Appraise this house please........

[deliakate]

www.braxtons.co.uk/property-details/berkshire/taplow/off-berry-hill

It's been remodelled from a 1970s house..... Do you think it works??

link

Looks lovely, apart from the PVC conservatory

Nice and big. PVC conservatory. Price maybe reflects money spent on internal finish more than the house?

Yes I'd rip that off. It has a very large entrance hall which is weird..... 19 feet long by 10 feet wide. What the hell would one put in an entrance hall that big?

It looks really bland to me. That sticky out bit between the kitchen and the living room looks odd? The patio doors at the back don't look right either. I think it's been done on a tight budget to be honest and doesn't have the wow factor for me.

Um, to me it's such a blank slate that it's missing any character at all. Not my idea of lovely - but if it's the house for you, grab it!

I think there's something amiss, I checked the plans online and they were much better laid out, but seem to have downgraded. Think you are right shakey about the budget.

It's OK, but somehow not that special.

Mind you, it's really hard to make unfurnished houses look nice in photos.

The outside looks very nice, though. Is it bright? It somehow looks as though it's dark to me.

I like big hallways, I wish we had one. You can put a hall table thingy in it and a hat stand

I am going to dissent here and say I don't think it's up to much for the £££. It's not been done with much imagination and the interior finishes are not to my taste - magnolia paint and sandstone-coloured bathroom. I do not think they have spent loads on the interior.

I've looked again, and I think the problem with the hallway isn't the size, it's the layout. You'd expect to step through the front door to find doorways leading off left and right to lovely reception rooms, and a lovely staircase leading your eye up.

Instead there's two blank walls and a radiator, a squished-up looking staircase (lots of space, why such a mean staircase?) and two doors which look as though they're leading back outside. Odd. But you could change the staircase and the hallway could look good.

If it was renovated to sell, they didn't spend enough money on the spec - seriously, patio doors?, wooden worktop?, hand shower on side of the bath? It screams cutting corners too far for me and would put me off (but I'm picky). Kitchens and bathrooms sell the house so you need to have a high end spec if you want that price tag. Yeah, I wouldn't be impressed with the 'I didn't bother to do anything about the crap conservatory either.'

Too much time on my hands...

actually that's not a dissenting statement I see, now I have taken the time to read previous posts properly ...

Galah, I thought I had found one. Original plans show a lovely staircase filling up the entrance hall, but they kept it in the 1970s location. The conservatory is new which is ridiculous.

It looks like it has quite low ceilings. You can do lots to a house, but if it has low ceilings then it has low ceilings. It does have a bit of a weird lay out with the massive hallway and the study area upstairs. Was it originally a 3 bed house with the kitchen, dining room and master bedroom added plus a loft conversion requiring a staircase in what was a bedroom? I am not keen on bedroom 4 not having access to a shower on the top floor.

A rightmove search of that price bracket and area seems to bring up a lot of houses with slightly odd layouts.

For the money, they are deluded. The finish looks really cheap, its bland throughout and the hall is rank. Sorry.

Not enough light

Can you link to the original plans please? I'm curious to see what they intended to do.

sbdc-paweb.southbucks.gov.uk/publicaccess/tdc/DcApplication/application_detailview.aspx?caseno=LV7TWYOH02W00

You can access them here in associated docs

So it was bought in 2012 of £795k and is for sale for £1,195k. The original plans look quite grand and make more sense, but I couldn't see a planning application for what they actually did. Are you not obliged to build what you say you are going to build?

Unless I am missing something quite crucial, the changes made to the property don't feel to add up to the change in value suggested by the price it's up for (even allowing for profit and offers below the asking price).

It also seems odd that they moved the front door given that they didn't move the staircase as the "hallway" becomes awkward and by not moving the staircase they effectively lost a bedroom as they had to use one for the staircase to the second floor.

It all feels like they got part way through a plan and lost their nerve.

That could have been a really lovely house, much nicer than what it actually is.

Wish I had seen it in 2012 and made some nicer changes mmyself!

I don't think the downstairs really works

I don't understand the reasoning behind what they have done with the utility room. It's only a cupboard with no access to outdoors. For me, a Utility room should be where the washing machine/tumble drier/ cleaning stuff is kept so access to outside is pretty important.