howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,835
When we were house hunting up in Suffolk we viewed a new build the master bedroom had room for the bed and nothing else except two bedside tables, it was far too small for the two of us never mind a family.
I believe it is poor design, the footprint is no less than the old two-up two-down terrace house, they should go back to the old designs with a modern twist.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Guest 660- Registered: 14 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,205
If you knew what I know,we would both be in trouble!
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
i somehow expected that you would respond to that john.
Guest 683- Registered: 11 Feb 2009
- Posts: 1,052
Thatcher's government reduced/removed the minimum size for rooms and houses. She was very cosy to Barratts - I am sure it was a coincidence!!!
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
houses will get proportionally smaller as time goes on, the population keeps rising meaning that building land is more valuable.
people only have so much money to spend on housing.
DT1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 15 Apr 2008
- Posts: 1,116
Very good point Mark.
It amazes me the absolutely awful developments that are churned out in our modern age. Can nobody see the irony of creating a faux Victorian semi, complete with block paved parking space and upvc windows with a plastic glazing bar INSIDE the glass. Planners should be ashamed.
I often pass through Paddlesworth and see the Legoland sprawl that has now become Hawkinge. Souless tat. Buyers are presented with type A, B or C and seem to think this some kind of choice when really it is just an arrangement of blocks straight out of the Metric Handbook with a downstairs loo a different place.
The RIBA should be lobbying for designers to concern themselves with being innovative with the many empty properties in this country, a move that preserve trades and enrich our environment. New builds are required but why they have to be so souless is beyond me.
I think many people are glad to be able to have a home at all, especially considering the price of housing these days. If my husband and I were in the position of needing to buy we would be able to afford nothing on the kind of wages our kin of jobs pay. I am frankly at a loss to know how people afford houses of 1/4 million and over. I certainly have no acquaintance in this earning bracket.
Ross Miller
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 17 Sep 2008
- Posts: 3,701
Sadly this is not a new phenomenon - houses built in the 1980's were approx 30% smaller than the same type of house built in the 1930s
You wouldnt think we have a national obesity problem?
"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today." - James Dean
"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength,
While loving someone deeply gives you courage" - Laozi
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
yes even going back to the seventies we were all saying that new builds were little boxes.
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,835
If there is a shortage of building land why do they not build more three storey houses or go back to having basements then new builds could have decent size rooms.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
i think that the building costs would be too great, the easier it is the cheaper the house.
extra excavating is time consuming therefore costly and with so many people priced out of the market already not good business.
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
Yes I think this is all about costs as the builder spokesperson has said. Sure we would all like better quality homes with room to swing the proverbial cat but who could afford it. Mr Cameron at PMQs yesterday in the Commons said that the average age of a first time buyer is now 37 years old. That's a disgrace....they are trying to take steps to improve the situation said he. What the steps are gawd knows...nobody can get a mortgage, try that as a first step Mr Cameron.
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
personly i wouldnt buy one of rabbit huches,i would rather by somthing larger or live in a cardboard box.
Guest 683- Registered: 11 Feb 2009
- Posts: 1,052
Is it costs that are the factor or the builders' profit margins?
Guest 700- Registered: 11 Jun 2010
- Posts: 2,868
If I had to choose a type of house I would like a late Victorian house with its large spacious rooms, bay windows, a large butler's pantry, some marble fireplaces;
and a big square walled garden - like the one we lived for four years in when I was young,
After we left that house nothing felt quite as good and everything felt cramped.
But I didn't have to do the decorating then.
---------------------------------------------------
Lincolnshire Born and Bred
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,835
Kath, no you can't have my house, although the butlers pantry is now my shower room.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
What the butler's ghost saw, eh, Jan?
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,835
Cringe, laugh and then runs at what he saw.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Guest 700- Registered: 11 Jun 2010
- Posts: 2,868
I am envious Jan, but would not like to do the decorating - but we do have lovely views where we are.
---------------------------------------------------
Lincolnshire Born and Bred
If you knew what I know,we would both be in trouble!