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.

Stairs going directly from the living room.
We have just put a wall up to create a hallway. Wish we had done it a decade ago.

Rats make homes under decking. So do foxes. What a nightmare

My DH is an architect, I am sure he is thinking of the resale value people want/ expect ensuites.

A period house with separate, tiny kitchen shut away from living area… I think of it as misogyny built into the very fabric of the house and I hated being shut out there doing chores and cooking like a Victorian maid!

I do live my 3 story house now though 🥰 have a room for air b&b up there plus my home office, so I can ‘go up to work’ every day. And I get my steps in!

She means when the only room containing a bath or shower is downstairs. So you have no bathroom on the same level as your bedroom.

Not a downstairs toilet, a downstairs bathroom. What you are missing is that we don’t use “bathroom” like Americans do, to mean a room containing only a sink and a toilet.

Expansive(and expensive!) Bifold doors.Architect advised against as the weather is never really good enough to open fully.We didnt listen but he was right,also in winter the extension with them is always cold.
Not enough storage space for everday basics eg cupboard for shoes,jackets,ironing board,hoover,brush etc
Any flooplan that shows an ensuite but not space in the bedroom for a wardrobe and chest of drawers is off putting straight away.

So does everyine have a foyer? Not in UK but just bought my first house with a foyer, It;s the only clean room in the house.
Also, outdoor pools are exceeedingly popular in hot climates. Mine is new and self cleaning! I wouldn't have a non-self cleaning one again. Don't even have to have the big old net scoop for the leaves on the top. All sorted, And no "creepy crawly" the old cleaners that were like a vacuum.
2 bags of salt a year in the pool. That''s it. Wondrous.
Conservatories give me the heebies as I think they would be boiling hot in summerso would never get .
Slippery tiles in family areas I would never get again.Basically asking to break a bone.

@oviraptor21 yes to the sealed in toilet cistern. We have/had this. Had a leak that came through the ceiling and the only way to sort it was to smash the tiles off. It's a bugger to sort now too.

From previous houses downstairs bathroom off a kitchen, had this in a student house and slipped on the lino in the kitchen after a shower.
Also bathrooms stuck in weird places. Had an old house that had previously had an outside loo. They'd put the bathroom in the cellar. Always damp as extractor was crap, concrete steps which when running a hot bath got dangerously slippery, nearly fell down the stairs a few times. Also had a macerator toilet. Worst inventions ever, ridiculously loud and if you flushed while draining the bath it would all back up and overflow.

Neighbours from hell.

Stairs. I love living on one level. I'm autistic and I think the issue with transitions applies to the multiple levels of a house. It feels like two separate places to me, I like that my whole house feels like one place on one level.

I hated our decking - had it removed not long after we moved in. It had a slimy feel to it no matter how much it was cleaned and it was lethally slippery in the winter.

Real wood kitchen worktops and underfloor heating.

Also not having a drive, its more annoying than I thought it would be !

Having no hallway. The house we are in you walk in the front door and there is a small vestibule and then straight into the front room.

There are no storage cupboards so used to use the garage but then had to have that converted into another bedroom so now I have stuff stashed everywhere.

No downstairs loo, miss that. Also, we have a front room/diner. I am looking to separate with a wall.

Wow, I really hate our house lol.

Conservatorys never the right temperature, we had ours removed and an extension built, best thing we ever did.
Stairs in the lounge
Front door leading straight into lounge
Shared driveway
Decking, our old house had it and the previous owners didn't have it rat proofed when installing it, we had the biggest rats living under it. And it gets slippy
Also En suites
Our street is all detached houses and we all have a clause in our deeds that states you have to always have a driveway big enough to be able to park 2 cars which is amazing. No one has to park on the road unless they have guests.

Lounge-diner, conservatory, decking.

Neighbours.

Decking- full of rats underneath and ours warped due to tree roots. Went back to paving and it looks loads better.

Shared driveway. Honestly think I would rather have no parking than have a shared driveway again. Doesn't help that first set
of neighbours were awful.
Rooms that you have to go through to get to another room, or which have stairs in- so much wasted space and they always end up as a dumping ground

Some features that are commonly avoided I would happily have again. On a flight path, near train line, downstairs bathroom: all fine.

I think so many of these disliked features are driven by trends from much warmer climates. Some can work in the UK but we are quite different conditions from N to S. Our bifold doors are brilliant - but we live in one of the warmest parts of the UK.

I think the above shows how decking doesn't really work here.

We inherited 2 hated conservatories - we converted one into a proper bit of house and the other hosts an exercise machine and functions as a frost-free greenhouse. It's ugly and I keep thinking we should Do Something but it's actually really useful.

Don't get underfloor heating if you are prone to chilblains!

I think the separate kitchen/dining thing is really marmite - cooking can be a social or a smelly activity depending on your viewpoint. I detest separate dining rooms - usually pokey and so formal. But a separate lounge (with carpet!!) is a must.

The garden gripes made me laugh - if you do absolutely nothing with the leaves, you know they disappear, right? Nature is amazing. Just clear paths and put the leves in the borders. And if you have a large lawn, just mow around the edge once a fortnight in summer, and the whole area once in early spring and once in early winter. Win-win for you and the invertebrates desperately trying to share our world.

I wouldn’t buy an old property again without significant funds to fix it all. Our Edwardian terrace is over 100 years of shit DIY jobs and every time something needs doing it unearths more problems and costs a fortune. It’s very expensive to heat and all the rooms are weird awkward sizes because of chimney breasts that don’t even have the nice fireplaces in any more!

I agree about decking, it get so slippery and needs too much work to maintain nicely.

My parents house is fully open plan downstairs and I hate it - you can’t get away from each other which is incredibly annoying, but I realise this may be specific to it being my parents house!

Same. I don't want en-suites again going forward. I like the separation between bedroom and bathroom

Dh chimed in with: sloped driveway and sloped garden- the amount of falls on that garden slope when muddy is crazy! 😆 the sloped driveway has worked our handbrakes hard.

No off street parking. That is the only dealbreaker for me. I have witnessed so much stress and angst about parking. I wouldn't buy a house without enough driveway space to park at least two, and ideally three, large cars.

Shared drive. Our first house. No gas supply to house. Not actually had this. Conservatory. Wouldn't have again. Stairs in a room.