Picky picky picky

Having done this flat hunting thing for a fair number of weeks now and seen god knows how many places I think have a pretty good grasp of what I like in a flat. A lot of this goes against the grain of what I think you are ‘supposed to like.’ I am of course ignoring obvious stuff like being next to a sewage treatment plant, living in a crack den or being in Slough (all of which are bad).

Like:

1960s flats because they always seem to be well proportioned. I think stemming from when they were designed their internal layout was more important than jamming as much in to as small a space as possible. A lot of the time they are also way ugly on the outside which I think gives them a certain ugly duckling charm.

Wall to wall carpets which are nice and thick and warm and cosy.

Balconies because they are just plain cool. And none of your iron railings and juliet balconies, I mean really big ass ones that you can sit on and stare at your neighbours (the best one I saw was huge and came with an outdoor heater).

Being up high (but not too high) as it has a slightly detached and secure feel to it. You can keep an eye on what’s going on outside without having to let it trouble you because safely elevated.

Big living rooms, because it’s where you spend a lot of time and it’s nice to have some breathing space.

Off street parking, because battling for an on-street parking space is so proletarian and I don’t want to have to walk half a mile from my car to my flat.

Space for a dishwasher, which I think is pretty self explanatory (nowhere seems to have this though despite many places clearly having the space).

Dislike:

Period conversions. Don’t get me wrong I really like character houses, just when they’re subdivided and have flats rammed in it seems to be so badly done. The space is never well proportioned (who wants a living room three metres by three metres in floor area with four metre high ceilings?) and the features that get left behind (if any) look out of place and lost.

Hardwood floors, cold and echoey.

Really pokey modern flats, particularly the ones where two bedrooms have been rammed into an area only really big enough for one bedroom (I saw a few places where the second bedroom was big enough for a single bed but you wouldn’t be able to open slash close the door).