To those people who would consider buying a 4 bedroom house

[jayne10b]

Would you still consider it if it had no garage?

We have a largish 3 bed detached house with double garage. We are thinking of converting the huge double garage into the mother of all kitchens with dining space and chill out zone. Separately we have an option to extend for a fourth ensuite bedroom upstairs.

There would be alternative storage space so this isn't an issue, but just wondering if this would make you dismiss this house straigth away.

There is parking for 2 if not 3 cars on our drive.

What do you think? We wouldn't really want to convert just half the garage as we would completely loose the wow factor.

So four bedroom house with mother of all kitchens and no garage or,

four bedroom house with ok kitchen and garage.

[rubyslippers]

Lack of a garage wouldnt bother me as long as there was off street parking - which there is

[Beamur]

I live in a 4 bedroom house, no garage, but there is off street parking for 2 cars.
Is there access to the rear of your house - I'm thinking storage for bikes etc and easy access out?

[PositiveAttitude]

Ours is a 5 bedroom house with no garage. No problem.

[elliott]

I've never had a garage - most urban Victorian housing doesn't, and some of it is very large! I think if you live in a city then that is what you come to expect.

[Carrotsandcelery]

If you had room for a really good,decent, secure shed for bikes, lawnmower, golf clubs and such like it wouldn't bother me at all. We have a double garage which is just a glorified shed just now.
An amazing kitchen would attract my attention far more than a garage.
Have you asked local estate agents their opinion and how it would be likely to affect house prices. eg what value a garage adds versus what value a lovely huge kitchen adds? They might be able to advise.
Off street parking would be essential to me though, but if you can convert without comprimising that then it is more appealing.

[silverfrog]

hmm. not sure.

when you say storage elsewhere - what kind, and how big (and how far form the house)?

we would look at a 4 bed house. driveway space is tops ofr us - neither of our cars ever gets put in the garage (too full of crap!)

but the garage does have a load of other stuff in - useful car stuff (extra screenwash, all the luggage compartment bits and pieces, tyre prssure gauge, heavy duty jack, the extra seats from our MPV if we ever take them out) as well as all the bike stuff - we have a cargo bike, as well as a SN trailer (large!) and obviously that needs to be stored somewhere convenient to get out onto the road easily)

so, a lack of garage woudl not bother me wrt car storage, but it would if the alternative storage was not as convenient as a garage location wise, iyswim?

mother of all kitchens a bonus, as well as the layout works ok, and isn't just bunged off to one side, like an afterthought.

[eviscerateyourmemory]

If you have off-street parking then I would prefer a mega-kitchen and no garage.

[elliott]

Plus I don't know anyone who actually uses their garage to put their car in - they are usually full of crap bicycles/paints/surfboards etc etc. Most garages with older houses are too small for modern cars anyway!

[hester]

I would much rather buy your house with a humungous kitchen and no garage.

[elliott]

Sorry and golfclubs

[alarkaspree]

Most people who have a garage don't actually keep their cars in it do they? They just fill it with junk.

So a nice kitchen is far more useful if, as Reality says, there is somewhere else for the junk.

[MargaretGraceBondfield]

Off street parking? check. Definitely a mother of all kitchens!!

[hatesponge]

Agree provided there is off street parking, lack of garage is not a problem. We live in a 5 bed house with a big driveway but no garage.

Thinking back to when we bought this house, the only ones we ruled out immediately were those without garage or OSP - and most didn't have garages as I recall.

[scotlass]

I have to be honest that the lack of garage was one of the things that put us off buying one house we viewed. However if you saw the kit we have in our garage you'd understand (DH is a keen cyclist so has numerous bikes and bike bits)


If there was room for a very large shed in the garden we'd have overlooked the no garage I think

[cece]

I would like the kitchen. DH on the other hand would insist on a garage....

[lal123]

As folk have said as long as there was somewhere to put all the garage crap and there was off street parking then lack of a garage wouldn't put me off.

My MIL is the only person I know who uses her garage for her car - her garage is immaculate, no crap in it at all. Her car is ALWAYS in the garage - she insists that it keeps the car in better condition. However, this is the same woman who keeps her iron in the box it came in, in the wee plastic bag it came in, tied with the same wee tie it came with.....

[Northernlurker]

Some people will always want a garage but most woiuld be hapy with outside storage. I think you just need to show how that can be done.

[QuintessentialShadows]

It depends.
Is it an end of terrace, or a detached house? Midterrace or townhouse?

I would not put a shed at the front of the house, no matter how big the drive. I would want to store bikes and motorbike either in a garage, or in a shed in the backgarden, but I would not want to drag it through the house.

This is why this house

is my dream house, and not this, even if it has a larger downstairs entertainment space.

[futurity]

Can I just borrow your thread Jayne to add a question as the whole garage conversion thing into a kitchen is something we are considering.

I am wondering whether people really would mind having to go round the back and potentially go to the back of the garden to get bikes out and then trail them across the garden and up the side passage?

We are really considering converting our garage to make the kitchen bigger but are concerned about the reality of the above regarding bikes and also having a larger than average shed in the garden so would be keen to hear thoughts.

Sorry for the interruption but I hope it will be relevant for you as well! :)

[Fiddledee]

Do the rest of the houses in your area tend to have garages? Recently viewed a house that had a massive kitchen conversion of a garage, it didn't seem in keeping with the rest of the house and I really love kitchens/family rooms - it just didn't work. Thinking about it I saw a second which had done the same but was a bit better done.

There was a small space reserved to put some junk in both but not enough to cope with 4 bikes, stuff but over 90% of the houses we are viewing have garages. Where we live now very few houses have a garage and off street parking on its own would be a huge plus.

If you do the extension make sure you have a very big utility/boot room.

[bumpybecky]

we've got a 4 bed with garage and are looking to move areas and buy another 4 bed with garage

not having a garage is not an option for us

[Bunbaker]

Every house we have lived in that had a garage was used to put a car in. It reduces car insurance premiums and makes it more difficult for someone to nick it. Where we live now we only have room to put one car on the drive. The other car goes into the garage. Our last house had no garage and we vowed never to buy a house without a garage again.

[traceybath]

Depends on the house.

We're in the process of buying a 4 bed house in a village and a garage was pretty important as DH has several v expensive bikes that need to be securely stored along with all the stuff that goes with them.

If you had a small outbuilding/secure large shed than that would be ok.

Do agree though that in town I suspect not such a priority.

But unless you're doing up the house to sell - well its your home so do what works best for you as a family.

QS - small hijack but I know you were looking at mortgages and how much you could borrow - well we've just got a very good deal from the Abbey via a brilliant broker so there still are some good deals out there.

[Ormirian]

I'd buy it as it has off-street parking. But is there room in the garden to build a shed for storage ? - we have 2 big garages at the moment and we use them for everything but cars. We are planning to convert one to a chill-out room for the children.