Bungalows in need of modernising

Elegran

You could buy Buck House and still have to do things to it.

You would have to do a tremendous make over. It’s falling to bits🥴

I've lived in a rented (fair rent) bungalow for 7 years. I'm not fit, it is dated, swirly carpets etc but big garden. I love it.

I cringe every time I hear of bungalows. It means something completely different here. Small add ons in someone’s backyard.

I don’t like the word bungalow, despite having been brought up in one and bought one. Don’t know why, perhaps because for so many people it conjures up exactly the sort of place I don’t want to live.

I just don't like the idea of sleeping downstairs and bungalows are always associated with older people.

I'd really like to downsize to a nice character cottage but trying to find a suitable one is very difficult.

nanna8

I cringe every time I hear of bungalows. It means something completely different here. Small add ons in someone’s backyard.

I think it was the same in NZ, nanna8

However, what you call a house, eg lovely large open plan kitchen dining room, sitting room, three or four double bedrooms, an ensuite or two, bathroom, utility room etc - would be called a bungalow here if it's all on one level as they often are in Australia. 😃

A house:
a building for human habitation, especially one that consists of a ground floor and one or more upper storeys

A bungalow:
a low house having only one storey or, in some cases, upper rooms set in the roof, typically with dormer windows.
in SE Asia a large detached house with more than one storey.

Yes I would. My DH is in the building trade and we’ve had 4 doer uppers . Two we’ve lived in and two we flipped .
So a complete renovation doesn’t bother me or my DH. Although we are younger than many on here .
The beauty of a renovation is that it’s exactly how you want it. I would hate a new build on an estate , which has no character.
People on here are complaining that bungalows are small and poky , but many new builds are small and poky, where I live developers are buying up several gardens and building small developments with small rooms and tiny gardens .
The problem with bungalows is that they have the footprint of a house and are therefore not far off the price of a house . The other issue is that they are often owned by the elderly who are probably quite happy living as they have done for years and don’t have the inclination to modernise .

We live in a small 2 bed 70’s bungalow, with a large well insulated conservatory, an amazing view and big garden. I don’t understand what people mean by “no character” ??? I think to many people “character” means stuff like beams, a log burner or the latest kitchen, all of which are lovely, but if you are lucky you will live inside a building with 4 walls and a roof, then die. I like to think our home is a cosy, happy and welcoming home for our family and friends and easy to maintain. You can live in a palace and it might be considered “God’s Waiting Room” if you are a certain age 😂 personally I don’t give a flying f*ck what anyone thinks about my home, and don’t feel the need to impress anyone. Our dog loves living here too! Happy home, enjoying life ❤️❤️

What I mean by ‘character’ is what I have here - vaulted ceilings, floor to ceiling windows for instance. Nothing to do with the latest kitchen (though we do have that). It’s still a cosy, happy and welcoming place - just not boring little square rooms.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202404/medium-100067-img-0322.jpeg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202404/medium-946186-img-2583.jpeg

14 yrs ago we bought a 3 bed detached bungalow constructed in 1990 in our village ahead of our retirement 3 yrs later. We replaced all of the boundary fences as well as the back garden patio which we also extended. All of the facias and guttering was replaced as well as the front door. The boiler and 3 radiators were replaced and we added 2 more. All of the interior doors were replaced. We installed a new bathroom suite with a walk in shower, and fully tiled the walls and floor. In the kitchen, hallway and cloakroom we tiled the floors as well as tiling the cloakroom walls. And we’ve replaced the bedroom carpets. Fortunately the walls weren’t papered so all we had to do was paint them. I find it easy to clean and thoroughly enjoy living here. We were the youngest of all our neighbours when we bought our home and remain so. We have families living in adjoining cul de sacs on the estate so don’t feel like we’re living in a pensioner enclave.

There are a lot of really big, spacious bungalows around here and mostly self built in the 70s and 80s.

I have never lived in a bungalow and what would put me off is not being able to leave bedroom windows wide open in case somebody climbed in! 😱 in really hot weather I love the windows open at night in our house.

Germanshepherdsmum

What I mean by ‘character’ is what I have here - vaulted ceilings, floor to ceiling windows for instance. Nothing to do with the latest kitchen (though we do have that). It’s still a cosy, happy and welcoming place - just not boring little square rooms.

Exactly what we have in our "boring " bungalow, vaulted ceilings, velux windows to flood with light, wood burner, wooden floors. Open your mind! . Being married to an architect does help though, no mass developer poky rooms in our house, or cramped overlooked plot.

Thankfully, where we live here in East Midlands, bungalows that were sold remain as bungalows. People do not demolish them or convert them to houses.

Is there snobbery against bungalows here in the UK?

Open my mind HPQ? You don’t seem to understand anything I have said. I want - and will find eventually - what I have here, but on one level.

Germanshepherdsmum

Open my mind HPQ? You don’t seem to understand anything I have said. I want - and will find eventually - what I have here, but on one level.

Barn conversion?
Sometimes they're on one level.

I think GSM has said she thinks she will end up with a barn conversion Callistemon.

Aprt from the fact we would never buy a bungalow, we would - and are planning - a renovation, as I write. Our house is on the market and as soon as it sells we hope to offer on an old run down house, where the first job will be rewiring, followed by knocking two rooms together to make a kitchen and thenturn the existing kitchen into a utulity room and cloakroom - and so on.

Callistemon21

^A bungalow is a great place to live in - I have no idea why they are treated with derision^
Me neither. I'd like to move to one but there are few in this locality and they're either crammed in or on a main road.

In New Zealand the term 'bungalow' is offensive apparently. Who knew, I didn't until I admired our host's home and she retorted "it's not a bungalow, it's a house!"
There are a lot of well-planned, spacious single storey homes in New Zealand and Australia, but perhaps lack of space prevents them being built here now where land is at a premium.

That's so strange you say that. My niece in NZ has just sent me the particulars of the "home" she has bought. It's definitely a bungalow, very contemporary, with decking and a pool, but it's just called a "property" or "house" in the blurb.

Goodness, I never knew single storey living could stir up such division.

We moved from a four bedroom house to a two bedroom bungalow in need of renovation. No apologies here, we love it. A river across the fence, good bus service to the coast, two shops within walking distance and superb neighbours who will help if needed. Something health issues have made us more than grateful for this last year. Brought up on farms during years of town living I craved an isolated home, describing my wish for a house in a field preferably complete with moat and drawbridge to keep the world out. Now? With deteriorating mobility and shallow pockets it simply wouldn’t work

Around here many bungalows coming to the market become two storey , five bedroomed homes with immaculately landscaped gardens and re-sell for what feels to us to be a fortune. It’s such a shame to lose affordable, practical, socially valuable one level housing stock.

We’re all individual. Best to live as suits our individual needs, if we can.

I agree corner! Why do people buy one thing just to turn it into something else?

Phil and Kirsty tv programmes encourage this trend by adding extensions in all directions.

Just move if you grow out of your house!

I said I would never live in a bungalow and yet here I am! I love it. It’s light & airy, nice big garden, easy to heat & maintain. It needed updating but nothing structural or complicated. Some people on here need to open their minds and perhaps admit that their own experiences aren’t the be-all & end-all!

Since our stairs are practically vertical, I think a bungalow might work for us.
Doubt we could manage it financially though.

Very interesting.
I dream of living near the sea in a bungalow and yet....
The ones on rightmove do look as if they need a lot of renovating.
It all comes down to money in the end.

loopyloo

Very interesting.
I dream of living near the sea in a bungalow and yet....
The ones on rightmove do look as if they need a lot of renovating.
It all comes down to money in the end.

That’s because people retire to the coast and then just sit back and relax. There are loads of such bungalows around here but they all sell very quickly regardless of how much updating they need.

That self-build bungalow with the red garage has just been sold. Someone is willing to take on a full-scale renovation, all 1600 square foot of it. Not surprising though, it is a very good size bungalow, not a god waiting room.

I am going to carry on updating our house and keep an eye out on the self-build bungalows in that vicinity.

Once the Bank of England starts reducing the interest rates due to the falling inflation, the prices of bungalows and houses will start picking up again.

It is whether we can bridge the gap between the price of our house and the price of a bungalow without getting a mortgage.