AIBU or too narrow?

[Sophie93759]

Hello

Im finally in the position I can move out of rented in to a mortgage property.

Ive found one I really like but the living room is a rectangle shape that is 6.5 metres or 21 feet long, by 2.6 metres or 8.5 feet wide. It has 2 doors one going to kitchen and other going to hallway/stairs.

Am I BU to discount this property due to it being too narrow or would it be fine to consider and would not put you off?

When purchasing a house there is always always a compromise, you just need to find the one you can live with.

The width of the room wouldn't bother me BUT if there are doors on either end, it would really limit where you can put your furniture. Zoning would be out of question so it's a no from me.

@Catza The doors arent on either end wall they are on on one of the longer 6.5 meter walls. Like the same wall you might put a TV on if you put the sofa at the back on the other 6.5 metre wall hope Im making sense lol

If you think it's too narrow that's all that matters

Bump

Do you intend staying there indefinitely or is it just your first step onto the property ladder?
As a PP said, you have to make compromises but if you aren't staying and you can "live with it" for a few years then don't let it put you off if the rest of the house is otherwise fine.

My first house was horrible in many ways but it gave me a step onto the property ladder and 3-years later I moved onto somewhere much nicer (and stayed for 31-years).

What are the pros and cons of the property? What are the pros and cons of others you’ve looked at? List them. Are there more pros overall for this property than the others?

You can't look at this in isolation. Do you love the house apart from this one doubt? Is there light in the room? Have you thought about where you'd put things? How many houses have you looked at? Have you seen anything better that you could afford but just missed it? Etc etc.
Tell us more. Post the floorplans. How many of you are there?

I have a very similar sized and layout of living room. I have two doors on one long side, the same as you, one to the hallway and one into the kitchen. I then have doors at the back short end out to the garden and opposite the wall with the internal doors is the fireplace. I thought it would be fine but has become more problematic. The ones we've encountered is that if you have your sofas etc on one end, the other end looks bare. We can't fit anything in the middle so we essentially have to have the living room squashed up at one end and dining area at the other. There aren't any free walls to put furniture along! We would love to knock through from the kitchen to the hallway and block a door off.
The room seems too narrow for say, a corner sofa and it makes the very long room look very cramped in one end.
I would measure your furniture and try make a scaled down drawing of where you would like things to go and see if it fits. We essentially have a fireplace with nothing around it and the middle of the room fits a sideboard between the two internal doors. I can draw a diagram if needed!

It might be a bit of a pain, but most houses will involve a compromise and I would happily compromise on the dimensions of a living room for a house with the correct location, number of bedrooms, garden space, storage space etc.

Having enough options that you bypass a house because of the living room would be an unusually lucky position IME.

I have a dear friend who was very picky in her house hunting. She wanted A, B, C, D and E but realistically could only afford 3 of those in the one property. She'd lament that if only House 1 had the aspect of House 2 or House 2 had the storage of House 1, always missing that a house with both those features would be £50K over budget. She did eventually buy but it took her years, and her fussiness literally cost her over a hundred grand as the market moved while she hesitated. Be wary.

Its not the ideal layout for you.

But, can you get ideal in budget? Is it the least annoying compromise, or would you rather compromise on (eg) garden, parking, bedrooms, area, affordability...?

In that case, we would probably be OK provided our large L-shaped sofa could fit against the shorter wall. I think with spaces like that, the only option to make them look decent is to zone them into two smaller areas. Depending on the rest of the house, it wouldn't potentially put me off at least viewing

Can you add a floor plan (or even better, a link)?

I had a similar situation with two doors on the same wall, one to the kitchen and one to a hall at the back of the house. It felt like a French farce, with people coming in and out of different doors and also impacted on where furniture could go in both the sitting room and kitchen. However, it is very easy and cheap to get a door blocked up. I can't properly remember where the second door was now. The kitchen is just accessed from the hall and the sitting room doesn't end up as a corridor.