Downton Gabby

It seems like in all the UK there are very, very few bungalows / one storey homes. I have a bit of a knee issue and really don't want to be climbing stairs much if I can avoid it. How does everyone deal with all the stairs?
I know this probably sounds like a dumb question, but there it is.

Pollyana

Stairlifts, or go up and down on your backside - thats what my mum is doing while she surveys whether to get a lift or not! She also keeps a stepped basket on the stairs to make sure she can carry as much as possible up and down at one time (Amazon do them)
If you live in a seaside town, many of those always seemed to have a larger percentage of bungalows, and quite a few estates back in the 70s were built with them in some areas.

Downton Gabby

That poor woman! I imagine there's a big market for those lifts over there. I was just looking at rentals in one UK town and out of 255 there were TWO bungalows.

You may know that here in the US, a bungalow is different. I grew up in a bungalow with a main floor, basement, and attic.One storey homes are ranch homes. That's what I want. Looks like I'm going to have a hard time finding that over there....

SanDiegogirl

There are plenty of single story bungalow homes - whole areas of smaller towns/villages are single storey.

Novocastrian

Plus vast numbers of apartments serviced by elevators.

Lion in Winter

Try casting your net a bit wider. For example, I just did a search on RightMove for bungalows to rent only with the area being "Cambridgeshire +40 miles" and got 761 bungalows.

That way you will get everything in a certain area - if you just put in a certain town you may miss out on lots of houses that are only a couple of miles from a town's centre yet are not officially in that town. Many UK towns contain other small, old towns and villages that got " eaten up".

durham_lad

The town we live in has a large number of bungalows and our son will be looking to buy one later this year. My parents and my wife's parents did what many older folks do rather than move is to put in a stair lift. They also put in a downstairs toilet.

When we bought our house earlier this year we bought a 2 storey house that has a full bathroom downstairs knowing that we can eventually put in a stair lift later in life.

Pollyana

Yep, as others are saying single storey bungalows aren't that rare in the UK, you should be able to find one relatively easily.

verystormy

Be careful of how you do your searches as it can skew to city centre areas, which often will be mainly two story.


For example, if I search for Middlesrough - my old home town and where my father lives, it doesn't include the area where he lives and where there are lots of bungalows even though he is only a 15 minute drive to the town centre.

petitefrancaise

I'd get the knee issue sorted out.

Pollyana

Not always that simple. I'm waiting to transfer from a first floor to a ground floor flat because of knee and feet issues - rheumatoid arthritis, nothing anyone can do about it.

petitefrancaise

sorry to hear that Pollyanna. I didn't mean to be glib,not at all. I just know from my own experience that I am prone to put off going to the docs.

Hope the move goes well. xx