What property features would you never have again?

[AnxiousRose]

What features from your current or previous property would you avoid if you were househunting again?

For me, it is three storeys. I had this in my last house and did not expect to dislike it as much as I did. My bedroom was on the top floor and I hated all the stairs especially with young kids. Three storeys usually means the downstairs space is small for the number of bedrooms.

Can I ask how much a replacement UPVC ceiling is for an approx 4 x 3 metre Conservatory please.

A conservatory!

I was in a Premier Inn and you switch on the light but can choose bright or low-key pink. Very gentle for those midnight loo trips!

Same
Love lying in bed all cosy listening to the rain
Bliss!

Other posters have already said mine: high ceilings + open plan = 0 cosiness.

Same as many - open plan. I really dislike sitting on the sofa and smelling/hearing supper being cooked.
a whirlpool bath - noisy and actually surely disgusting?
air source heat pump
stairs open from a hallway

Never been an issue for us in 20 yrs In fact to the contrary if looked after properly is very cheap to run and maintain.

Stairs open from a hallway

whete do you want the stairs then?

I would rather have a tiny kitchen with window or back door and extractor fan, than a huge kitchen that is open plan to the dining room and/or living room. I do not want my whole house to smell of bacon if I'm cooking it!

It's making it very difficult for me and dh trying to downsize to a large modernish flat in London. They seem to have 1 bathroom per bedroom (why do we need that if there's just the two of us with occasional visitors) but only one fucking open plan reception room! Such nonsense.

I live in a house with 8 sockets in each bedroom, 18 sockets in the kitchen, 10 in the sitting room 😌

I totally agree with open plan being something that I don't want at all. But I do wonder what people actually mean by high ceilings.

We live in an Edwardian home with ceilings on the ground floor that are 2.70m (or 8ft 11inches) and this seems a nice height to me.

Is this what people are calling high ceilings?

I never thought Id love a small galley kitchen but since downsizing I absolutely love it. Everything is within easy reach & so easy to keep clean. It does mean keeping very organised in the space but I don't miss our previous vast kitchen 😁

"...trying to downsize to a large modernish flat in London."

An oldish flat maybe? I don't know what your budget or location you're looking for is but, for example this flat in Bloomsbury; a kitchen, a bathroom and four separate rooms:

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/155457500#/?channel=RES_BUY

Or this near Russell Sq tube station with a kitchen, a bathroom and five separate rooms

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/152309594#/?channel=RES_BUY

Some more near there that would also be suitable:

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/153396866#/?channel=RES_BUY

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/153335183#/?channel=RES_BUY

Oh gosh that wouldn't work for us, we would be constantly knocking into each other/past each other. Dm has one, and it it works for her though, because she lives alone. I do a lot of cooking and baking, and love a big kitchen. We didn't view a house we liked initially, because when I scrolled through the pictures, the kitchen was tiny in relation to the house itself. There was a separate dining room, but there was no space for a breakfasting table in the kitchen, meaning food would need to be carried through. The kitchen was shut off and a bit depressing. I like a big sunny family kitchen, with a table in it, because we spend a lot of time in it, and it is sort of the hub of our house. I also enjoy chatting to the dcs while they're eating, and I'm cleaning up, etc.

I think I need a spreadsheet of all this as I am nodding at everything saying uh hum yeah, don't what that either and I need to find a new house soon.

this. We got slightly textured tiles so no slip hazard but a swine to clean and droppage explodes like a hand grenade. I have got flotex now

I would have thought that people generally only used en-suites for a wee at night so the smell wouldn't be an issue unless you are really dehydrated!

If you don't have a known condition, needing a bowel movement at night is a red flag and you need to see a GP. I am not joking.

During the day you can use the main bathroom or one with a window, anyway.

We had an en-suite in our old house but don't in our current one although we have two other loos. I'd probably exchange one of the loos for an extra shower though.

Same here. 30 years ago I started off with 8 protected trees in quite a small space and loved them. Over time though they did outgrow their space and two fruit trees became diseased. I have kept to the one tree company who are well known to the council and very good at their work and have never had a problem getting work done. I would need to get permission for deadwood removal unless it was dangerous but never had a problem with getting it.

We had to put on another lounge where husband can hide whilst I empty dishwasher and cook - he comes back in to eat - open plan is so noisy yes and bacon fish and cabbage smelly - don't succumb

For me the en suite issue is not so much about the use of it but about the total waste of space - and the fact they tend to be tiny joyless places. House I'm buying has an en suite just 1.2m wide with no window. There's a decent sized shower but the sink is small and squeezed in. It's grotty and leaking now, but even if it was completely redone, it would still always feel cramped. So many houses have multiple en suites and pretty small bedrooms to go with them where you have really limited options to get furniture in. I'd just rather have big generous rooms than lots of tiny ones.

@Tupster you might like ours in our nice rented stone semi - we have a very pretty full sized en-suite bathroom ( about 3m x 3m ) so quite big - proper bath with shower over and with window etc - plus we also have a nice big shower room on same floor. I've rarely seen en suite full bathrooms -so it was for me a nice bonus

Thats what mine is like. I had the bath replaced with a bath sized shower because I have got duff knees and a duff back and can no longer use a bath, but its a nice spacious proper bathroom

Yes, 2.70 ~ 3m: that's what I'm talking about. In combination with an open plan on the main floor... it's very difficult to create a warm and cosy ambience.

Feral children climbing over my fence and the occasional needle discarded over the same fence

I moved away long ago and now have cows which is lovely.

You don't want a sloping garden, stepping up or down. Nor do you want a north facing garden. We've got 1/2 acre of lawn on a 20% downwards slope facing towards the north. The house is at the top so the views over the country are wonderful but mowing the lawn has been a trial for the last 27 years.

Ideally you don't want to be near a main road. I was brought up in the country alongside an A road and the road noise can really get to you especially in wet weather (tyre noise travels further when the roads are wet). Avoiding road noise was one of my criteria in choosing our present house, it's on a single track lane. However, living on the back lanes means in the winter the cars are always covered in mud and in the summer scratched from nose to tail by brambles

All houses are a compromise. Location, position, size, features, condition, price. You can't have everything. You need to think what can't be changed no matter how much money, what can be changed eventually given time, effort and money.