next house - even more than a hallway - would be high ceilings. It's really hard to make a house look lovely with low ceilings.

All this talk of swinging cats might be triggering off the vicious cats threads on the site.
Love hearing details of people's houses. Property porn.

Yes I would never buy a period property again as a home I am 50 soon and have been renovating them for years and just too much upkeep! I will renovate a few more as the yummy mummies won't consider anything else and will pay for it but dp and I are both agreed we want a 50s or 60s purpose built flat with big windows and a balcony

Don't hate me but we had to tear down our mid century 1960s house as it was falling down already. It couldn't be saved. I lost the the parquet floor. Luckily, we are rebuilding with similar proportions, but the ceilings are higher and its three times as big, thanks to the large plot that came with the house. Very much keeping to the mid century feel this time around too!

Yes we had a period flat, never again absolute bugger to maintain.

Have spent the morning scouring Rightmove for 60's houses in our area! And started a Pinterest board! Seriously obsessed.

Have you seen The Modern House website/estate agents. If you doubted the merit of 20thC architecture have a look. All the people who bought new 60s and 70s houses as newlyweds are dying or selling up - so there are lots with one careful owner.

It's the large single glazed windows that are a heat problem, but solveable mostly (looks round at Georgian house that has so much 'potential' but is a money pit)

All under 600k
www.themodernhouse.net/sales-list/?price-from=0&price-to=600#

Thanks Girlwhowears - hadn't really considered the windows, but I don't think that would put me off! We live in a Victorian at the moment and we have plenty of issues with ventilation and condensation, so you can't really win.

Yes but rather than yuck upvc replacements tot he originals you can get lovely modern double glazing nowadays - aluminium with a dark metal finish or replacement wooden double glazing.

I mentioned it because 79s and 70s houses have lovely large windows that let lots of light in - so once the double glazing is sorted you have a massive plus point

Good point Girlwhowears. I have a fixation with windows. Big, bare and loads of light flooding in. This is beginning to sound a bit rude. I should probably stop now.

Girlwhowearsglasses- great point. My 1970s house has a huge lounge- two walls are basically just glass, floor to ceiling, double glazed.- the one to the back garden is a huge sliding patio door leading onto a large deck and then to the garden.
The deck outside is the same colour as our lounge floor, so gives the illusion of the room continuing out into the garden and the native woodland just behind it. With or without the patio doors open it looks as if our lounge is 60 foot long.

All this from a 1970s house -it's simply stunning.

I think, in any case, 60s and 70s houses will acquire a vintage charm shortly. So they'll win on all counts

Like this balletnotlacrosse:

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-44024065.html?premiumA=true

I never thought stone-clad fireplaces could look so good...

If it wasn't at the other end of the country, I'd buy this house.

Yes, they have done a lovely job with the inside.

My mum said that when she and my father were buying their first house in the 1960s nobody wanted old red brick houses and they were going for a song. Roll on a few years, and they were hot property.
It's like children's names; different ones seem lovely to different generations.

Hopefully not rent again - now nearly 40 I need to get on housing ladder! Def nothing wiv more than one staircase & def something wiv a garden (have rented for 15 years & never had own garden) - now I have a son, I WANT a garden!

Never buy near a pedestrian crossing. We rented next to one for a couple of years. Two words - Fucking. Airbrakes. Psssss Psssss all day long as buses and lorries let people cross. Argh!

Check that no bus routes run past the property.

I love living on bus routes! Have done so all my life - my last place was on a red route and overlooked two junctions with 16 lanes of traffic. I'm sitting here now with cars merrily roaring a few feet away from me, perfectly happy . This may explain why nobody wanted to buy my house except me.

And knock on the neighbours doors to have a chat to make sure they won't drive you bonkers.

Devora, I used to live in a flat in London (Blackheath) that was on a bus route, on a hill at a busy crossroads. There was a pub that did late night karaoke next door and another pub opposite! I developed the ability to sleep through anything!

If I wanted to do up another house (which I don't) I would choose one that hadn't been touched by absolute bodgers first. Unlike the 3-storey Edwardian house that cost significantly more to put right than it would have done if it had been left untouched since 1903!

LOL yes, been there done that Summerisle1 NEVER again. I don't mind refitting a kitchen or a bathroom but anything more ambitious than that I am no longer interested. I've earned my stripes but it's exhausting, expensive and demoralising.

I dream of going to view a house where everything is already done and I actually LIKE it and can say honestly, 'Yep, that's great, I would have no intention of ripping that out.'

But that hardly ever happens, and never within my budget.

The worst thing is when you find the perfect house in the perfect location, but it's expensive because someone has already done it up to a very high standard, but just not to your taste. That is such a dilemma. I can't live long term with something I don't like and I don't mind doing the work, (to a point) but I don't want to pay ££££ for the privilege having an expensive kitchen/fitted bedroom/whatever that I hate and intend to get rid of.