Buying upside down house

[Lanosajulas]

Hi all,

Wanted to get some views on buying an 'upside down' house. Its 3 floors with 2 bedrooms on the LG, 2 bedrooms (including master) on the G where you enter the house and living room, diner and kitchen on the 1st floor. The house is great in terms of space (3,200 sq.ft.) and location but can't get our heads around potential issues/worries. We have a 2 year old with another baby on the way. Potential worries for us:

1. Kids bedrooms will be on LG floor and ours will be on G floor - so not on same floor as young children. Not an issue when they get older

1. Access to the garden is via the 2 bedrooms on the LG floor i.e. the kids rooms. So no real access from the 'Living' spaces and potential security worry for the kids

1. Back garden is small as it has an outdoor pool. Another worry is that if the kids are in the Garden then cannot really monitor them if we were in the living space which is two floors up and potential worry with swimming pool accidents. Would need to be with them at all times they are in the back garden

Ideally would like the traditional layout but we would not get this size house close to the high street and underground station generally and this is a forced sale so could get at a good price.

Thoroughly confused - any insight from anyone massively helpful!

Thanks a lot

I like an upside down house when it's to take advantage of a view but I do think you need external access to the kitchen and access to the garden from the living space.

This is usually done by way of external stairs and (sometimes) a raised deck. Is that a possibility?

I'm also not sure about living room on a separate floor to the kitchen. Up and downstairs for a cuppa?

I wouldn't buy an upside down house as I want garden access from the living areas. The only access to the garden through the bedrooms would be a additional deal-breaker and I think this might make the house very difficult to sell. If it was 50% cheaper than houses with a similar space and look I guess that would more than compensate for some, but there will also be many others like me who would rather live in a much, much smaller house than this one.

Is there any reason it’s upside down?

Ie great views or … can’t think of any other good reason!

Annoyingly I don't seem to have the paperclip icon to attach anything otherwise would have attached the floorplan.

The living space on the 1st floor has the living room, kitchen and dining room all together so that works. Luckily on the LG floor (which has the 2 bedrooms and only access to garden) has a utility room so wont be needing a dumbwaiter or anything like that.

The bedrooms downstairs are very large. 2 bedrooms, a utility and a bathroom spread over 1,000 sq.ft.

There is already a balcony (huge) on the Ground floor via the Master Bedroom. Building a staircase from the 1st floor living room would be tricky as would need to be quite steep.

It's so annoying that I can't just post the floorplan as would make life s much easier as many of you have good ideas

@ShowMeHow

Is there any reason it’s upside down?

Ie great views or … can’t think of any other good reason!

Some smaller townhouses were built with the kitchen, scullery and a room for a maid on the lower ground floor, reception rooms on the ground floor and bedrooms on the first floor.

More bedrooms = more money, so the lower ground floors were often converted to bedrooms. A 3 storey, 4 bedroom house is worth more than a 2 bedroom house with a basement kitchen, sitting room and dining room on the ground floor.

The cheapest option for adding bedrooms was to convert to an upside down house or have the bedrooms split between the LG and first floor. I've seen both.

I don’t have a paper clip to post pictures, I have this.

Are you on the app or using a browser, @Lanosajulas? If you are using a browser, it's different. Look below the message box. There are 3 boxes that say "choose file" for adding images.

2. Access to the garden is via the 2 bedrooms on the LG floor i.e. the kids rooms. So no real access from the 'Living' spaces and potential security worry for the kids

This is the bit that doesn’t sound workable to me, either now while they’re young and might nap/go to bed early or later when they want their own space and privacy - having to go through their rooms to get to the garden would be really restrictive.

@Backtobacktheyfacedeachother
@chesirecat99

I'm using microsoft Edge and weirdly no options to attach the files. Am working from a PC. Checked on my mobile no option either. Maybe i'll try on Chrome

So weird! Tried on Chrome now as well and still no paperclip option or attach files icon. Its just blank underneath it with options to 'preview message' or 'post message'

If anyone is ok to receive the floorplan from me via email and post it on this thread I would be much obliged.

Upside down house wouldn't bother me at all. But only being able to access the gardens through bedrooms would massively put me off. I'd want to look at how it could be reconfigured somehow.

Imagine having visitors and wanting to go outside to the garden with them - so you all traipse through one of the kids bedrooms to get there.

Or having a BBQ and carrying condiments/salads/snacks etc. from the kitchen to the garden. Through a bedroom.

It sounds very like the house I owned until recently. Lugging shopping up two flights of stairs was a pain. We hardly used the garden as it didn't really feel part of the house iykwim. We had fabulous views and a balcony. We didn't use the balcony much as it didn't get much sun. Carrying babies up and down the stairs was a pain. It took nearly two years to sell for £60,000 less than the EA's valuation. I am so happy to live in a conventional house now. Never again will I buy an upside down house.

Are you a new user, @Lanosajulas? You can't post pictures until you have been a member for a minimum period.

@Lanosajulas

Any idea how to post an image on this conversation thread so I can put up the floor plan in case anyone has ideas

Could you link the house? I'm assuming this thread has put you off buying it

Presumably you'd have no outdoor access from your kitchen? That would be a deal breaker for me alone.

I wouldn't buy a house with a swimming pool with small children - and definitely not one where the pool was accessed through their bedrooms

Wouldn't buy a house where the only access to the garden was through a bedroom either.

@chesirecat99 - ok now that makes sense. Yes I became a user today for this very question lol
@Whinge - I could do that but was wondering remote remote possibility someone else in the same position as me looking to buy in the area. But yes its like extremely remote and even if they are searching they will have come across the property

Here's the link everyone

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/110427983#/?channel=RES_BUY

My friend has an upside down house and loves it but her kids are teenagers and the house is on a slope so the garden is accessed from the first floor living areas. The garden access you describe would put me right off

Couldn’t you have both dc in the bedroom on the first floor while they’re little?

Sorry ground floor - the same as the master bedroom

I'd have both children in the bedroom on the ground floor with you while they were little, and have a play room on the lower ground for when you're there with them. This can always be rejigged once they're older

Our last home was a townhouse with kitchen/living/dining room on first floor. Garden access was through spare room on ground floor. Bedrooms on floors two and three.

Even just being one floor away from garden reduced our use of it, eg it was a faff to take breakfast to the garden let alone eat dinner outside. Whatever I needed always seemed to be in another floor. Luckily my DSs were old enough to send to fetch things. It would have driven me crazy if they had been young.

I am wondering what it is that is making you think so hard about this house and how you could adapt it rather than a more readily usable layout?

You don’t need to use the rooms as per the floor plan

However there is absolutely no way I’d ever have young kids sleeping alone downstairs like that with garden access when you’re on another floor. Not even if they offered it for free.

I wouldn't buy it OP. It's very grand but hugely impractical and the layout is absolutely awful. If you go ahead anyway, I'd suggest some sort of stairs down from the terrace to try and make it marginally less impractical. In addition to the layout issues, the lounge IMHO is too large. It looks like (and currently feels) like a church hall. It's hard to dress such a big room in a way which really works and it's disproportionate to the kitchen (which is too small for a house of this size). It's been really badly done-up.

Hit reply and access keyboard and there the paper clip should be. Press and choose photos.
It would be a no from me unless it’s possible to create small balcony and external stairs as suggested above. No way would I want my own access to the garden to be interfered by children asleep or using bedrooms. On top of all other issues. Good luck

Oops you’ve posted link in the meantime.