Anyone live upside down? Love it? Hate it?

[UpsideDownLiving]

Hello. Long time poster but NC for this.

Does anyone have experience of upside down living and living with big open spaces and lots of glazing? How do you feel about it?

We are extending our house and the architect has pulled together an upside down arrangement - living and kitchen upstairs. This is to make the most of the countryside views. Big glazing front and back.

I thought I’d like it but the more I imagine it the more I get put off by;

• not having easy access to the garden
• having to traipse shopping upstairs
• living in a goldfish tank - no one over looking at the back - just fiends - road at front that isn’t busy but some dog walkers (one or two a day) and cars and tractors every 10/15 mins or so.
• not feeling cosy - big echoing space.
• cleaning said glazing
• heating a big space

Do I ask for a different scheme? Anyone live like this and how does it feel?

Currently I have kitchen on the ground floor, living room and bedrooms on the 1st and 2nd I this set up is my preferred one rather than full upside down style. Yea the trek to the kitchen for a sneaky mid night snack is perilous, because someone will hear/spot you! But I love waking up early and going down to my kitchen, throwing open the glass doors and sitting in the garden with a cuppa. It's equally nice on autumn/spring night with a little fire and friends. I missed this terribly when having a kitchen on the 1st floor. It just wasn't the same having to go up and down stairs for things. Maybe a garden room would alleviate this though?

The livingroom on the 1st floor has floor to ceiling windows and yes, during the summer gets very, very warm. I don't feel like a fish bowl though we have large bushes/small trees between us and the road so none can really look in unless they are coming up our driveway.

Personally I've always felt more comfortable in elevated rooms (aside from gardens). I have no idea why. So I hated bedrooms on the ground floor.

As others have said, the trapsing shopping and recycling up and down stairs is another annoyance with having a kitchen upstairs.

I grew up in an 'upside down' house and my parents still live there. They enter on the top level so straight into hall / lounge / kitchen / dining room and no issue with lugging shopping. Lovely views from lounge and kitchen and v. relaxing walking down the stairs to bed! Two downsides that I can think of: (i) lack of immediate access to garden means outside dining never happens in the summer; and (ii) double decker buses going past where you're eye level with upstairs passengers while eating your lunch! Advantages of living with great views outweigh these concerns as not that often weather good enough to eat out / could do quite easily if really wanted to and buses pass by pretty quickly! Good luck with the decision-making!

I had a house on the side of a hill that looked like a bungalow from the front.
You went in to a huge living/dining room across the back at first floor level.
Bedrooms were downstairs.
It was a total pain.
Access to the garden was down steps to the side of the house, you couldn't see the door so had to lock it behind you for security. Every time you wanted a drink or something you had to traipse up the steps, unlock the door etc.
No balcony so no access to outside from the main living room.
I would never do it again

We stayed in one for a couple of weeks earlier this year. Initially it was very enchanting, the views were so much better and the open plan living area/kitchen/dining room was lovely. After 2 weeks, we were desperate to get home! It was a pain in the arse taking all the food shop upstairs; taking laundry up and down; taking the bin downstairs/recycling; the bedrooms were surprisingly cold and I didn't feel safe enough to sleep with a window open. Plus with 2 dogs, it drove me batshit every time they wanted a wee! And at night, all the glass upstairs made the room feel chilly - they didn't have curtains and it wasn't cosy at all.

We said if we designed one ourselves, we'd put the utility room downstairs, have some sort of bars/grills over the windows so you could sleep with them open, and you need a really good sized hallway.

In my mind I’d love a kitchen diner and master bedroom on the top floor with a house wide balcony and stairs down to the garden. Living room, ground floor opening to the garden. Other bedrooms, bathrooms and utility at the none views side of the house.

Not sure about reality though, as I’m very much a cosy home, curtains drawn type of person. I like to feel snug, not exposed, even if it’s all fields around.

I use my garden all the time. I have loads of plants and I feed the wild birds so I'm out there most days all year round.

My dining table is in the conservatory which is cantilevered over the garden so you feel like you're in it even when you're not. I do eat outside sometimes but I tend to stick to the deck or the balcony on the top floor most often rather than eating in the garden proper.

i vote YABU. I came to this thread thinking you meant hanging upside down from a tree branch like a bat. very disappointed.

We looked at one but didn't go with it as we felt we couldn't leave the DC out to play in the garden while eg making dinner in the kitchen upstairs as we'd be too far away from them. This may not be relevant but it was the main downside. Plus the house wasn't secure from the road so anyone could have walked in either side of the house and been at the bedrooms

therealcookiemonster

😂

I can only apologise and that I sincerely hope that your disappointed state passes swiftly.

RitaFires

sounds lovely

LizardOfOz

something to factor in re selling it later down the line. Thanks

I rented an upside down house for a while and I loved it. The drawback you mention of not having easy access to garden was not an issue in my rental as the upstairs had a large decked balcony with steps leading down to the garden which sufficed; could you do this?

I had one many years ago and didn't like it. Mainly the garden access issue, but also safety reasons with the children.

I live in an upside down house although because of the hill you enter only one small staircase up.

I have a small terrace outside the kitchen and about 7 steps into the garden so we do use it for dining.

Downstairs bedrooms are fine and much cooler in summer. Views are amazing but don't have lots of glass

One final benefit is that the fire draws really well as only has one room height to the top of the chimney!

I know someone with this set up & we end up socialising in their front garden as that is on the top level with the other living spaces and they have a large downstairs space and huge back garden that neve gets used - madness.

@PrueLeith definitely said fiends - really made me laugh

We stayed in one in Anglesey. Loved it at first- it had a patio from the sitting room overlooking the garden with stairs down. But we hated sleeping on the ground floor. I was quite worried about the children sleeping in rooms with windows on the ground floor. Also, it was detached and anyone could go round into the garden so it was hard to keep an eye in DC from the patio. The constant up and downstairs carrying shopping, getting drinks got on our nerves as well. I wouldn't live in one unless the garden was secure and it had an internal lift for shopping. I like gardening too and definitely felt cut off from the garden. At home, I often get up early and take a cup of tea into the garden and sit with it watching the birds. I wander in and out a lot. I'd soon get sick of the stairs.

Can't comment on the upside down aspect but on the glazing - we have the back of our house totally glazed and paid more to have glass that has a thermal break. It stops it getting too hot in summer or cold in winter and it's brilliant. I would absolutely make sure you insist on that - it's worth the extra cost.

We have two larger than average windows and larger than average patio doors with glass either side in our rental in the lounge/diner. I would never live in a house with so much glass again unless they somehow reflected the heat. The room is about 30ft X 18ft with a 15 ft X 12ft kitchen off the side, and the kitchen has an additional double width window above the sink. The whole space is absolutely unbearable when the heat hits it.

We have to close the curtains by 1pm every day if it's not overcast, until probably 6ish.

Never thought I would be grateful to have such a miserable, rainy summer, but here I am being grateful for a miserable, rainy summer.

Going to be that person and ask, as your DH loves the idea so much, how much carrying shopping/recycling/laundry/etc up and down stairs will he be doing?

Used to regularly stay in a house like this on holidays in Cornwall. It was built into a hillside though so did have direct access to the garden from the kitchen even though it was upstairs and had a balcony off of the living room too. We loved it and returned year after year until the owners eventually retired and sold up. Not sure I would want to live like that all the time though.

I came to this thread thinking you meant hanging upside down from a tree branch like a bat. very disappointed.

I thought OP was using it as an alternative way of saying 'living in Australia' and somehow didn't understand how gravity works globally

Warm air rises so normally heat from downstairs warms the bedrooms. If the bedrooms are downstairs any heating escapes upstairs

I live in Australia and thought so too. I invariably use the being upside-down and the blood rushing to my head to explain typos.

I hated having the bedrooms downstairs and not having easy access to the back garden. House was on a hill though so you did go through the front door straight to the living areas, I think I'd have hated it even more if I'd been lugging shopping upstairs