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.

"Cosy" usually means small windows, lots of steps or stairs, heaps of beams and low ceilings.. give me decent windows, ceilings you can't touch when stretching (though not high ceilings, heats up there not down where I'm sitting) and a couple of beams not lots n lots! Wood burners too..I'll have a well set open fire

All the complaints re slippy decking. DH paints ours with a none slip stain. It has a gritty texture, and we rarely have a problem still don't particularly like it, and when it finally rots away it will be replaced, probably with grass.

Conservatory. Our fault as we added 23 years ago. We have used it a lot (it’s heated and has blinds) but wish we’d found the money to do an extension at the time. It needs changing now but just don’t have the funds.

Haha yes I’ve been at someone’s home as an overnight guest and the light wouid switch off while I was sat on the loo 🤣

I wouldn’t have a conservatory , or 3 floors/ levels in a house , or a massive garden , or glass interior doors , or any windowless bathroom even if it is just the downstairs toilet .
i don’t think I’d have attic bedrooms either as ours were utterly boiling 🥵 in hot weather and very cold in mid winter ❄️

Things I wouldn't do again: 1.Laminate floor. Nightmare to put down. As soon as you get any water on it, it's done for and you have to replace the lot because its all slotted together 2. Bumpy tiles. They are a nightmare to clean. 3. Decking. It gets rotten and slippery quickly.

Things I wish I had done in my house:
1.underfloor heating under my bathroom floor, the tiles are so cold. 2. upstairs utility room (99% of what is washed comes from upstairs, it would save so many trips up and down the stairs, usually with limited view of where I am treading, I'd have made room somewhere upstairs if I'd known how much I would have appreciated this). 3. Floor drain in the bathroom, so I could just rinse the floor with a shower head rather than mopping/wiping, especially behind the freestanding bath. 4 wind turbine, I am still looking into doing this to make some energy in the winter!

Things I am so glad I did:
1.cavity wall insulation 2. triple glazing 3. solar panels

We got round this with a bathroom ‘en-suite’ beside the bedroom with a door to the hall - if we came to sell there’s an easy place for a door to
the bedroom to open if it was a sticking point.

The very attractive but bloody awful tiles I bought for our kitchen and hallway. I hate them, they are always dirty. They're almost porous and no matter what I do, they never look clean. I love our conservatory though, it's given us a much needed extra room which we use as a utility.

No bath only a shower. Rarely, maybe 4 times a year have a bath i always shower so didn't think I'd be remotely bothered but I think i got a case of wanting it because I couldn't have it lol

Conservatory - I think it depends . My friend had a very expensive one she referred to as a 'garden room' with a beautiful vaulted ceiling and trifold doors- this in contrast to our sad, tiny one latched on to the back of the house- freezing and unusable in winter- boiling and unusable in summer and a magnet for insects getting in.
I do love my wooden decking though and much prefer it to my neighbours' completely paved garden which just looks dull and grey.
I also love my original Victorian sash windows. Previous house had awful upvc which sagged and discoloured.
3 storeys works for me, house is always warm throughout ( not a loft conversion).
Bare floorboards - never again. Carpet keeps the whole house so much warmer

Our bathroom is windowless, with an extractor fan. There’s never been any mould or condensation issues with it. I’ve lived with them before, especially in modern apartments. They don’t really bother me but I hope it won’t put prospective future buyers off 😬

Anything on a busy road, with a road on more than one side or street lights right outside (neighbours with yappy dogs) !

Really? Your husband gets to hide in his private lounge added on to the house as a special room while you cook for him?

How very retro.

Downstairs bathroom, shared driveway, private road maintained by residents, rights of way around back garden.

I had a UPVC conservatory at my previous house, never again. It was off, and open to, the kitchen, forming an 'L" shape. It did have a radiator, but it was always too cold in winter and too hot in summer, also the windows steamed up when we were cooking. The biggest problem though, was the leaded small windows around the top. I got home from work one day to a smell of burning plastic. There was a keyboard on the kitchen table in the conservatory with a trail of smoke rising from it. Several keys had melted and I guess it was about to catch fire. This was all down to the leaded windows and the fact that the conservatory faced west, with full sun in the afternoons. I was always really nervous about it after that.

Not all from places I've lived myself but features that I'd never want (not that I could necessarily afford all of this!)

• any room that is basically a corridor e.g having to walk through the living room to go upstairs/into the kitchen, likewise having to walk through the kitchen to get to the living room.

• really narrow hallways

• separate toilet in family bathroom

• room sizes that are clearly as small as they can possibly be whilst still being allowed to be legally called a room.

Half bath as we call them in the US. I think you in the UK call them just a toilet.
As long as you have a washroom to clean -you might as well have a shower.

Never again.
lawn.
hedge.
front door opening straight into front room.
no hallway.
anyone living above or below me
a freezing cold loft apartment

Agree on laundrey room upstairs just built my house and have this. must be getting old but god I love it. I have underfloor heating too so big clothes horse and clothes dry in a day. can close the door to it and it's a short walk ti bedroom
my husband (who was also the builder) wouldn't let me put a freestanding bath even though I wanted one 😒

I think freestanding baths LOOK lovely but I have been told they need a lot of room (basically to be in the middle of the floor) or else they are a nightmare to clean round/under

my husband told me they always leak. he also put showers in with doors no open showers as again leaks. no to bi fold doors as says always break. there was a list of stuff he refused point blank to do after all the years he has built houses 😂

Big trees near the house. Didn't realise the amount of leaves that would cover long
front garden and blow over in to the back garden. Forever racking them come autumn. Drive me nuts! Roots made the path uneven! I viewed in winter when no leaves so come summer looked so much bigger.

The leaves are the least of the problem with trees very near a house, their roots have to go somewhere!!!

Wooden kitchen worktops, I always loved the look of them until I had a house with them in. A pain to clean, need constant oiling, easily stain and you can’t put anything vaguely hot on them! I was so glad when we moved and the new kitchen had quartz, so much easier!

A porch! May sound contentious but I dislike having to go into a small space with bags, kids, dogs, then unlock another door. Far simpler to just go straight into a hallway.