To buy or not to buy - that is the question!

[Namechangeforapropertythread]

I'm thinking of buying a house but its a bit complicated so I thought I'd ask strangers on the internet wise mumsnet people for some thoughts.

Current house - 3 bed ex HA, end terrace. Tiny 3rd room (currently study) and very small 2nd room (pre-schooler and baby sharing but not really feasible long term, only room for one wardrobe and no toys!). Small lounge but nice and light, kitchen-diner which has room for table, quite like it, patio doors to garden. Nice enough area for families, very "mixed", very nice first school but bit downhill after that.

Potential house - looks nice, around corner from a family member (blessing and a curse!) and walking distance of a good primary school. Lounge is bigger than here but not huge, very nice kitchen BUT its a long-thin type one so no room to sit in, but a separate extension (proper one, not conservatory and done very nicely - gable with skylight) with a table in it that has double doors to the lounge and single doorway into the kitchen.
First floor - 2 double bedrooms, so room for the children to iniitally share (and have a wardrobe, toys etc!) and a study (not big enough for a single bed! "cot room".) However it also has a big converted loft that would be great for a child once they get a bit bigger, and wonderful for hiding away as a teenager, sleepovers etc. Good sized garden, nothing special but space to run around in etc.

We've been to look around it and really like it, it has a woodburner, bay windows, and has much more character than our current house. However I've got last minute nerves before offering...

• Will I regret not having a kitchen-diner again or maybe only while they are this small? presumably a shut-off-able dining room is nice when we get back to entertaining again and if they want to sit and work etc. But at the moment I faff in the kitchen while they sit at the table. (However realistically in our budget and location we wont get everything we want - its ace location wise and space wise to get 2 3 double bedrooms albeit one in the loft!)
  
  
• Its part of a chain that has fallen through so it will all go very very quickly if we say yes. Agent will sell our house for more than we thought we would get, and reduce his fees (obviously a lot in it for him as he wants to keep the sale of the other house and get double commision - ours is a desireable first time buyer type house so he thinks he can sell in a couple of weeks!). However we will need an equity loan for a few months until mortgage renewal. Dad siad he'd help out with this if we're sure its the "right" house so we don't lose out. Plus side of this is we don't need to get the house more "ready" and its all going to go through quickly..
  
  I think we want it... its just all so much money and I'm not good at big decisions!!!

[Namechangeforapropertythread]

Meant to say we need the "study" space as DH works from home, so we could get bigger properties for the price but not with a study space.

[mumat39]

Hello.

Sounds like both houses are great.
With the new house, would there be any option at a later date to open out the kitchen so that you could for an eating area in?

The affine in the kitchen while the kids are at the table is a tricky one. But as they get older they'll be more independent of you around the house so if there is a door from the kitchen to the extension then, could that door be opened up to a double door to make the rooms more connected.

The new house sounds more future proof if that makes sense. If the bedrooms you have now are already too small then maybe that's the thing to consider.

To have an extension and still a good sized grades sounds great, so it sounds like you'd be getting much more floor space overall.

I'm always worrying about what we might need in the future, so personally if you're going to have to move at some point and you've found a house you love with a good school in walking distance, it might be less stressful in he long run.

Good schools close by are like gold dust, although the catchment areas in a lot of areas change every year, so as long as you're in the catchment and would have been for the last few years, then that sounds promising.

I'm not sure if this is helpful, ESP as your current house does sound lovely, but maybe it is time to move on while your dc are still young.

Re the bridging loan, have you asked your mortgage company about whether your current mortgage is portable? If it is, then you could take that with you and get a new mortgage with the same provider. We had to dothat once and it worked well and was cheaper than a bridging loan.

Also, see if you can negotiate an even better deal with your estate agents as they're not having to do too much extra work to rescue the original chain.

Good luck with your decision. Let us know how you get on. :)

[mumat39]

Affine =being, as in being in the kitchen. Stupid spellchecking drives me mad! Sorry.

[mumat39]

Grades = garden

[mumat39]

I meant new mortgage for the difference from the same provider.

Sorry

[Namechangeforapropertythread]

Decided to go for it but a lot depends on whether agent can actually sell ours in time as he thinks he can!

[steppemum]

I really, really like my table in kitchen, my youngest is 4 and whe I imagine eating breakfast in the dining room, with no kitchen table, that is definitely a problem.

But - is there a breakfast bar? Could you loose one /two under the counter cupboards and add a couple of stools to create a breakfast bar?
Could you fit in a fold down table on one wall?
How accessible really is the dining room table? How easy would it be to open up the wall between so it was a half open dining room instead of closed off?
Could you re-organise the space? (put kitchen where dining room is, swap lounge and dining room etc?
How realistic is any of that in your budget?

Or - do you eat breakfast in lounge in front of telly, so this doesn't matter?

New house sounds lovely apart from that, more space really is lovely!!

[Namechangeforapropertythread]

Hmm making me think again! It is the big downside of the house. We never eat in front of tv (well, apart from my chocolate and crisps late at night). Its extended so there is a long lounge with double doors through to dining room. The kitchen is sort of parallel to this so a door into it from lounge and also from dining room (I think its a wide doorway as opposed to having a door in it). Husband thinks we can still stand at a surface and 'do' or make coffee and stil be visible/heard etc that end but its not quite the same thing.

However the houses in our price range with more space are 3 bed with a box room and we need space to work from home. And I'd like the girls to have a room each

We could stay in cheaper area . . . But we'd lose some family support, walking distance of town and slightly better school. All feed into same pool of secondarys though.

Really hard. I could give you my ideal list but wouldn't fit budget!!

[Namechangeforapropertythread]

I think long term if we ever had more money there would be room to extend the kitchen so it matched the dining room. Perhaps. But we are really stretching to get this mortgage.

[mumat39]

It's so tricky isn't it.

I wouldn't live in the house we're in right now but it's more practical than the lat we were in before.

We're the same. Already stretched ourselves to buy where we live now. It wasn't ideal when we moved, but it's flexible so we went for it. We managed to make some changes and it works well now.

I think if I put together my wish list, we also couldn't afford to move to our ideal house either.

Could you fit in a small kiddies table and chairs where you're dc cold sit while you're doing whatever in the kitchen?

Also, family support is so important. I don't have any because we live too far away. My sister on the other hand is around the corner from my mum and dad and they have been amazing with my nephew. For example there was inset day yesterday and my sister was under pressure artwork so couldn't take the day off, so my nephew stayed the night with my mum and dad, and then spent the day there yesterday. It's brilliant for them all.

Where you live now, could you extend that o make I bigger? And then maybe 'make do' with the schools you get, and supplement your DD's learning yourself, or with a tutor?

Sorry for my rambled messages. I feel for you. It sounds tricky and. Really hope whichever way you go that it works out for the best.

Take care
Xxx