To me this is the perfect layout for a compact 4 bed 1960s house

[LindorDoubleChoc]

www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/details/england-85411699-12195007?s=60b2bbe70bb9d60f003ca05271107d9be51c42893569dd3d5f48978cab6e5ca4#/floorplan

I'm putting a link in for a property that is no longer for sale, but just wanted to illustrate how you can have a 4 bed house and garage with 4 decent sized bedrooms on a compact footprint. The dining table and chairs goes in the part of the L-shaped living room that comes directly off the kitchen. In effect the living room and dining area look directly onto the garden, but the downstairs isn't open plan as the kitchen can be closed off. The kitchen looks out onto the street at the front and there is a separate side door. There is no box room, all the bedrooms are a reasonable size and all except for bedroom 3 have a built-in wardrobe. There is even a pantry in the kitchen. And a downstairs loo.

A friend of mine lived in a house like this when we were children and I always thought, even then, it was a great design!

It wouldn't suit me but nice that you have a layout you like. Are you planning to build?

It’s a lot less compact than most 4 bed new builds

It’s a little bit like the house we lived in when I was infant school age. L shaped sitting diner and separate kitchen. It also had a storage / utility room off the entrance hall. Only three bedrooms - but I certainly remember it as being spacious, with a substantial garden. It was in a New Town.

I also remember that as we moved ‘up’ the property ladder, into smarter areas, our houses became smaller, in terms of room size and garden. But by then my parents had school fees to pay, on very average professional salaries, so …

And that's why different house designs exist.
Upstairs looks good. For us, downstairs looks nightmarish. It needs a wall between the livingroom and dining room (looks like that might have been there in the past?) - and maybe the kitchen- dining room wall coming down.

Our old house had the livingroom at the back, and it was great.

I would hate sharing 1 family bathroom but the bedrooms are good sizes.

Upstairs is fine, but I like an eat in kitchen. This could be achieved fairly easily with this house though.

Yeah. I’d rather it was a kitchen diner, so basically moving that wall.

I love sixties houses but I'd tweak that layout to create a kitchen diner and separate living area, and add a utility room and nother shower room. I wouldn;t want a house without a utility room these days.

i think square, unfussy simple layouts are currently massively underrated.

a Victorian terrace is lovely an all but often tunnel like

we’ve gone full in with our boxy house and half way through bricking up our serving hatch, which was hidden behind a painting for years, we embraced it and enlarged it and I bloody love it.

I hate the layout! Need to have a kitchen diner running along the back of the house!

I wouldn't call it compact, but it is a good layout (though I'd prefer separate kitchen, diner and lounge, not a fan of dual use rooms).

Yes. I think my main point is that modern new build 4 and even 3 bed houses are generally smaller. I don't think having a kitchen/diner is all that important if you have a dining area away from the living room area? I actually prefer separate kitchen and dining because if you are having a special occasion (Christmas, dinner parties?) you can close the door on the kitchen mess and not be eating surrounded by it.

If the downstairs loo could be big enough for a shower then that would be perfect.

Separate utility room is still quite a luxury in a modest everyday house.

Or should I say I prefer a living room/diner to a kitchen/diner? That's probably more accurate.

I prefer this sort of layout. Happy to lose at least one bathroom from upstairs too.

Doesn't have the dimensions on, but I'm sure it could he scaled down a bit to fit your square footage- especially if I bump at least 1 en suite
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I’ve lived in a sixties house with near-identical layout to that, it worked very well for us with young kids. The kitchen at the front and large living/dining at the back with patio doors open to the garden in summer was lovely.

Can I ask why so many prefer eating in the kitchen than having a kitchen you can shut off and eating in a living room diner? Is it little kids and wanting to keep the mess in one area ?

our dining room and kitchen have an archway through and and don’t like guests seeing meal prep mess when eating - I hate having to juggle stuff I can’t put straight in the dishwasher so it’s not on view through a meal. If I can’t have a massive house with a kitchen diner and a separate dining room, it would be nice to be able to shut the door on the kitchen.

I always think integral garages steal so much downstairs space. I’d rather have no garage and more living space.

This is exactly what I ponder too @LimeCheesecake. If your dining table is just a step away from the kitchen, which you can shut off if you want to via a door, what is the problem with that? Why does everyone need to be with you in the room where you are cooking, clearing up, serving up? It seems an odd modern trend to me.

Would they suit me. Need a second bathroom upstairs, and hate that the kitchen doesn't have room for a table and looks over the front not the back snd is cut off from the living areas.
But, this just goes to show that people like different things - thank goodness for that!

I wouldn't want the kitchen at the front - seems a bizarre layout to me. I want to make an early morning cup of tea in my pyjamas without worrying about who can see me

I'm quite happy to have a separate dining room, but hate hate hate eating in the livingroom - so a living-diningroom combined is a no go for me.

Yes good point if you live on a busy road without a decent sized front garden.

Houses built at that time were spacious, inside and out.

I grew up in a three-bedroom version of that (two big doubles, one tiny box room) which had decent sized front and back gardens, driveway, garage etc. Very ordinary at the time.

The new estates fit about four houses in the same footprint, front garden just big enough for the bin, no parking etc.

After a couple of narrow Victorian houses, we're now in a 1920s which is fab. Good sized rooms, plenty of hall space, high ceilings, big windows.

They were. And houses built for families now are tiny by comparison (although with a weird obsession with miniscule ensuite shower rooms).

But where do you put your wardrobe in an 8ft x 8ft bedroom? etc.

I think the trouble with a dining/sitting room is the food smells go everywhere. A kitchen diner means the sitting room doesn't stink of stale food. That house needs another bathroom and a utility room and oreferably another sitting room before I'd consider it. In it's current state I wouldn't view it as a 4 bed but more of a generous 3 bed that needs lots of work.