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?

We lived in a house built in about 1969 when I was growing up. The layout was awful, the heating system was shite, it was freezing cold, the windows were huge and cold, and it was ugly.

Only good thing was play area outside, and a nice hand built wooden kitchen which lasted till my folks sold it to a student landlord a few years ago, who turned it into a monstrosity.

I think it's a matter of taste and what works for each individual family. I'm looking at that house and thinking that it would work very well for my family.

I'm also casting my eyes around my Victorian terrace and wondering why the Victorians didn't have the foresight to design a home that would work well for a family 150 years later!

Those of you who've said you have well designed large new builds with decent gardens, would you mind saying who built them, please?

Small local building company with great architect! Not major home builders!

I moved from an 8 apt victorian villa to a new build. Our new house comes nowhere near the old one in terms of charm and character, but our heating bills are under half of what they were and we are always hot instead of always cold. In our old house we had 4 big rooms downstairs but tiny bedrooms upstairs. There was no storage space so the boxroom upstairs had to store all our stuff and couldnt be used for anything else .we had 2 bathrooms-1 downstairs and 1 upstairs , but 2 people couldnt have a shower at the same time. I didnt have an en-suite and I didnt feel the need for 1. now I have less (unused) space downstairs but big bedrooms with2 ensuites and a family bathroom. Everyone can shower at the same time.There are huge built in wardrobes in the bedrooms and 6 large cupboard spaces around the house so its much tidier . My boys are adults so it suits us-but the new house is much more practical than the old house was

Amazingly ours is a Barratt home!

I hate ensuites : listening to people pissing in the next room to my bed is nasty.

We have four bedrooms and two full sized wash areas : one is a bathroom with a 6 foot bath, the other is a shower room with a 1m sq walk in shower
and downstairs a good sized cloakroom

and a utility room
the house is a 1930 semi that I altered a LOT

I would never, ever buy a house less than ten years old unless it was a one off or I'd built it.

But Talkin, surely it's only your DH/DP you can hear? I don't know, DP and I are pretty open about having a wee, we only shut the door for poos and I must admit, I insist on DP doing that in the main bathroom!

Thanks to those of you who've said who built your home! Sadly for us, there was a Linden development which has just sold the last house a few villages away, and nothing else that will do. I'll have to look for Barrett developments too! There's a couple of Redrow developments quite close, but they are madly expensive.

we only shut the door for poos and I must admit, I insist on DP doing that in the main bathroom!

we only have main bathrooms - much simpler.

One is for DD and I, the other is for DH and DS

Our good new build was Taylor Wimpey and the next lot along which needed repair under the NHBC were Redrow.

You can't hear anything from my ensuite. Also spend £600 on heating oil per year which is massively different to the £3000 I was spending on gas in a Victorian house. Solar and insulation is brilliant! Can afford holidays and food now!

agree! Houses all built on the cheap. I find the low ceilings ( just so because adding a few more inches is expensive) and the tiny windows particularly off putting. It's like there is some sort of medieval window/glass tax!!

Who will buy these homes in 50 years? No one that's who. Slums of tomorrow.

I'd love a new build house, I live in 300+ year old house, it's freezing and constant maintenance. I have three bathrooms and a downstairs loo though, I like lots of bathroom not sure I would if I had to squeeze around the beds.

We looked at a place to rent which seemed ok on paper which just had the requisite ensuite, main bathroom and downstairs loo, three bedrooms. The space downstairs seemed ok, but then we went upstairs... The first bedroom we looked in, I thought, " This would make an ok nursery, not too small for the box room" then we went in the second bedroom and realised THAT was the box room - it wasn't even big enough to put a single bed in it! And to get to the ensuite, you had to edge round the bed in the master bedroom... There was literally a foot of space round the bed, all the way around. It was shocking. And no parking outside.

My friend has a new build two bedroom house with ensuite and downstairs WC, with a kitchen so tiny you have to shut the door to get from the sink to the fridge. There's no clearance between the open door and the worktops. It shod not be legal to build homes like that. The toilet downstairs is for disabled access, but you couldn't get a wheelchair into the kitchen because it's so small!

Rant rant rant froth.

I viewed a new build with a downstairs wc cut out of the lounge. Not only did it spoil the lay out of the lounge, I cannot imagine sitting in the lounge whilst someone is doing their business within earshot .

fakename I bet your old house is cool in the summer though! We live in very old house which I love because of the shutters, the thick stone walls, it stays warm in the winter when the central heating and wood burner has warmed it up. And cool in the summer. It has an upstairs bathroom\loo and downstairs shower\loo in the utility area. We put in new attic insulation maybe yours needs some more?

I hate the modern houses with their paper thin walls and no space at all, for anything, they're like dolls' houses.

Just to come back to the energy efficiency thing.

Just before the last parliament rose, the passed a bill killing the Code for Sustainable Homes. On Friday, this government put the brakes on any further tightening of energy efficiency targets for new builds and conversions. Supposed to be zero carbon from next year,but now remaining at the current level until further notice (after the eu referendum, I'll bet). So, homes will stay at current energy demand, unless an active decision by the builder. Which only happens with self builds.

Government has the power to have energy efficiency built into new builds, rather than bolted on in the form of renewable technology. House builders have adapted pragmatically, even to the code, which was quite cost - onerous. Suppliers have reacted brilliantly in terms of R&D.

Sad day.