AIBU to wonder why new houses are so badly designed?

[StarlingMurmuration]

We're planning to move house soon and I've just spent an enjoyable though frustrating half hour on Rightmove, wondering why on earth modern houses are so poorly designed. We have been renting a small three bed new build terrace, with a WC on the ground floor, and a family bathroom and ensuite on the first floor... I liked my ensuite but at the same time thought it was ridiculous as two of the three bedrooms were significantly smaller than they needed to be to allow the ensuite to fit. But I've just seen a house that takes the biscuit. A four bed, three floor semi with five (FIVE!) toilets/bathrooms. A WC on the ground floor and one on the first floor, a family bathroom and two ensuites. Meanwhile the master bedroom and the second bedroom with ensuites are both tiny (9'5" x 8'11"), and the other bedrooms are even smaller. Why in earth do developers think people want so many bathrooms at the expense of actual room space? AIBU to find this infuriating, or does everyone else actually ant five toilets in a four bedroom house?

Agree re en suites...unless you have 11 kids or something a family bathroom and downstairs WC are perfectly adequate.

I love having our own kid-free bathroom. I love that when we have guests I don't have to get dressed before leaving the bathroom or streak into our bedroom in just a towel. We have two shower rooms and then our guest bathroom has a tub/shower combo in it because we don't often have baths. We had the guest bathroom put in and I love having an extra that can stay pretty and clean and it also meant we could have nice walk in showers in our bathrooms instead of cramped pokey bathtubs. I also love that if we need an extra loo the teens don't go in ours.

I do like having an ensuite when we have guests. I often need to go to the toilet in the middle of the night and it's nice not to risk bumping into anyone on the landing, especially as I like to sleep in the buff. Plus it means you don't have to wait politely for them to finish their ablutions when you want to go to bed. Even when we don't have guests, I tend to use the ensuite to shower and brush my teeth while DP uses the main bathroom. I imagine once DS gets older, we'll want the privacy too.

Layde, I think we may be neighbours!

Snap, Spoony!

Ensuite is mine, family bathroom is for DD/DH (and me if I want a bath) downstairs loo is for anyone and there's another shower room in the annexe we use for guests. Works for us.

Oh OP its a lovely house , , kind of house I can but dream of.

The square footage for the actual house is only 1230, the 1500 includes the office/garage in the garden. My 3 bed, 2 bath is bigger than that.

I can't believe we aren't paying more attention to green building.
Utilising solar gain,grey water retrieval etc etc.
We can't afford not to.
We need smaller living spaces.
How did we get the the point where a family of four seem to often think they need 3 bathrooms???

I agree That.

I've finally got around to looking at the house. I can't believe how tiny the master bedroom is. Moreover I can't believe that they have managed to do the opposite of a Tardis. That house looks massive on the outside but seems tiny on the inside.

People won't pay for green building. Individuals do build their own homes, but your average schmuck in the street will not pay for a house with solar panels on the roof, waste water reclamation, rain water collection, ground couples heat exchangers etc.

Building houses is about running a business selling a product people are willing to buy. And growing a business is about increasing profits and increasing the amount of houses you sell. Both are incomparable with Eco-friendly 'green' philosophies.

Now, if you managed to force people through legislation to buy green buildings. Passes a law for example that said only houses with solar panels on them could be sold after 2020, then the market would move with it, because there is nothing better for business than a public forced to spend money on things it previously had a choice about.

But short of that, people tend to exercise free choice, and people do not buy green housing, therefor it is not produced.

That house is beautiful, I wouldn't mind

Praps it's because everyone eats too much now. And therefore shit too much.

Building regs have got a lot tighter on the energy efficiency side and will do so again next year. In fact, over heating and poor ventilation is now a hot topic. Ellie's right, though, people are rarely willing to pay for green measures, so regulation is the only way.

There was a framework to ensure sustainable building through planning, but Pickles dumped it. Developers did it because they had to, but the voluntary replacement scheme will never get off the ground because people aren't that interested.

Massive kitchen too, for playing up all those takeaways

Plating even

I was think about what you said That.

In the future historians will wonder why the hell we built houses with so many damn toilet and why we were shitting in drinking water.

Crazy isn't it?

I knew a couple who had 4 loos.

You couldn't do that justice!

That as a family of 3/4 (soon to be 5) we couldn't do without 3 loos. We are two families though (parents and myself/DP/DS)

We're in a semi, 4 beds, with 5 bathrooms. It's bonkers.

Of course you could Lashes !

Seriously.

We have one loo between four. Its fine.Honest.

That, of that works that's great but for a lot of families it wouldn't.

Obviously anyone can live with one toilet but it's not particularly comfortable or practical! I can definitely understand the demand for ensuites

Why is it not comfortable?

Our

Too much stuff to fit in one bathroom, not enough privacy, people wanting it at the same time, having to hurry up in the bath because someone else wants it etc.

I'm surprised by the anti ensuite crowd on here lol! Ensuites for all!

We bought a new build in 2004. Six bedrooms and five bathrooms, three reception rooms and huge kitchen and conservatory.

Took the utility room out and refitted in the garage, and it's fantastic. One of the front rooms is 27' x 18' and all the bedrooms are huge. We now use it as a seven bed house and need every one of the bathrooms!! Boiler copes fine with everyone showering at once, and the garden is also massive and secure too.

Yes it's on three floors, but for us it works really well.

People have too much stuff though. What is this obsession with storage? Just get rid of some of your stuff.