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.

and the worst crime against property is when people rip out all the plants from their front garden and tarmac the lot Not just a crime against property, it's a crime against all of us because of the ecological effects, causing rain to run off without being absorbed, and contributing to rising temperatures in cities. It's why you now need planning permission to tarmac your front garden.

We have shutters, they let in far more light than the curtain did as you can keep the whole top half of the window uncovered. Also easy to clean - you just dust them? Surely curtains are more of a faff.
I agree open plan works well on small houses. Otherwise it’s a series of tiny rooms. It’s not just modern homes that are small, lots of families in London live in houses that are small (or flats obvs) because they can’t afford the big ones! I can see why you wouldn’t want open plan in a big house, but it makes sense in asmall one.
I agree about not wanting people watching me cook - it makes me self-conscious and I just like to focus on the cooking to be honest. But I can also see how someone more sociable than me - and more relaxed about cooking - wouldn’t want to be left alone in the kitchen!

Another thing is... when it comes to period houses having lost their features or having been modernised inside, a lot of that’s happened long before the current owners. So they’re just making the best of what happened maybe 20 years ago. We’ve lived in two period properties one with loads of gorgeous original features and one with pretty much none left.

I designed our own house with a bit of help! It has everything we have ever wanted. Kitchen dinner with island which is big enough for a double sink and the dishwasher, love it. We then have a double height dining hall which has steps down to the sunken sitting room.
We also have a good sized ensuite with a spa bath and a walk in wardrobe.

It does have it's minuses - the heat goes straight up the stairs from the wood burner and I would really like a shower over the bath in the ensuite. But that's about all.

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 smile

But an island and a table are two totally different things.
I don't want to chop veg leaning down to table height, having first moved the bloody chairs out of the way.

Er, surely you sit at the table and chop? To the accompaniment of the Archers.

We have a table and an island.

I don’t like light wood, I find it impersonal and anonymous , it’s what you get in offices and hotel rooms.

We’ve got a garden room, not a conservatory. Prefer separate rooms to open plan. My neighbours have knocked their kitchen and dining room into one and it makes it much noisier when they are having parties.

Open plan. I don't like the look or its impracticality.

This was a deal breaker for us, and being in Australia meant so many houses got the thumbs down. Being able to separate parts of the house for different activities makes for civilised relationships. And keeping the bills down. So many Aussie houses have huge rooms to heat and cool that open plan is a nightmare.

I hate it too. When we moved here we specifically wanted separate rooms and no rooms leading off other rooms so we have an entrance hall and 5 rooms lead off it all of which have a door you close - 4 receptions and the kitchen. Upstairs ditto - 5 bedrooms and a bathroom all off the hall.

Good lord have you only got one bathroom Xenia .

I do love that you are around though.

One stand alone of off the hall way upstairs (and 3 en suites and a downstairs cloakroom). I now I do all my own cleaning that is 5 lavatories to clean before you even get started on sinks.....

Only 5 bogs. Honestly!

Love open plan kitchen diner with island, but we do have two other reception rooms.
Loathe bi-fold doors - open them and the kitchen is full of leaves and dust; close them and they are covered in the kids finger marks!

When we bought our house the previous owners had knocked through from the sitting room into the kitchen diner. We reinstated the wall and the sitting room is now small but cosy. We don't have any other rooms downstairs so if I had another separate den or sitting room I probably wouldn't have bothered putting the wall back up.

We put an island in our kitchen diner. One side of it is opposite the hob with the bin built in under it so excellent for food prep. The other side of the island is a magnet for various crap .

I could totally live without an ensuite. I'd love to rip it out and put a in walk-in wardrobe but DH thinks it's vital to be able to perform ablutions and bodily functions yards from our bed.

I always had an ensuite or my own bathroom growing up, I don't see the hate? I always liked the privacy, and my parents have one on a sort of lead in to their bedroom which is like extra landing before the bedroom proper so quite private. Their ensuite backs on to mine by a studding wall and I could occasionally hear dad coughing and the shower going- which I'd probably hear on the landing anyway.

DPs room at his parents is next door to the bathroom. If we stay there we can hear everything and the amount of steps between the door and his bed is probably less than my parents have. I know which I'd rather.

Oh, walk in wardrobe greyling!
Ideally I would want a dressing room with a velvet chaise and a proper dressing table.
I think I should live in Downton Abbey instead of a 60s council house. I'm wasted here.

I would love a utility or laundry room. With an ironing board and hanging rack. Space to fold clothes. A Belfast sink for soaking stained items.

Have a dingy conservatory that has a clothes horse in. Great in summer as things dry very quickly in the super heat. Unfortunately, it's built in front of kitchen window so don't have direct view of garden. Would love to get rid of it and make it a kitchen extension but too spendy atvthe moment. Apparently, the foundations force conservatory are too shallow for a kitchen so not a simple conversion.

Friend's unarguable requirements for new house. Parking. Pavements for pushchair. Proper street lighting. People around, not isolated. Ten minutes from railway station. Fell for a house up a dark country lane full of potholes, steep hill, no pavements, restricted lighting and 2 neighbours rarely seen.

I love open plan but with folding or sliding
doors so you can close it off if you want to. I don’t understand ensuites, it’s okay but not end all and be all to me While I understand wanting views with a garden, it doesn’t take much to make a beautiful garden deck/patio/plant wise.

It’s space in the house I’m interested in, you can always reconfigure.

I live in a house I hope to stay in forever. It is a million times removed from the poly characterised place I used to have but mil still bangs on about how it's a shame I don't have an en suite! My husband has a bowel condition, I don't want to be woken to the sounds and smells of that everyday!

The tales of these lush plant filled conservatories are making me change my mind about them!

Tell me this, what is a boot room? Is it like an internal porch at your back door? I have a big utility room and it is amazing being able to shut the laundry away.

I like the look of open plan but am far too messy to keep one looking nice.

I don't get why anyone has loads of glass in their house even without children or dogs to put their noses and hands against. Surely it just needs loads of cleaning??

a boot room - the back door opens directly into it, and there is space for muddy wellies, shoes, dog leads, coats etc, and a bench to sit on to put on and take off shoes and boots.

It really is a sort of country manor thing!
Although my mum used to live in an old farmhouse, and there was a HUGE utility room, used to be the old dairy. It worked as a boot room and a laundry room. It was amazing.

I can't stand 'breakfast bars' with barstools, naff as hell. Not keen on kitchen islands either, unless the kitchen is big enough to also house a nice big table and chairs.

No ensuites. I don't need to hear/smell that first thing in the morning.

No open plan. I don't want the sound of the washing machine going while I'm trying to mumsnet watch tv, and I don't want to be reminded that I need to do the washing up or wipe down the surfaces.

DP wants a conservatory but I really don't see the point.

My fantasy house would be an arts & crafts style period property with big fireplaces, stone or parquet floors, separate rooms, a big dining kitchen, lots of nooks and crannies and a cellar, pantry, utility and boot room. And a big garden with veranda and a gardener.

I can just about afford a 3-bed 1960s semi

A utility room is genuinely useful. Also would like a large walk in storage cupboard with shelves. My parents had one in their council house when I was a kid. Incredibly useful.

An upstairs laundry would be divine (sort of had this in our last rented place - upstairs kitchen next to small bedroom, so clothes rails, washer and dryer were all within feet of each other).

Like open plan kitchen diner spaces. Think MIL is crazy for jamming a sofa in hers too.

(In fact, their while ground floor bothers me. They have a great sized utility, but in spite of four kitchen renovations in the past ten years, still have a fridge freezer in the garage. There's a huge unused lounge, and when they have guests they squeeze into the conservatory to watch TV. That is a step up however from the fact they've squeezed their largest tv into the sodding kitchen diner, with a sofa at right angles to it, view partially blocked by the dining table. Frequently in the past have sat on a bastarding dining table chair two feet from a wall-sized tv because the sofa fits 3 people at a squeeze, when they have TWO other downstairs rooms for lounging watching the TV.)