Are these room sizes decent?

[EllisRoses]

Purchasing a 4 bed detached property off plan and I can't get my bearings of room sizes. The lounge seems plenty long enough, maybe slightly concerned about width. I was chatting to my mum about how happy I am to finally have a utility room and she replied it was a tiny one. I've been going off the floor plans and thought it was a pretty generous sized house? For a family of 4 plus a dog I'd hate to feel cramped?

I would be very surprised if you can fit a king bed as well as wardrobe etc. It will be particularly tricky as you have the door into the room on one wall, the window on another and the door into the en-suite as well.
Is the spare room for friends etc to stay over? Because again that 4th bedroom is very small and if you could get a double sofa bed in there it will be squished with very little room when the bed is folded out.

Unless you put a DC in the small room and had one of the other bedrooms as a spare?

What is the total square metre area? That should help you compare.

Realistically it makes more sense to use room 4 as a dressing room, keep the kids sharing a room for as long as we can and then eventually moving one of them into spare room.

Just not sure how well it would work having no spare room for family/friends. We do have a lot of visitors over the course of the year in non Covid times.

This is the biggest house we can afford! How is it still too small?!

@PrincessBuggerPants

What is the total square metre area? That should help you compare.

110m2

Is it the biggest house in terms of square footage? We have just moved into a pretty big 3 bed in terms of size, 4 bed new builds would have been out of our budget. Ours was on at £399k (We paid £390k) and the new build 4 beds around us are all £420k upwards despite the fact that they’re smaller in terms of square footage. Ours does need a little bit of updating but the space is amazing for the money.

A lot of older houses have bigger ground floors and you might be able to look at 3 beds that have a flexible reception room that could be used as a spare room/playroom?

I would say it’s pretty small, but standard for UK newbuilds where they want to tick off as many boxes as possible by having 4 beds, 2 bathrooms, utility etc but then make them all super small. How many square meters is it overall? We are looking to build something similar (not in the UK) but with a home office downstairs and are planning on upwards of 200 sq m.

This is the sort of thing I’m talking about: Winterburn Road, Worcester
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-82626613.html

The family room is separate and can be closed off so that visitors would be fine staying on a sofa bed without being disturbed by other people.

Sorry, we’ve just cross posted - 110 sq m is really quite small for that many rooms, but it is indeed common.

Maybe you can’t afford a spare room then?

Perhaps we can't! Just looks like a nice big 4 bed detached property so we'd sort of figured we could and it would work. It's still a darn sight better than where we are now, so it's not a deal breaker. As I said I just need to adjust my expectations.

Is the detached element crucial for you? This adds an awful lot to the price. I’d be very surprised if you can’t find a larger 3 bed semi for the same if not less as you’re paying.

DH is adamant on detached. The 3 beds on this development are a fair bit smaller. We're very much committed at this point anyway - it'll be workable for us but whereas we were thinking this could easily be our forever home maybe we just need to be open to the possibility we'll need more space eventually.

OP are show homes not open? Can you find a development where you can actually see the house and layout?

FWIW, I think in an "ideal" world, we'd all want bigger rooms with masses of space etc etc. It comes down to your priorities - for 2 children and lots of visitors, a 4 bed might work best even if the master isn't quite as spacious as you'd like. You might love a utility (mine is tiny but it was a must have!) and be prepared to carve out a little bit of the kitchen to do that (like I did). As a pp says, spaces can be multi-functional (play room becoming spare room etc) if you have the right furniture / think outside of the box.

Don't write it off as yet - just do your research, think about what is important to your family and how you live your life.

Sorry x post! If you're committed, just think about layout. See if there are any changes the builder can make now (if thats possible) to make it more workable for you (e.g. single sink in utility etc)

Thanks Africa you've been a help. I've already emailed to enquire about the sink!!

Since you pointed it out I mean, so thanks for doing so!

Exactly as @OnTheBenchOfDoom said

Draw out a scale model. Then you can see how your furniture fits by making scale models of the beds, washing machines etc.

It's great fun. You can get software to do the same thing, but actually I prefer the physical cut outs.

Yes, those rooms are small and the total sq metres are more in line with a three bed, your mum is right, however does the price not reflect the size?

The way I get a feel is to try to imagine if it’s bigger or smaller than the current rooms I have,

You should go for a seventies house if you want space, rooms are fabulous sizes in general

I was desperate for a period property but when I realised how much more you get it was a no brainier

We need to use help to buy to get more space so restricted to a new build. We're paying £245k for the house. I'm not expecting a mansion! Just enough space to live comfortably. Is it really that tiny? Worried we've made an error now, we were really excited and thought we'd found a goodun.

I think it's a goodun. That price would buy a tatty two bed terraced here. The lounge is really long and the kitchen diner. You'll make it work for you. Has the developer got this style of house on another development that you could look at? That's what we did. Had a look round a finished one a few miles away and knew that it would work for us.

It's a typical new build in that it just has enough space and no more. For instance, bathrooms only just fit the sanitary ware, hardly space to turn around, hallway doesn't seem to have space for any storage at all and there's no porch either.

OTOH lots of people especially in cities live in houses a bit smaller than they would choose and you just have to be creative with storage and not let the clutter build up. It looks like a nice house in a good spot.

Key checks would be kitchen: space for fridge/freezer and a big enough dining table for family visits: master bedroom room for sensible wardrobes and your bed, lounge for a couple of sofas.

Mmm it’s not huge; we looked at lots like that and tbh can’t swing a cat especially in the bedrooms.

The utility is fine though; mine is 1.8m square(looked it up for you!) we have a separate washing machine, single sink unit, separate tumble drier then three wall units and there’s (just) space to put the clothes horse in and still get out the side door. It’s the last thing that would worry me there.