quote; historically loos were always separate from bathrooms (and indeed many people still prefer them to be - because of nasty niffs). end quote
True, but they were ON THE SAME FLOOR, usually next door to each other. No nipping up and down stairs from one to the other.
IMHO, only one thing is worse than a downstairs bathroom, and that is a downstairs bathroom without a loo, with the loo on the top floor. It would be like a comedy sketch, trying to use it.
Downstairs bathrooms are not so bad, they are so common in my area where there are many terraced houses. I'd say in my street of around 30 odd terraced properties perhaps only 5 of them have upstairs bathrooms. I think people only see it as a problem if it isn't the norm. Incidentally, of the houses that do have upstairs bathrooms they have either lost the 3rd bedroom or have reduced the size of the second bedroom to do so. Once upon a time all of them were 2 rooms downstairs, 2 rooms uptairs, of varying sizes.
*It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue about them. -- Pierre De Beaumarchais
My first house had its bathroom downstairs at the back of the house with an upstairs loo, at first I lived with it, but when the girlfriend starts moaning about traipsing through the house every morning, you soon see the attraction of an upstairs bathroom, a third bedroom/boxroom becomes a reasonably sized bathroom. I stripped out the old bathroom with the intention of turning it an office, but luck would have it an neighbours cousin made an offer on the house and I accepted.
My Mum's house has a downstairs bathroom, I managed to live there til I was 21 (give or take the odd year at Uni) and it never bothered me in the slightest.
Like someone said earlier, it was the norm for the area, so it was fine.
I can't for the life of me understand why people who know they are embarking on something new, don't at least do some elementary research beforehand. Like getting free advice on building and fire and drainage regs from the local council, for example.
I know of 2 properties near here, both done up by amateurs looking for quick profit, both had to be taken off market because of unacceptable attic conversions. Neither developer (!) had bothered to check out the regs.
These idiots can price the place at £87+ all they want, just wait till a buyer's surveyor gets an eyeful.
behind every successful man is a disbelieving mother-in-law
When they were digging for the drains, was it my imagination, or were they working with nuematic drills AND flood lights?
I thought there could have been much easier ways of locating the drain, asking the council for example or failing that the neighbours. Not much chance of their help when behaving THAT unneighbourly!
A dowser would have been able to find it in a few minutes!
Originally posted by BecciLane: Does anyone else think that it would be interesting to see what Beeny would budget for the things as well? ...
Bec
Actually, I really want to see a house she has developed, and the kind of result she can produce with her budgets!
Trish, You CAN see one Sarah has developed!!
'From House to Home' was on C4 but is now on UKTV Style shows Sarah Beeny and (Changing Rooms') Oliver Heath redeveloping a semi-detached property. Each show has one room in focus, starting with the kitchen and ending with the Garden! A good series which is often repeated so look out for it
Originally posted by spongemum: I thought there could have been much easier ways of locating the drain, asking the council for example or failing that the neighbours.
Yes, that puzzled me too. They seemed to dig up the entire back garden, and then, lo and behold, the drain was found right next to where the original toilet had been in the lean-to. Who'd have thought it! And also when I bought my house, the local authority survey came with a diagram of where any pipes were on my property.
Someone mentioned CGT; they wouldn't pay any because they have four people's CGT allowance between them and, in any case, it was the kids' principal residence.
Originally posted by BenP: [QUOTE]Originally posted by lee33: Not only that, the most successful projects have been those that totally ignored her./QUOTE]
What? Have you lost your wits?! You only have to look back at Series 4 and 3 to see this is clearly not true.
Natalie & Tanya, Poole Dorset - Ignored Sarah Beeny and faced losses of six fugures.
Chris, Brighton, Ignored Sarah Beeny and at that time house was still unsold.
Joanna & Brian, Richmond, again Ignored critical advice and were left needing 20k abouve ceiling price for their road to break even.
I think you'll find that some of the most successful projects have been those where the Beeny was listened to and acted upon!
It's OK - I'm on drugs
I don't watch it all the time but those I have seen who ignored her did better.
All she ever says is the same thing:
"Make the house suit the average punter to maximise your market."
That's the only thing she ever says - and she knows nothing about building.
Originally posted by Connie: quote; historically loos were always separate from bathrooms (and indeed many people still prefer them to be - because of nasty niffs). end quote
True, but they were ON THE SAME FLOOR, usually next door to each other. No nipping up and down stairs from one to the other.
IMHO, only one thing is worse than a downstairs bathroom, and that is a downstairs bathroom without a loo, with the loo on the top floor. It would be like a comedy sketch, trying to use it.
I thought there was a toilet on the same floor as the bathroom but it had a shower in there as well.
I think the kids did a fab job and put in a lot of hard work, although the thought of an "ensuite bathroom" AND "ensuite shower-room" off the kitchen beggars belief! However I do hope if they haven't sold the property as yet, they don't go down the same route as Chris from the Brighton Property Ladder.....money was tight for them at the time and its still on the market a year down the road! Still with the same asking price, still in the same wrong location, and still the wrong side of the stamp duty threshold! Yep it is still on the market for £269,950 (intrestingly though, when it first went on the market it was advertised with a big "as featured on the hit show Property Ladder" a year later there is no mention of the show, albeit with a different agent)
I think the kids will have the sense to lower the asking price, but will the parents have the savvy to chop up the credit cards?
Originally posted by soulsurfer: Some of you mention downstairs bathrooms are ok, but this is a three storey house!!
Bang On! soulsurfer! You don't keep a downstairs bathroom in a 3 storey house! I have only completed 2 such properties whereby I have had to shift the bathroom upstairs. On the first occasion it was my 1st Renovation, just like the Adams family featured on PL, the only difference was I listened to the advice given to me at the time even though I was not keen on the extra work and expense involved. I was not too happy to lose the small third bedroom to a bathroom and make it a 2 bedroom property. It made no difference to the selling price or viewings in fact, the property was sold before I had finished the project. If I am ever faced with this problem again I would almost certainly have WC and Showering/ bathrooms available upstairs, by not making this available to purchasers you wil certainly reduce your chances of a successful sale. Mel.
Having no toilet next to the bedrooms means a long and dangerous walk in the middle of the night- or a chamber-pot. And I would never ever buy a house with a downstairs bathroom as it means a) you can't have a bath when you have visitors and b) a long damp trudge back to your warm bedroom after your nice warm bath. Having a bathroom next to the kitchen also necessitates EXCELLLENT sound-proofing- especially if men are going to use it. Being serenaded by the Trumpet Voluntary as you are cooking is not pleasant...
Well done for cutting through the cr*p and getting to the nub of the matter, decca! Not just sound insulation but excellent ventilation is required. Eewwwww, whatever Mum's cooking tonight I don't fancy it
And yes, downstairs bathrooms are all well and good in a two storey house but not in a three storey (and no more would I want to live in a three storey house that only had 'facilities' on the top floor).
Several people have said they grew up/lived with ground floor bathrooms and weren't bothered, BUT you weren't buying a house that had supposedly been renovated and was being sold as modernised and updated for twenty first century living (and at a silly price too).
I still do live with a downstairs bathroom and as I've previously said, the majority of terraced properties in my city have downstairs bathrooms, purely by nature of when they were renovated or upgraded from a two up two down it made sense to add on to the back of the property.
Unlike the property in this programme though, there is another room between the kitchen and the bathroom where the back door is located, and I haven't seen any properties that don't have this, except of course the weird one on PL.
*It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue about them. -- Pierre De Beaumarchais
Originally posted by ShoppingGirl: Can't they find us real idiots (the Poole sisters) instead of scripting silly lines for ordinary people? Nobody would have suggested a home gym, it's the arabian arch all over again - I'm not buying it for a minute.
I'm met quite a few people in the property business in my time and, yes, there really are people as stupid as this out there.
Wanting to rip out a fantastic old bathroom and replace with modern (stopped by planning, thank goodness), wanting to keep cows in an ancient meadow with very rare wild flowers and grasses, wanting to remove very ornate wrought iron work and replace with modern iron with the owners name in the middle of everything.......
The most common one is just not understanding how much anything costs. I had one call from someone in London, who rented a flat and was looking to buy and spend £200k. She couldn’t afford anything in London so she decided to move out into the sticks. She truly thought she would be able to buy a large rambling farmhouse with oodles of land for that money because ‘it’s outside London, isn’t it’ I explained rural property prices…… ‘Oh?’ she says, ‘I though everything was very cheap in the country. I mean, no one wants to live outside London do they?’
She really thought everyone outside the M25 were bumpkins and property was almost given away.
I can't belive how nasty and snobby some of you are about people that you see for less than 60 minutes on a TV programme! And edited minutes at that. For goodness sake let it lie, what does it matter if they made mistakes, they are their mistakes to make. For goodness sake, let it lie.
Actually, Janet, that is one of the best episodes I've seen and I hope it puts a lot of the 'hopefuls' off. There is money to be made in property, but for the unwary, money to lose too.
People wouldn't consider opening a garage and fixing cars if they had no knowledge, why do they think they can fix houses?
Oh and yes I agree about the 'chattering monkeys'. How people delight at the downfall of others.
