OT: Thouhts on A bedroom with no window

[tim]

Hi,

I'm currently looking at a property in a period flat. It is listed [1] so the opportunity for changes are limited.

It is large (100 sq m) but only has one bedroom. As a corner plot it only has windows on two adjacent sides and thus has one corner of the property which has no opportunity for outside light.

Currently, this is an open plan area which has been designated by the seller (and the agent) as bedroom 2, but to me it is just a wide corridor between the other rooms. It could be blocked off at one end and made into a 'real' room, but it would still have no window.

I am reminded that when Justine and his friend did up some houses they did one with a room with no window and received many adverse comments.

So if you saw a (nice) property where the second bedroom had no window would you consider it? I am only concerned about resale here, it's perfect adequate for me as it stands.

thanks

tim

[1] No, I don't mean that it is tilting.

[Helen Deborah Vecht]

"tim" typed

No, personally, but I need light...

[PJ]

Are you a expressing a genuine opinion?

Or are you a plant? ;-)

[Count Dracula]

Absolutely perfect.

[Mary Fisher]

I wouldn't either, for the same reason. Some bathrooms don't have windows, they depress me.

Mary

>

[cupra]

Preferably a basement flat?

[Owain]

Not really. Although I dislike daylight in bedrooms I do like ventilation and the ability to get out in the event of a fire. Legally, I don't know if you could describe such a room as other than a boxroom. Bear that in mind when considering how much you are willing to pay.

Perhaps more relevantly, if you are going to resell quickly you will need to show Building Regulations approval for any alterations. I doubt very much whether you will be able to get BR approval for creating a new habitable room without a window. They would also be fire escape considerations if it is an internal room (ie accessed through another room and not on a main escape route eg hall).

The only suggestion I can make, if the layout allows it - and it may well not - is to use the internal area as a hall-dining space and make whatever is the current dining area (if it has a window) into a 2nd bedroom, or even relocate the kitchen (if it has a window and subject to plumbing) into the internal area and reuse the kitchen space.

Otherwise a nice home study area is probably the most profitable use of space, with perhaps a sofa-bed or futon.

Owain

[Guy King]

The message from "tim" contains these words:

Never. Not even as a study or sewing room or whatnot.

[Guy King]

The message from " cupra" contains these words:

With a grille for the spooky smoke to drift through?

[Helen Deborah Vecht]

PJ typed

Plants don't go mad, even if they bolt or become etiolated.

I would go MAD!

(Well, madder than I am already...)

[nafuk]

You may be able to insert a sunpipe (varoius othere names also) which a wide pipe from the roof to the bedroom ceiling. It's silvered etc. with the roof end ending in a rooflight. Can also get them with internal lights and extracter fans.

or, is it possible to put avelux low down above the bedroom.

Owa> > So if you saw a (nice) property where the second bedroom

[The Natural Philosopher]

There are definitely fire escape issues. All habitable rooms - living kitchen bedrooms - need an ALTERNATIVE way to get out in case of fire..99% of the time thats an opening window of generous dimesnions.

In some cases I think that if you have enough doors and ways out and fire alarms, it becomes acceptable.

However the cost of getting approval, and the likely neglibible value on the resale value of the property if such steps were taken, really says to me its time to spend the money on a new house ...

[Fitz]

I had a bedroom in a basement once with no external light. It was absolutely perfect as a bedroom. It was extremely quiet, utterly dark and a constant cool temperature. I had the best sleep of my life in that bedroom.

I've since learned that maybe there should have been more than a single door for escape purposes, but I managed not to die in a house fire whilst I was there so everything turned out ok.

Without the benefits of the constant temp of being underground I personally wouldn't like to have a bedroom with no external light source.

[meow2222]

sounds like a 1 bed house to me. A bedroom with no window is unpleasant, unhealthy, not legally a bedroom, and a fire risk. Would I consider it? No, not in 2006.

NT

[tim]

If it isn't going to be a bedroom it becomes an office. It would work well as that even with the corridor.

tim

[tim]

This is what I am doing. There are some one beds in my pile at a similar price but I put them in the no box because they are too small.

Ah, this isn't a point that I had considered when thinking about how one end could be blocked off. A corrior it will remain then.

Anyone with any sense would have put the kitchen there in the first place. The fact that it isn't must suggest a plumbing issue.

This use for it is simple, but it doesn't create the second bedroom that a property of the price requires for it to sell easily.

tim

[tim]

it has four floors above it.

tim

[tim]

It has all of the above.

tim

[Mary Fisher]

I wouldn't mind being etiolated ...

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

Those lights are excellent!

Mary