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Will bigger houses become a liability


King Penda

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Wight Flight
43 minutes ago, With a crooked smile said:

Well I've bought my mum and dad Sunday lunch there before. It's a bit of a strange one. I've seen it come up for sale a few times over the years. I think in the past the headline turnover and profit looked healthy. In the past they did corporate events stag nights and Sunday lunch experiences.

I've never been but would like to. My parents got a complimentary boat across you can land by helicopter I believe. 

They have one big fuck up. Lots of us on the Island would happily visit - but you can only get there from the mainland. 

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Wight Flight
3 hours ago, spunko said:

Triple glazed windows, solar hot water, insulating the attic way above the minimum, can't remember the thickness now. Think that was about it...

You are lucky. We had the shittiest, draughtiest windows ever known to man. Listed wouldn't let us change them.

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10 minutes ago, Wight Flight said:

You are lucky. We had the shittiest, draughtiest windows ever known to man. Listed wouldn't let us change them.

In my current house which is listed I've got secondary glazing. No need to apply for listed building consent. 

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Another thing about energy efficiency, I rented a new build flat on the ground floor a few years ago and honestly think I only switched the heating on once

The problem was it was so well insulated and only had small windows on one side so you couldn’t really get a decent airflow this resulted in it being quite dark, a sweat box and pretty depressing 

People would always ask if I had the heating on 

going back to @sancho panza experience with current home that’s why I always advise people to live in a home for a while before deciding the outlay or any adaptions it’s surprising what can annoy you about a home layout 

 

 

 

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14 hours ago, Bobthebuilder said:

I have a mate who bought a large bungalow, massive loft, but you had to walk around it like a maze.

Bungalows are interesting great for loft convesions, but the downstairs layouts always seem to need some work i would buy one though some old ones have nice size gardens too

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Bobthebuilder
15 minutes ago, DoINeedOne said:

Bungalows are interesting great for loft convesions, but the downstairs layouts always seem to need some work i would buy one though some old ones have nice size gardens too

His bungalow had a massive plot. To big for my liking. You could have built another house in it.

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19 minutes ago, Bobthebuilder said:

His bungalow had a massive plot. To big for my liking. You could have built another house in it.

There's a few near me that have done just that, small house and a driveway and the bungalow still has a decent size garden

 

Friends of mine built quite a nice townhouse on a plot next to there parents house where 2 garages stood, When helping take down the garages i thought you're never going fit shit on this

But they did with a small drive and half decent garden

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sancho panza
14 hours ago, DoINeedOne said:

Another thing about energy efficiency, I rented a new build flat on the ground floor a few years ago and honestly think I only switched the heating on once

The problem was it was so well insulated and only had small windows on one side so you couldn’t really get a decent airflow this resulted in it being quite dark, a sweat box and pretty depressing 

People would always ask if I had the heating on 

going back to @sancho panza experience with current home that’s why I always advise people to live in a home for a while before deciding the outlay or any adaptions it’s surprising what can annoy you about a home layout 

 

 

 

I'm into this try before you buy thing. ref teh bit in bold,funnily enoguh we had a builder round today for a social and he was saying that exact thing.Do the renovations after you move in.

For me,previous to this I'd say I'd have been keen to have a (what is for us) a singificantly bigger hosue.WHislt I've enjoyed aspects,deep down,I've realsied I'm a lazy toad because I hate DIY,I'm not a fan of having to drive ten/15 mintues to a shop,big heating bills hurt.

ALso having never lived ina rural area with a family,it's not the idyll I thought it'd be.Don't get me wrong,I apreciate the views,but that's offset by being remote from friends and places to go etc.learnings learnings.....

 

 

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goldbug9999
On 01/04/2022 at 09:41, spunko said:

Out of interest would a 2000 sq ft home have double the heating costs of a 1000 sq ft home, all other things being equal?

Not quite double because in theory heating cost is a function of surface area and that doesn't double when you double the footprint. To visualise this imagine that your 4k house is two adjoining 2k houses and the party wall doesn't need heating. Probably not much in it in practice though.

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On 25/03/2022 at 19:50, HousePriceMania said:

My wife and I offered on a few 4000sq ft+ houses not long before 2020.  

We are very glad we didn't managed to buy one.  

We had one on the hook that had no sold for 12 months, then CV19 hit and some Londoner bought it, full asking price.

What could you possibly do in a 4000sq ft house?  You'd need staff to clean it.

The home we're building is half of that and I'm worried it's too big.

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The UK is a weird country when it comes to floor space. In most countries the tradeoff is between a small home in a more convenient location for jobs/transport/amenities or a big one further out where the land is cheaper but in the UK there is no such relationship and the size of the housing stock in a given location is just a mangled function of what stage of the house price cycle the country was in and what the planners were willing to agree to when it was built. There are many towns in the UK where the most cramped housing is the newer (1980s onwards) stuff on the edge.

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sancho panza
11 minutes ago, Darude said:

The UK is a weird country when it comes to floor space. In most countries the tradeoff is between a small home in a more convenient location for jobs/transport/amenities or a big one further out where the land is cheaper but in the UK there is no such relationship and the size of the housing stock in a given location is just a mangled function of what stage of the house price cycle the country was in and what the planners were willing to agree to when it was built. There are many towns in the UK where the most cramped housing is the newer (1980s onwards) stuff on the edge.

I think a lot of people who've bought rural homes and work in the city are about to see this logical price/fuel for commute relationships kick back in.

 

Cheap fossil fuels have hidden all manner of historical realities 

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sancho panza
7 hours ago, WICAO said:

What could you possibly do in a 4000sq ft house?  You'd need staff to clean it.

The home we're building is half of that and I'm worried it's too big.

In all honesty, you spend a lot of wasted time walking around it looking fir salt pots, glasses and the like.

The cleaning isn't so bad as our house is a bungalow but still it's a bind.

There was a huge place up for £4500 pcm a while back but as you say the staffing bill would be significant.

Which is a point in itself, remote rural areas will become more expensive for cleaners carers etc.....

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I recently received a cold call email from an architect asking for a quote for the preparation of a budget estimate for their client. They were knocking down an old house and building a new 8 bedroom home. 8 bedrooms!!

It was in Berkshire I think.

I declined the opportunity.....

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1 hour ago, sancho panza said:

I think a lot of people who've bought rural homes and work in the city are about to see this logical price/fuel for commute relationships kick back in.

 

Cheap fossil fuels have hidden all manner of historical realities 

There are definitely advantages to learning how to live with less floor space. We recently moved into a 65m2 2 bedroom flat with our 2 young (<6yo) kids and it's pretty ideal for our needs. Minimal cleaning/tidying, communal gardens taken care of, handy for public transport so no need to run a second car etc. It helps that the layout of the flat has been thoughtfully done so the space is used efficiently.

An unexpected benefit of moving to a flat from a 2 storey house is that our small kids much prefer the flat because they can easily get everywhere when they're playing e.g. running back and forth from the living room to their bedroom with their toys. I think we hadn't fully appreciated how much of an obstacle to their freedom the stairs were in our old place.

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sleepwello'nights
14 minutes ago, sancho panza said:

I think a lot of people who've bought rural homes and work in the city are about to see this logical price/fuel for commute relationships kick back in.

 

 

Not just rural homes. Many new build estates on the edges of towns have no amenities nearby. Out of town shopping centres with their free parking need cars to get to. Jobs tend to be in office parks, again a car needed to reach them.

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sancho panza
1 hour ago, Darude said:

There are definitely advantages to learning how to live with less floor space. We recently moved into a 65m2 2 bedroom flat with our 2 young (<6yo) kids and it's pretty ideal for our needs. Minimal cleaning/tidying, communal gardens taken care of, handy for public transport so no need to run a second car etc. It helps that the layout of the flat has been thoughtfully done so the space is used efficiently.

An unexpected benefit of moving to a flat from a 2 storey house is that our small kids much prefer the flat because they can easily get everywhere when they're playing e.g. running back and forth from the living room to their bedroom with their toys. I think we hadn't fully appreciated how much of an obstacle to their freedom the stairs were in our old place.

Yeah I think it's amazing how little space you actually need if you don't have the crap that cones with more space ie furniture, hoarding etc.

We've always filled the garage we've got.houses 1+2 we're two bed terraces with small sheds, then 3 bed semi single garage, now double garage.like I've said were renting ,needed more space for fourth kid but this is too much.

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sancho panza
1 hour ago, sleepwello&#x27;nights said:

Not just rural homes. Many new build estates on the edges of towns have no amenities nearby. Out of town shopping centres with their free parking need cars to get to. Jobs tend to be in office parks, again a car needed to reach them.

Quite agree it's going to be an adjustment.

 

Another reason why villages rural living dying off is because young kids want to do stuff after school these days. When fuel is expensive it limits their options.

 

Should be done cheap houses coming in rural areas

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Wight Flight
11 hours ago, sancho panza said:

Quite agree it's going to be an adjustment.

 

Another reason why villages rural living dying off is because young kids want to do stuff after school these days. When fuel is expensive it limits their options.

 

Should be done cheap houses coming in rural areas

We fucked that up when we let parents choose their kids school.

in my day there was a catchment. This meant all my friends lived within cycling distance. And because adults tend to make friends at their kids'  school, most of my parents' friends were within walking distance. Those that weren't were an overnight stay away.

 

 

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HousePriceMania
On 03/04/2022 at 02:13, WICAO said:

What could you possibly do in a 4000sq ft house?  You'd need staff to clean it.

The home we're building is half of that and I'm worried it's too big.

6000 sq ft then you'd need staff, 4000 and it'll keep your wife off the streets :-) 

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On 05/03/2022 at 10:26, spunko said:

From the handful of old biddies I know who live in big houses all alone, they tend to just live in 2-3 rooms. Bedroom, kitchen, living room. The other rooms aren't heated and the doors are shut.

I suspect more people are going to do this; I have a spare bedroom (the horror) and have turned the radiator to low and shut the door. No point heating a room when it's only used once a month.

Not related to heating but there are increasing levels of anger about people daring to have 1-2 spare bedrooms in their home and I suspect if Labour ever get in they will look at taxing the 'rich' in this way. It's a great diversion tactic: you have 2 empty bedrooms yet there are people waiting for council houses for years. Nevermind all the other factors that contribute to it.

I doubt it though as they made such a fuss about the "bedroom tax" which was only asking for about £10 a month from single people in massive council properties with multiple bedrooms.

Mind you there is the danger that they consider people who actually work and pay for the house as fair game and those given it for free as untouchable.

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  • 1 month later...
haroldshand

It's not just bigger places, my place was built 1720/30s and the heating costs have always been huge due to it's age, this October is going to be really noticeable 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm coming to the end of renovations on an older "mansion" (it's 100 paces / yards from the master bedroom to the kitchen for your morning coffee !). The house was built from the ground up in late 1970s no-expense-spared, lived in and well maintained for many years, then lived in but not maintained for many more.

Don't underestimate the amount of time and effort it takes just to keep abreast of the jobs with a large place. It's taken me 2 years of steady work to fix all the problems, and a small crew of gardeners 6 months to get outside looking presentable. It is impossible to heat it 100% in the winter, best case is to run the log stove in the lounge a lot, and have an electric heater in every bedroom being used. Or find an enthusiatic playmate to keep you warm at night :)

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22 minutes ago, Andersen said:

I'm coming to the end of renovations on an older "mansion" (it's 100 paces / yards from the master bedroom to the kitchen for your morning coffee !). The house was built from the ground up in late 1970s no-expense-spared, lived in and well maintained for many years, then lived in but not maintained for many more.

Don't underestimate the amount of time and effort it takes just to keep abreast of the jobs with a large place. It's taken me 2 years of steady work to fix all the problems, and a small crew of gardeners 6 months to get outside looking presentable. It is impossible to heat it 100% in the winter, best case is to run the log stove in the lounge a lot, and have an electric heater in every bedroom being used. Or find an enthusiatic playmate to keep you warm at night :)

Can you put a link to your refurb thread (It was you that dug a floor up and found tiles right?)

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