To not want a house with this floor plan (pic included)

[Raymond1989]

In the area I want and with my budget I'm only going to get a terraced house. All the terraced houses I've seen a tiny and I feel like I'm in a prison cell.

I've found a house that's within budget and I love it! Feels spacious and is end terrace with a big park next to it. I love the area.

It feels cosy and there's still a yard for own use eventhough it's small. It's big enough to have a washing line and an outdoor table and chairs. I'm moving from a semi detached house with front and back garden but it's worth it to live in a better location.

My issue is the floor plan (see pic)

An extension has been added but to preserve some yard space it's been added in a long rectangle. This then leaves a large dining room but another lounge with no use to it!

My friend has th exact same floor plan and her living room is redundant!

I only have my daughter and I but family stay a lot so I could make the 'lounge' into a multi use room with a guest bed,computer desk etc.

Would this floor plan put you off? Is it a disaster?

Any ideas on how to make it work?

Again: if you move the kitchen into the dining room, what will you do with the existing kitchen? It's pretty much too narrow to be comfortably used as anything else. Look at the door width on the diagram! You'll end up with a ton of dead space.

I'd use th kitchen as a utility room. Keep th asking machine/dishwasher/tumble dryer in there.

*washing machine.

Sorry hands are really shaky today!

OP I think if you really want a kitchen/diner then you need to keep looking, sorry!

Layout totally standard for a terrace, in fact better than normal. Very flexible as your little one grows.

Personally, I would have, formal lounge at the front, dining room in the middle, through to kitchen and a little seating area/coffee table and sofa with some patio doors out to the yard. You can lounge with a cuppa and a friend, whilst watching your DD play in the courtyard.

sorry but #firstworldproblems

I wish I could get a a 2 bed house, but cannot afford it at the mo.

Kitchen diner and then the lounge wIth the Tv in it and that's where you 'lounge'

Seems odd to only use the kitchen diner when to me that room is for cooking/eating only. I hate open plan kitchen/diner/lounges though

If you have lots of guests the separate lounge is great as it gives your guests privacy - where would they sleep otherwise?

It's a nice layout. You can have the sitting room with the tv and keep it cosy and then the dining room with a small settee or a two smaller comfy chairs if it opens on to the garden. The table could be multipurpose for meals, computre, desk space.

So confused by this issue.....

Taking the kitchen door off its hinges and perhaps widening it would perhaps solve some of your problem? If it's that you don't like the kitchen being isolated that I do understand - one of my requirements when househunting is that the kitchen has space for more than one person comfortably. I like cooking fairly elaborate meals and I hated that in our old house that meant I was completely alone for the whole cooking time - no room for DH to come in to chat and if I asked him to chop something for me or something we'd get right under each others' feet. But I agree that if you want a more sociable kitchen you might need another house. I don't think moving the kitchen into the dining room is viable - it'll cost a fortune and also probably produce a really cramped apace, since you want a kitchen/diner (and then you'll have a giant utility room!)

The way we used this layout when I was growing up was to have the dining room as the dossing about, nice place to eat dinner with a small table, small sofa and TV - with a fire - it was the cosy kids' room. If your daughter wants to watch something different she can use the IPAD or whatever.

The front room was more for posh and watching TV at night.

It worked.

A 2 bed terrace really isn't big enough to justify a separate utility room and in my opinion would reduce the future resale value. Put a sliding door across the kitchen so you can shut machine noise out. The dining room is right next to the kitchen, so it will work the same as a kitchen diner, as you just keep the door open while you are in the kitchen. I don't like the current trend for open plan living, I want my cooking smells contained away from where I relax.

I would also move the door of the second bedroom closer to the stairs, then you could make the bathroom bigger rather than having so much room on the landing.

Could you put a small (drop leaf) table in the middle of the dining room, that can be extended for when you have guests? When I sit in the kitchen/diner in my current house I read or listen to the radio. Sometimes it's refreshing to escape the tv.

My friend has a layout almost identical downstairs layout except the hallway separates lounge and dining room instead of run up the side in your picture.

It works great a usual visit works like this.

I arrive, I go straight to the dining room where we sit at the table for a while have a coffee (I chat at the kitchen door while the kettle is on) and a bit of lunch and a catch up then eventually after food is done etc we move through to the lounge for a "comfy seat" with a coffee or wine! until it's time for me to go. It works really well actually.

That would be perfect for us, if we were looking for another 2 bed terrace. Looking at the upstairs square footage, it's not like the rooms are absolutely vast, anyhow, so you'll not be rattling around in it.

Our current 2 bed terrace has a "through" lounge and one of our requirements when we get around to moving will be more than one reception room, though there are 4 of us, 2 autistic and 2 with an awful lot of traits and we all need a bit more segregation from each other, sometimes!

We rented a house with a layout like that.

There were two big chairs in dinning room so TV got put there - but still had room for decent sized table and chairs. We did find we were living at the back of the house - but the noise from the extremely busy road was also a factor.

I think if we'd been staying longer or buying we have had to make sure TV went in front room - or made it playroom/office/study.

I don't think the floor plan is a disaster but perhaps doesn't flow as well as other layouts.

I grew up with a dining room, so really can't see your problem. Not only did we have a dining table in there (which got used for guests) but it also had the piano and a comfy chair so you could sit and look out at the garden. It was south facing, so was warmer than the sitting room.

I also don't see the problem and have known a lot of friends with houses like this. Living room has sofa and TV, dining room has a table and chairs, perhaps a bookcase, toys when kids are little, piano/keyboard or other instrument. Friends' houses had one step between kitchen and dining room and could easily take food from kitchen into the dining room, literally just a few steps. It's a nice layout, not a problem one.

I was expecting you had to walk through second bedroom to bathroom or through kitchen to bathroom (which I think a lot of these houses originally had).

You either want the house or you don't. Why are you asking strangers if you should move? In all honesty if you can not decide that for yourself, should you really be looking at moving out of your parents?

Our first house had a separate dining room which was irritating in that to move between the kitchen and the dining room, you had to pass through the hall and the lounge. There was a serving hatch which was some help (1980s house). For practical purposes, a dining room just off the kitchen is fine, and has the benefit of being able to close the door on noisy appliances.

People use houses in different ways according to their needs and things like light. Some people prefer formal dining. Some people want to relax where the best natural daylight is. There's no set way of how to arrange the space in a home.

Why did they do the long skinny extension instead of one half the depth but full width of the house? Surely that would still have left yard space? Is it to match next door?

That's what I would do.

I might also move the stairs to the right side wall to make it open plan downstairs

That is a completely normal layout for a terrace, and in fact is hugely better than most 2 bed terraces.

Seriously WFT is your issue?

• Take the kitchen door off.
• Cook in the kitchen
• Eat at a dining table in the dining room, probably room for a desk and/or a small sofa or comfy chair
• Sitting room is your sitting room with sofas and TV

If you don't want the house you don't want it, buy=t you just seem a but thick and hysterical with this hand wringing about how you can't live with this (totally normal) layout.

If you want a nice open plan kitchen diner you ain't going to get it in a terrace with your budget.

Why did they do the long skinny extension instead of one half the depth but full width of the house? Surely that would still have left yard space? Is it to match next door?

Because that is seriously fucking expensive and you loose all light from the middle room.

You'll eventually realise the house you want doesn't exist in the location you want, at the time you want to buy. The problem with houses is you can only buy what's on the market in your price range at the time you are looking

Then you narrow down to what's negotiable and what isn't.

So if a kitchen diner isn't negotiable keep looking. There is nothing wrong with realising that's what you want out of life. It's a helpful process.

We wanted parking enough to buy a 2 bed over a 3 bed for instance. But it took a while to understand just how important parking was too us.

The front room offers so much versatility. Privacy for a teenager, study, guest room, potential for a lodger if you ever fall on hard times. Open plan can feel oppressive when you have noisy teenagers around. No escape.