Must haves when house searching that I don't 'get'

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All open plan.
Why? Much nicer to have separate rooms where people can do their own thing, and to not have cooking smells invading the whole downstairs.

Kitchen Islands.
Usually just become dumping grounds for loads of rubbish and take up loads of floor space.

Bi fold doors - everyone round here seems to have them, their extensions are side on to our house, and with there being no curtains or blinds, in the winter it is like watching soap operas with the sound turned off.

I love open plan and kitchen islands! No problems with noises and smells, so need to tidy island to make sure it isn't a dumping ground though, but I don't mind that.

I don't understand big gardens though, loads of work, as someone else said, a small garden and proximity to a park works for me.

I do NOT get people who prefer loads of separate rooms downstairs. Maybe if you live in a castle! But otherwise, one lovely big area is so, so much nicer, and so much easier to clean and keep nice. My personal nightmare is living in a pokey house with a front room and a back room, and a hall, and a kitchen and why not a different breakfast room. Perhaps I'd feel differently about it if I live somewhere massive. This idea that everybody needs their own space downstairs, when you have bedrooms, I find a little odd. As for cooking smells, it's not an issue if you have a proper system in place.

I agree on loathing tacky decking, it never looks good beyond six months, and I would also never want a conservatory.

I think open plan works if you've young children and want to be able to see them at all times (short period of time IME). It probably also works if you've no children. But once there are kids and teens that want/need/you want to be in separate spaces it doesn't work so well. Unless you have another floor of your house dedicated to teen spaces (thinking US style basements).

I'd run a mile from an ensuite with a half-wall or glass wall. Not common I'll admit (but there's a reason for that!) What a shit idea ... pun totally intended.

I hate built in garages - very rarely big enough to actually fit most cars in, and they just end up as a large cold storage area. This can be handy but not the best use of a big chunk of the ground floor.

I was told the other day that keeping your car in a garage is more likely to make it rust. Is this true? Another reason not to have one.

Fetchez usually in a pile on the floor....

Nah I do have a free standing wardrobe, I just don't like them. In an ideal world I would have a bedroom turned into a giant wardrobe with rails, but if I did that in my current house, DS would have to move into the garage.

My ideal place would be a large flat (can't stand the idea of having a garden) with an en suite in the master bedroom and some built in storage!

Good job we're all different!

I love open plan. Hate poky little rooms, I like space, light and sociability. Like a PP said, we entertain lots and I can pratt about cooking whilst my guests are necking wine. No way do I want to stuck in a little kitchen cooking whilst everyone's having fun!

Love my conservatory too. But it does have a tiled roof on it. I use it lots.

Love my island too! I sit at it all the time. But it is big, with comfy padded bar stools, and it is tidy. There's nothing on it but an ornament and candles. Then we sit and eat at it whilst watching the telly

Can't get the point of double sinks. Why would anyone need one? Do you both have to use the sink at the same time?

Dislike decking since I heard rats live under it!

Big bedrooms.

Obviously, I like them- but if it’s the choice of fewer big bedrooms or more small bedrooms in the same space, I’d much prefer the latter.

Our biggest bedroom could comfortably make two decent rooms- except some twat put the window right in the corner so we can’t do it. Drives me potty.

I can't stand open plan either. If I had the money I would like a new house but it is impossible as they are all open plan!

Kitchen /diner - lovely - but not attached to living room as well. NOOOO!

yes, I like to escape the cooking smells and the sight of washingup too!

I agree about playrooms. Unless they are open plan with the kitchen/living room, then small children won't use them
Once they are old enough to want to play in another room, then they have a bedroom!

I do think that when kids are small big family kitchen/diners/lounge etc are lovely as you can see the kids and get on with stuff.
But it isn't long before the noise clash starts
I listen to radion 4 while in kitchen
kids on TV/PS3
someone doing homework
someone doing music practice

Just doesn't work.

I like open plan, it is nice to be with the rest of the family even if you are cooking, there is so little time after work, I think it is nice to be together, otherwise we wouldn't be seeing much of each other if each of us is in a different rooms (we take turns cooking). Also, as somebody has already mentioned, very nice when you have guests, you can cook at the same time as being with them.

Also great with small kids, my DD can be playing around, watching cartoons or whatever and I can do some washing up and cleaning in the kitchen while watching her and interacting with her often. Whenever I have been for holidays in other houses with my DD, they were not open plan and it was really an inconvenience, it made things much more difficult.

Apart from some very strong smells, food smell doesn't bother me, I actually think it feels quite homely. I never understood people bothered about food smell, so it is about personal preferences.

I like islands but only in very large kitchens, so don't have one.

Irma

I like my ensuite, my conservatory (though I do wish it had under floor heating!); my dining room opens straight from the kitchen, and you walk through it to the living room (double doors) or opposite them the conservatory.

Also, to prevent teenagers skulking upstairs 24/7, we have a long desk along the wall in the dining room which looks like Mission Control, 4 monitors, 2 keyboards, 2 teenage boys! .

We converted 2/3 of the integral garage into a second sitting room (leaving the up and over door part for bike storage)- but we never use it! It has a treadmill and exercise bike in it, which we do use, but no one sits on the sofa and watches TV in there, otherwise!

I wish my utility were twice as big, though.

I also don't get the fashion for buying an old period house and then totally modernising the inside - removing fireplaces and picture rails, knocking down all the internal walls, replacing the old staircase with a modern spiral one, putting in a chrome and marble kitchen etc.

It's such a disappointment when you walk in expecting to see a house full of character and history and it's all been taken out.

Australian homes (bigger ones) all have a 'parent's retreat' and a 'media room/home cinema' which no one ever uses.

My fantasy house would definatly include a conservatory. I would love one with lots of plants.
I don't like open plan. I would love a kitchen that is big enough for a table that can be eaten at - but a separate dinning room please - although I would probably use it more for crafting than eating. En suites - meh. Not important. Big garden with shed and a summer house please.
But this is totally all fantasy as i will never be able to afford a house. So I will add a couple of cats to the fantasy.

with you on decking too. Our house has it. Really slippy in wet weather. And I live in Wales, It rains a LOT

Love my wood burner, though. It slots into where the grate used to be. Purely decorative, it can make the house smell smokey, but it looks great!

Now, if I can only persuade DH to get a door moved 3' so we can rearrange the furniture in that room better...

MarieIVanArkleStinks I absolutely agree with you about conservatories. Building one onto our house was the best thing we ever did. We virtually live in there for 6 months of the year.

I don't get two reception rooms, why? also those massive spaces on landings, when would you ever spend time there?

Because there is no such thing as too much space and rooms don't have to be used for the purpose the EA labels. For example we used the study as a second sitting room and the master bedroom as a study.

When we bought our house (up North so not London prices) my parents couldn't understand why we would want such a huge house for two of us (before DC). I just love it.

Two receptions are ideal if your family members have different interests or don't always want to sit together.

I don't like pale wooden floors throughout an entire house unbroken by any rugs whatsoever. Especially if the couches and chairs are all black or brown leather and the furniture is also pale wood. I've seen this in a lot of houses and I think it looks cold and characterless.

Miljah we also had Mission Control in the dining room . DC have left home / at uni now so it's now changed use again.

When you burn dinner as often as I do open-plan is a no-no

Bathrooms for every bedroom seems to be an increasing thing in new builds, which I find a bit much. Would rather have more living space than an extraneous bathroom.

I don't like open plan at all and hate kitchen islands. They are really naff. A large wooden kitchen table is the classy option

The biggest must have for me (and I bought in the last few months) was gas central heating. No way could I live without that.