Katy and I went to see a house for sale in Hinxton last night. It used to be the servant quarters of a big manor house. It had a lovely enclosed garden, beautiful hardwood floors, exposed beams everywhere, a live flame gas fireplace, hand-build maple kitchen. All in all, it was decorated to a beautiful standard and the only thing that stopped us from making an offer on the spot was that it wouldn't have been liveable.
The kitchen, though beautiful, was too small. There wouldn't have been room for the dishwasher nor the fridge we just bought. The stairwell to get upstairs would have killed us at one point. There was an oak beam at eye level that I would have brained myself on a few dozen times and the stairs were narrow and uneven. The upstairs was as lovely as the rest of the house, but if the bathroom door was open, you couldn't get in or out of the guest bedroom.
So yeah. Disappointing. It was beautiful, but it wouldn't have been practical.