Is this house horrible? Birmingham/Kings Heath

[Ithc2023]

Hi,

We've recently accepted an offer on our house and are house hunting at the moment.

We're going to look at this house tomorrow

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/132182531#/?channel=RES_BUY

It's a bit unloved but we're quite excited about the house and my husband is willing to put some work in it

I sent the link to my parents and they both think that the house is horrible.

My mother thinks it's terrible that the house doesn't have a hallway.

My father thinks the same and he also said we should get a cat to keep away the rats (as he says the house is close to a canal in Birmingham).

What does mumsnet think?

Thanks xx

I’m not in your area , but a lot of Victorian terraces around here suffer quite badly from damp , so since it all looks recently painted I would definitely have a decent damp survey , especially looking at areas around chimneys. It looks like you might have a decent set of stairs , hard to tell just from the bottom , but incredibly steep stairs that we see locally in these properties are an issue for getting furniture up and down and also not great for children .

Although not a super glam idea , a heavy duty curtain on a pole above the front door that can be pulled over in winter will help with insulation and draft issues .

Im going to guess maybe you are moving from a flat or such and if this is the top end of where your budget reaches and it’s better than where you are , then your families are going to have to accept that . I speak from experience, and actually wish I had taken my own advice when talking to one of my children about the property they chose. I think in the main as parents we want the best possible for our children , and sometimes with prices so high we hold unreasonable expectations of what we want them to be able to afford .

If you love the house then you will make it home and convince them in the long run anyway .

I know the area extremely well, as we will practically be neighbours if you buy it. It’s a very typical house for the area. No hallway is fairly standard and you get used to it. Mine has no hallway and I don’t mind at all. Coats go in the cupboard under the stairs. It’s well priced too. The parking will drive you nuts as you are so close to the High Street and ditto the LTN. But it’s a great area if you like city life, with good schools, restaurants, pubs and public transport. The gardens in that road are pretty small and it’s quieter if you live further back from the High Street, but like you said, it costs more. I think it’s the best area of sunny Brum.

What are the neighbours like? Do you have experience with the local schools? 😊

I personally wouldn't look past the front door of a home where you entered the living room from the pavement.

That one is a 'modern method of auction' which I'd avoid like the plague.

@Ithc2023 I think the one you're considering is much more attractive than the other couple of houses linked in this thread and it certainly has bags of potential!

We always buy project houses, so the amount of work required wouldn't put me off....but the lack of hallway would I'm afraid.

Previously we owned a Georgian house that had the front door opening into a reception room and the only reasons we went ahead with the purchase were - 1) it had 1/3 acre garden 2) the stairs weren't in the room with the front door 3) it wasn't the only reception room.

In the end we swapped the layout about, making the front door room a 'breakfast hall' with table/chairs plus cupboards to hang coats and keep shoes tidy. We relocated our actual living room to one of the other spaces the property was fortunate to have.

Our current much smaller cottage has a tiny hall with no room to hang coats etc. It was DH's choice of house and I went along with it but it's always bugged the hell out of me! The first room you enter after the miniscule hall is the kitchen where we've located lots of slim ikea shoe storage along one wall and beyond the kitchen we've recently created a lobby for coats etc adjacent to the back door.

It's not ideal, but is a work around that kind of solves the issue for us. So, if you otherwise love the house when you view it there might be solutions you could employ to improve things. A porch would be a good starting point.

In the end we swapped the layout about, making the front door room a 'breakfast hall' with table/chairs plus cupboards to hang coats and keep shoes tidy. We relocated our actual living room to one of the other spaces the property was fortunate to have.
That sounds amazing

It needs work but I like it. The lack of hall didn't court to me.
I know the area - Jo Lynett lives there and it's been renamed Queens Heath as it has its own Pride thing going on. Listed as one of the world's Gayburbs.

Great bus service into the city, parks. High street etc.

Do you know Kings Heath well? It's been a while since I lived near, but I don't remember it being great for cafes and restaurants. If that's what's important to you, I'd be looking closer to Moseley.

I like it! I've lived in houses with and without hallways before and the only time the lack of a hallway bothered me was when DC1 was a baby and his buggy had to live in the front room.

I like it the house, layout, rooms and decor.

Plenty of space, and I don't mind the main door opening into a room.

The worst aspect is the back garden which I'd redo to suit me; but I'm a keen gardener so I've remade every garden we ever owned. Even the garden has got great potential, and a ready supply of materials.

If you have a fair amount to spend on it after purchase then I think it can be really nice. For it to be workable for me I would need to extend the kitchen sideways and make a large kitchen/diner/sofa area there at the back with the second reception room. The front room where you come in I would reconfigure to be a hallway where I can put coats/shoes and a small snug or reading corner type of thing. Basically a posh looking entrence hall with alternative use. I would also need to redo the bathroom completely, but it's a really good size.

I sold my house in the East Midlands, it's exactly like the house you want to buy. I never had an issue with the lack of hallway and direct access from the street. That's the reality of many Victorian houses. Location is always the most important factor. It doesn't look like much work needs doing. The dormer window looks like it might need work.

It is horrible and over priced.

I lived in a house about 3 streets away as a student. The stairs had generous under stair cupboard spaces for coats, hoover , shoes. Also, house was toasty warm as a mid terrace. Rarely needed to turn heating on. Landlord had extended kitchen into garden.

It's not horrible at all.

You clearly have no taste.

I don’t think it’s horrible either. I can’t comment on price but it seems a decent enough house and don’t well. I don’t like the stairs in the middle of the room but that’s just personal preference.

please try to remember that’s someone’s home.

I don’t understand this, are you considering buying it? Why are you detailing out how it would work for you?

I live near here. House is fine, typical of the area. Just needs some doing up. I'd find it annoying not having a hall but it's up to you. The problem would be parking if you have car? Can be a nightmare. The canal is no where near here unless there's a branch of it that goes underground that I don't know about. Having said that there probably are rats anyway as it' a very built up area with lots of people and takeaways etc. Lots going on round there and some good schools.

Where do you live now OP? Are you in Birmingham already or moving from somewhere else?

Really not overpriced for the area!

My friend lived in a house just like that one but a few streets over.

It was fine, bit small and the stairs were a bugger to get anything up.

I remember her having a long running saga with Dreams as the delivery drivers couldn't get their new mattress up there.

I think it’s nice and has loads of potential. I live in a house without a hallway and we’re in the middle of moving, a requirement for the new house was a hallway because not having a hallway is driving me mad. However, that’s something that has slowly grown over the last 6 years and seems to have amped up since having DD.

Viewing the house I would probably see what the under-stairs cupboard is like - check you can get the hoover, ironing board, mop in there. Could you store coats and bags without having to pull the hoover out every morning? Then see what options there are to put a stud wall up or a divider. Even if you can’t put a stud wall up, you might be able to put some cupboards along the wall to store all your hallway stuff. We ended up putting my desk in the front part of the living room but if that wasn’t needed I’d have built a bit of a hall tidy there.

I agree that a hallway/somewhere to store coats is important and in this house I'd consider making the back reception room into a dining kitchen - if water supply/drainage/finances allowed - and then turn the current kitchen into a utility/boot room. If there's rear access you could make the back the main entrance (if you're arriving on foot) so you can dump muddy boots and wet coats in there before going into the rest of the house.

I wouldn't be too put off by the door onto the street as you could build an inner porch to create an air lock/reduce draughts or just put a big curtain accross and mainly go in and out of the back.

I respect your opinion that it's horrible.

At the end of the day we all have different tastes.

It's not overpriced though - a completely normal price for the area (people from Birmingham are more familiar with the pricing in Brum)

Plus point is you'll be close to Hickory Dickory's. I spent hours there with my NCT group. It was quite a few years ago but their millionaires shortbread was amazing!