The houses in our new neighbourhood are clones of one basic design: an L-shaped single-story structure with a fenced yard inside the angle of the L. The main entrance (1) is on one of the L's outer long walls. The grubby-boots entrance (2) is on the gable adjoining the wall with entrance 1. Finally, there's an entrance from the yard (3) which in many cases is fitted to be unlocked only from the inside: it's how the architect intended us to reach the yard from inside the house.
Our particular specimen of this design only has entrance 3, combining the functions of all three entrances from the original design. The house is sited in such a way that an entrance at 1 would have been inconvenient. Nor does there appear ever to have been an entrance A from that side of the house into the passage along that gable to the yard. We used to have an entrance 2, but the previous owner had it bricked up and instead installed a really glitzy bathroom in that corner of the building. So our house has kind of a strange layout: you have to enter the yard by the garden gate (B), and you have to enter the house right next to our dinner table (3). Then you have to cross the dining room to reach the coat hanger and the nearest toilet.
But I like to think that this freakish layout actually fits well at least with my own personality. When you enter my house for the first time, you will feel warmly welcomed into the heart of the place, and you will at the same time be a bit disorientated by its strangeness.
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That's very useful information.
Thanks ;)
PS
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7807920…
Very strange to have a house with only a single exterior doorway. I'd be doing some thinking about emergency fire exits, possibly including rope or chain ladders to drop from upstairs windows.
How interesting! I know about a dozen people who have tried to prevent people from entering the normal front door of their homes and get them to come instead to a similar internal-like door, through the garage usually, or around the side. It rarely works with strangers, who never see the alternative entrance from the street, and it always annoys the inhabitants no end that these strangers don't know about the secret entrance. But they never put up a sign or anything to say "Don't come in here" or "go around back" or anything. Do you have little arrows outside to direct traffic to your door? Or do people just have to guess and keep wandering till they hit on it?
Local Burglar: to glean this info, all you need to do is take a walk around our house.
Jake: it's a single-story building.
Diana: the missing doors are not actually there to be mistaken for the real thing. Visitors do however tend to have some trouble getting through our garden gate B, as it has swelled and easily gets jammed.