cottage or not ?

What's HUTH?

Homes Under the Hammer I think. My definition is more like yours nina, but when we were house hunting we saw 'cottages' with anything from one bedroom to five. Friends live in a four bedroom 'cottage'. We know it's a cottage because the name at the bottom of the drive says so .

The detached house next door to us is being sold as a cottage for an incredible price.I think it is because it is 1950's ,rural,painted white and has certain features like a small porch reminiscent of a cottage but in no way is it one.

Yes Homes Under The Hammer, sorry I shouldn't have assumed people would know

When I was a child my parents built a brick "outhouse/shed" in their garden. It was quite big but they had no storage in their 2 bed stone Scottish cottage.
Anyway Dad's reaction to both the price and the spec was to label it "The Cottage" and so it remained ever more.
We should probably have called it the "but an' ben "

A small house in the country, probably detached or possibly semi-detached.

Mine is sometimes described as a miner's cottage -
this used to be a mining area. It's an end terrace - two up and two down. My image of a cottage used to be a small detached house in the country or a village, possibly thatched, with roses round the door and a garden overflowing with colourful perennials! Relatives used to have a period property (17th century) with a Tudor cottage in the garden which they sold separately. That was decidedly quaint!

I consider our tiny end of terrace (basically a 2 up 2 down)to be a cottage but 6yr old granddaughter put me right!
"It's not a cottage Grandma - it hasn't got a furry roof!"
That's me put in my place!
Call it what you like - it's HOME!

Some very wealthy people probably see the majority of homes as cottages!!!

Sorry about the huth haven't seen that.

Terraced houses aren't cottages.They're terraced houses.
Our first house was an end-terrace 2 up 2 down which the estate agent fancifully descibed as 'this delighful quasi-semi'

Hey!! That typo occurred after I had posted
I saw it happen with my own eyes
The correct version 'They're terraced houses' came up and then the words contracted

Cottage with furry roof! And no, I don't live here.

Posted before I could add that I have always considered a cottage to be a detached or semidetached dwelling without interior space to swing a cat. However, our friends have just moved from a property designated a cottage which certainly put the lie to that. It was enormous and rambling.

A cottage to me is low and quaint with small sparkling clean windows, roses round the door, an arch over the front gate with a not too well pruned shrub growing over and a thatched well kept hat! Just like my house in my dreams!

I think of a cottage as either a terraced, semi or detached old ( really old) and small house in the countryside or on the edge of town.

If large and rambling then not a cottage but a house!
Cottages were built for poor people.

Not sure about the sparkling clean windows LadyGracie !

with a robin nesting in the not-too-well pruned clematis growing over the porch

Surely cottages have low ceilings, as well as the furry hat, and beams, door frames that catch you out if you forget to duck, finger latches for the doors, uneven floors and a bathroom in a really odd place - possibly outside.

I live in a cottage - has been called that since it was built around 150 years ago. It is detached, has more than 3 bedrooms, no roses round the door and definitely not sparkling clean windows! Part of it has very low ceilings with beams but it has been extended and in that area the ceilings are higher. It doesn't have a furry roof (unless the squirrels have got in again!)

I envy anyone living in my idealised version of a cottage, but it would definitely have sparkling clean windows Jalima. I do like clean windows, not to fussy about the rest

ooh, just going to clean my kitchen window this minute
I did wash all the floors this morning!
And I'm not sure about a furry roof, all those spiders and insects

DS and family live in a house known as a cottage because that's what it was originally - a farm-worker's home. Over the years it has acquired several additions and is now a substantial house, but still called a cottage. No thatch and probably not sparkling clean windows!

Yes it has to have the "furry" roof, roses round the door and hollyhocks foxgloves and such in the garden. I grew up in a two up two down terraced house with outside toilet in backyard, would never have said I lived in a cottage?

"quasi semi"

my definition is much like the rest - a country cottage is a small (that's the key) low ceilinged detached or semi with or without a furry hat.

a workman's cottage could be a terrace but very definitely two up two down

but small. bathroom probably downstairs. no cat swinging.