I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that

[HoneyDragon]

But the builders behind me seem grimly determined to build the ugliest house ever.

Fair enough I don't have to live in it, but it's going to be awful if they continue. Who wants a fugly house?

They appear to be doing it mainly in Sandstone and then a massive red brick bit at back

Am I missing something about building techniques and it will somehow look nice at the end? Because they want over half a million for it and I'm bewildered as to who will pay it.

[RNBrie]

This new build development is at the end of our road... Brewery Wharf

We cannot work out who in their right mind is going to pay the better part of £2mil for a garden the size of a postage stamp that's completely overlooked by the rest of the development. I guess the developers know what they're doing.... At least they're more or less the same colour though

[BlackeyedShepherdsbringsheep]

yep prefer euphemias monstrosity to the ugly things in the op too.

hate new builds. they just look so small and dark with postage stamp gardens.

[Glastokitty]

God don't get me started on new builds. I'm in Oz which is a bloody enormous country almost the size of the USA, yet with only 23 million people living in it. Granted most want to live near the coast, but why the hell new build plots are 450 sq m (or less) I have no idea. I drove past one new estate yesterday and it was like a prison camp, 4 bedroomed house all squashed up against each other with teeny little gardens. I live in an older house on a nice sized plot (1000 sq m), almost everyone on my street has subdivided their gardens to squeeze in two or even three new builds on the original plot. It's a real shame and it makes no sense to me.

[StarlingMurmuration]

Brie, the thing that puts me off those houses (aside from the price) is the fact that the living room is on the floor above the kitchen. We're renting a house with similar floor plan, and it's such a pain if you have a baby or a toddler. We've just bought a house with a more normal layout and I cannot wait to be able to pop into the kitchen without carrying DS downstairs with me every bloody time I want a brew.

[NicoleWatterson]

I had a house that was new build sand stone with the red brick garage of next door attached. it didn't look horrendous when done although I hate new builds

[StepAwayFromTheThesaurus]

I don't hate all new builds. I hate the ones with the tiny windows, all squashed together on teeny plots (often as terraces of townhouses with kitchens in stupid locations and minuscule bedrooms with space taken out of them to put in unnecessary numbers of ensuites), with that horrible maze of narrow roads with no or too few pavements and insufficient parking even for the residents never mind anyone who dares to have visitors, plonked in a field miles away from anything. Sadly, that seems to be most of them these days.

There are some nicer estates (although even then, the three story monstrosity with the kitchen in an absurd location is still a feature) but the vast majority of them are as described above. And the prices in the ones where you might have some space to breathe are ludicrous.

[PrimalLass]

My friend has a lovely new build house that I really covet. White render, slate roof, former roof windows, and tons of space. Every room is huge.

[PrimalLass]

*dormer, not former

[DyslexicScientist]

Lord can you share a photo?

[gleam]

That's just not possible, I'm afraid. The house has already been built - opposite me!

[Fent0n]

Urgh, they're doing that new build-faux it's been there years and extended thing.
It amazes me that they allow new builds to look like this, when if you were to do an extension now, no way would they permit the new part to mismatch, the brick would have to be as near as possible to existing.

[Backingvocals]

Love Ugly Belgian Houses

RNBrie I know exactly where you are
I went to Richmond College over a thousand years ago....when Twickenham was a very ordinary, slightly down at heel suburb and what is now Laverstoke Park Farm Shop was an old lady's bra shop. People were perfectly ordinary and didn't have £2m to spend on house with poky garden next to the railway line.

[LordBrightside]

Here's a pic.

[DyslexicScientist]

Looks great lord, you must be excited to move in and being modern will be warm and comfortable.

I hope to do the same one day, all about finding the land and somewhere I can see my self for a decade or two.

[LordBrightside]

Cheers. It's well worth it. Miller Homes are just one example who are selling houses which are over 1000 sqft less than what we are building, with overlooked gardens less than a tenth of the size and yet they are charging almost £130k more than we are spending.

It's a disgrace really and the big house builders need an absolute kicking from central government.

[RNBrie]

Good spot Backingvocals! I'm pretty sure twickers is still mostly normal people, I can't wait to see who moves in... I'd not trade our little terrace house with a decent garden for one of those monstrosities. That said, having two of your own parking spaces is probably worth around £2mil on our road

[Dipankrispaneven]

I too know where RNBrie is, and I suspect those developers are being quite optimistic. It remains the case that Twickers as a town is nothing special - you'd never make a special trip to the shops there - though I suppose it benefits from the easy commute to central London and having the river.

Talking of Twickers, for true fugliness you don't have to look much further than the extension to the Rugby Stadium. It's all bare concrete and utterly hideous. I suspect the planning committee for some reason felt they couldn't argue with the rugby authorities about the design, but they really should never have let it through.

[HoneyDragon]

Externally mine is a big red box, I like being surrounded by other houses though, it's always made me feel safer at night. However I have a big garden or it would be awful.

However inside is pretty good, high ceilings, large rooms and lots of space.