House with no hallway

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Found a house that ticks most of the boxes but unusual layout. We dont want to spend lots of money to change the layout. We think it would be okay but dont want to find out that it doesn't, after we move in.

The house is detached, in a very sought after location, outstanding primary and secondary, and a few others rated good. The house has a good size porch. To the right of the porch is door to lounge. The lounge is 4.3m x 6.5m so quite big. At the end of the lounge is stairs to first floor. Next to the lounge is a sitting room (3x4m) , the door is next to the stairs. Beyond the stairs is kitchen diner, wc, utility, etc. We are unsure about 1) you have to pass through the large lounge to access other part of the house. 2) stair in the lounge (a nice looking staircase if that makes any difference).
On the other hand, we like the large lounge and thought it will good for socialising. The current owner has a enormous corner sofa that fit easily 10 people. The smaller sitting room can be closed off if one needs private time..

What do people think? 🤔
Thanks in advance

Thats difficult to understand - can you add the floorplan?

Depends what you mean by 'good size' for the porch? Ideally it would need to be big enough for coat/shoe/bag storage otherwise you'll have to find space for that in your lounge. Or could you partition off a little hallway space?

I think since you have a separate sitting room it should be ok?

Can you screenshot and crop the Floorplan. People may be able to suggest how to make it work with an acurtate picture of what's going on.

Orange line are doors

I would never buy a house with stairs in the lounge just because sound, if you have friends round, would travel upstairs. Fine if no DC who would be disturbed.

I recently moved from a house where you had to walk through the lounge to get to the kitchen, dining room, conservatory and it really limits where you can place furniture. I love that I now live in a house that doesn’t have a walkthrough for a living room and have resisted altering a layout to make this kitchen bigger as it would result in the living room once again becoming a walkthrough.

I wouldn't like that layout. The rest of the house and garden, parking and location would need to be perfect to make up for the downstairs.

As it's a fair sized house and detached with a porch I think this would be ok. Use the back door as the family & friends entrance and restrict front door to randoms. Put a partition up to hide the stairs and doors to kitchen and sitting room. Make sure the porch has somewhere for front door users to hang up coats.

In our previous house, we removed the wall between tiny entrance hall and lounge to create a lighter, more generous space. space. We already had to walk through lounge to get to kitchen, that's pretty typical for old farmhouses/cottages. We had a largish conservatory/porch with enough space for coats/wellies/shoes and to stop rain/wind entering the lounge everything someone opened front door. The staircase was in the lounge. It worked very well, and the lounge still felt comfortable and looked really smart. I've also seen that type of layout in loads of renovated voctorian terraces in London/other cities. It never bothered me, and I would prefer the extra light/space to a tiny corridor.

To add more info. The house was originally a cottage with just the lounge (was lounge diner) , sitting room (was kitchen) and 2 rooms upstairs, no porch. Previous owner added the porch and kitchen. I suppose hallway wasn't a norm in the past? 🤔

I live in a house with similar layout, 2 adults 3 dc. We use the large lounge a lot for family activities, movies, board games, kids playing music, etc. For late night tv we have to use the closed off snug. It works for us

One thing to be conscious of is the high volume to foot traffic that will be coming through living room, so I would be wary of having carpet.

Hard without seeing the actual house / floorplan, but from what I can see, I wonder if it might work best having nice wooden flooring in living room and then a big rug over the middle/right hand side of the room, with furniture arranged there, leaving a clear path on left hand side from foot traffic?

And agree with using the back door as much as possible as well.

With that layout i would look at knocking a doorway from the porch into the sitting room. And board off the stairs so the noise from the lounge doesn't go upstairs.

Bonus if you can make the porch into an entrance hall size and keep both doors.

You could move the front door to the middle of the house where the stairs/loo are and not walk through either reception room.

It certainly wouldn't put me off buying as there's loads you could do.

Can you not move front door to go straight into sitting room instead?

Sitting room then becomes a proper entrance way, maybe nice desk area, book case or tall dresser for storage. Comfy chair to take shoes on and off, can be used as reading or quiet nook for someone

The lounge has original gorgeous oak floor in good condition and large area rug. Unfortunately it is not feasible to use back floor as it is in the garden at the baxk, not the side. If we are to use the back door, we would need to do so via the garden gate.

Stairs go up this way

Stairs in the lounge and having to walk through the lounge to access the rest of the building would make it a no no for me.
If the house is as perfect in every other way then I would seriously consider a new door from the porch, splitting the sitting room to make a corridor & study or even just a huge hall / sitting area.

I don't mind changing an internal layout and all that involves, what I would not want to live with is a layout that I don't like or want.

I think it should be okay. We have a very similar setup. We could box the staircase up but decided against it and made it into a feature of the lounge. Guests often commented on how welcoming it is to walk into the big lounge . Depending on whether you have lots of visitors. The traffic through the lounge has not bothered us, as it is really just a few times in the morning and evening. Access to the kitchen, sitting room, wc and so on during the rest of the day does not need trodding across the lounge

Sounds great home - good location right size

Yes you might've preferred a hall but it's sweating the small stuff territory

I think it sounds great, you have a porch (an absolute must for me!), and a choice of cosy 'private' and large 'open' lounge.

No house is perfect. As for your concerns, they aren't deal breaker for me.

You could also turn those stairs which gives you lots more options. I'd live in it for a bit and then talk to a good architect to give you some ideas.

There is usually some compromise when buys a house.

For me it would be a no unless it was absolutely gorgeous. Not sure if you’re happy to post a link. Coming straight into the living room like that and always having to go through other rooms to get to the kitchen with no hallway

however as the sitting room and lounge are sizeable you could add a hallway quite easily, but it will mean moving walls so you’d need to check if any load bearing etc,

like where I have marked in black

I do feel it is unfair to the vendor to post a link. I agree we could create a hall way, but that would make the lounge long and narrow, currently 6.5x4.3.. it will reduce to width of 3.3m.. now i fuss if it is too narrow 🤔

Your diagram is more than good enough. Don't need a Floorplan with that - but it does show the power of a pictute, as that isn't what I had in my head from your description.

Could you make a front door where the wc is? Then a coridoor running across the whole house with access to sittingroom, lounge and kitchen, and containing the stairs.
WC could possibly move into the porch, but it would depend on utilities available that side of the house.

Personally, the original isnt a floorplan that I'd be keen on, but that doesnt mean it isnt the right hoise for you if everything else meets your critera.