What do you live in?

[Munroast]

4 bed detached. Would love something smaller but don't want to move as have great neighbours, great location and love being detached and sort of like the garden and outside areas.

Would love to knock it down and build a super insulated, super green (heat pump etc) 2 bed bungalow, something to get old in. But would never get planning and probably financially stupid. So we seem stuck in a large poorly insulated house that will be expensive to heat and at some point (10 -20 years time) not practical to live in.

 

[Mottie]

Pretty average 3 bed 60's semi. Been here since 1990. Walking distance to two town centres and a mainline and tube station. Split the through lounge up, opened up between kitchen and rear lounge to make a kitchen/diner across the back of the house. Single storey front extension for a bit more room downstairs.

 

[securespark]

We have a 5 bed detached built in 1960.
It has a 2 storey side extension, 6m X 3m and a rear extension 5m X 2.5m.
Been here 20+ years. Half a mile from the village and 2 handy bus routes at the bottom of the road.
Longish driveway, tandem garage and decent sized back garden.

We looked at loads before deciding on this one and the one thing I could never understand (I guess designs and layouts change) is the number of houses we saw that had a through lounge diner and a separate kitchen.

To me, the sensible layout would be a through kitchen diner and separate lounge, but there you are.

 

[ajohn]

To me, the sensible layout would be a through kitchen diner and separate lounge, but there you are.

It's curious how cheaper to build and apparently more space becomes fashionable. Then you have to have parties in them.

 

[noseall]

It's curious

Not especially.
Since the advent of central heating, the need for compact rooms with a real fire in each room has all but disappeared.
Factor in modern living, kitchen/diner is an obvious way to go. The latest fad is the need for the kitchen/diner space to 'flow' outdoors via bifolds and smooth slabs etc.

 

[noseall]

It's curious how cheaper to build and apparently more space becomes fashionable. Then you have to have parties in them.

What (wrongly) makes you think it's cheaper to build?

 

[securespark]

I do like being detached.

No arguments about noise, no worries about party repairs.

 

[diy_fun_uk]

I do like being detached.

No arguments about noise, no worries about party repairs.

Totally agree. I'm a night bird so being able to watch a movie or play music late into the night and early hours at reasonable (but not stupid) volume is great. Plus no chance of being disturbed the other way.

 

[JP_]

if you are happy where you are why keep moving each time becoming more and more a slave to work to pay an ever higher mortgage

Yep. I expect to die in this home, but it is my 4th. First was a tiny 1 bedroom flat in Walthamstow, then a tiny semi (effectively a terraced as there was only about 3 inches between the next 2 semis) in town, then a new build on a crowded estate. I kept outgrowing the previous homes, I shouldn't outgrow this one. I do now need to pay off the bloody mortgage, but at least it is about 1/4 of what rent would be for the same.

 

[noseall]

don't want to move as have great neighbours,

Same here. I'm surrounded by dodderers.

Some friends of ours lived in a large six bed on a private road - a collection of about five or six large detached houses. All seemed like well-to-do wealthy folk. None of the neighbours got on. The neighbourly mood ranged from aloof ambivalence to outright hatred. Things got so bad that they sold at a loss and moved into a rented property just to escape.

Love thy neighbour.

 

[JP_]

We looked at loads before deciding on this one and the one thing I could never understand (I guess designs and layouts change) is the number of houses we saw that had a through lounge diner and a separate kitchen.

To me, the sensible layout would be a through kitchen diner and separate lounge, but there you are.

Yeah, I agree. My last house had the through lounge, into diner, with tiny kitchen to the side. I put a new lounge on the back, turned the lounge into kitchen diner, kitchen into utility, and diner was a through space. Much nicer.

I hate through lounges (as well as stairs into lounges). Lounges should be somewhere you can shut the door and get some peace and quiet without interruption.

 

[Mottie]

Same here. I'm surrounded by dodderers.

I think me and Mrs Mottie are destined to become the dodderers of our street! We've been here 32 years and people generally don't move from this street - they die in it! Two neighbours across the road and two more of those down the road (one of them is Mrs Motties Auntie) have been here since they were built in the sixties. Many of the original occupants have died during the time we have been here - I can think of 8 of them that lived close to us but Mrs Mottie knows more of them than me as she's made an effort to know them. We are the keyholders for 4 of 'em with contact details of their relatives 'in case the worse happens'.

 

[crystal ball]

I think me and Mrs Mottie are destined to become the dodderers of our street! We've been here 32 years and people generally don't move from this street - they die in it! Two neighbours across the road and two more of those down the road (one of them is Mrs Motties Auntie) have been here since they were built in the sixties. Many of the original occupants have died during the time we have been here - I can think of 8 of them that lived close to us but Mrs Mottie knows more of them than me as she's made an effort to know them. We are the holders for 4 of 'em with contact details of their relatives 'in case the worse happens'.

Sounds like our (ahem) Crescent, we are gradually moving up the seniority ladder, although the last three new residents are older than us.

 

[Dork Lard]

That's what I miss in t'village, kids.

The average age round ere must be 103 & while you bump into lots of grandkids & young families on the welly walk it's not the same as knowing & watching the local kids grow.

 

[securespark]

Yeah, I agree. My last house had the through lounge, into diner, with tiny kitchen to the side. I put a new lounge on the back, turned the lounge into kitchen diner, kitchen into utility, and diner was a through space. Much nicer.

I hate through lounges (as well as stairs into lounges). Lounges should be somewhere you can shut the door and get some peace and quiet without interruption.

Yeah, me too.

We came here in our early 30s and are now mid-late 50s. Our previous house was on a busy main A road with a major DC A road and railway line parallel at the bottom and the M6O ring road behind.

Very noisy all day, with the early buses shaking the house and waking you up @ 6ish.

Then taxis at one of the most popular pubs in South Manchester honking away right opposite at 11-12...

So when we moved Southerer to a much quieter minor road on a 60s housing estate, we literally could not get to sleep. It was sooooooo quiet!!

Took us months to get used to it.