Would this put you off buying this house?

[HeadFairy]

We saw a house today which we really like but for one problem.

The house itself is one half of a much larger Victorian house. It has lovely fireplaces, beautful stained glass windows in the hall, two massive reception rooms and a really big family room next to the kitchen which we could eventually knock through, plus a conservatory.

The problem is with the upstairs, there are two flights of stairs, on the one staircase you have bedrooms one and two (huge) and a toilet. Up the second staircase is bedroom three (a really good sized double) and the bathroom. You can walk through bedroom two in to bedroom three and access the bathroom that way, otherwise if you are in bedroom one or two and you want to go to the bathroom (without going through bedroom 3), you have to go down one staircase and back up the other one.

We're trying to figure out a way of extending the toilet between bedroom one and two to make a shower room, but we may have to wait a year for that so we can raise some money to do it. In the mean time we'd have to live with that slightly odd layout.

Everything else in the house is lovely. The decor's a bit old lady, but nothing a coat of paint won't fix, and there are three excellent (Ofsted scores all in the 1s or 2s) really close by so we'd be in the catchment area for all three. Good for commuting, the station is about 15 min walk away.

Do you think you could live with the odd layout until you had the money to fix it, or would it totally put you off?

[expatinscotland]

I'd go for it.

[simpson]

wouldn't put me off either.

Go for it if you like it

[CarGirl]

as long as there are good ways to resolve it longer term, go for it.

[HeadFairy]

Would you really? See I could put up with the layout, dh is concerned. we could always put the dcs (well ds at first, dc2 isnt' due until Dec) in bedroom 2, then would could in theory tiptoe through his bedroom to use the bathroom (but why would we at night? we have a loo on our side of the house) and go through bedroom three which is only a guest room and not occupied that often.

But dh is really put off with that. I think I just fell in love with the fireplaces and didn't see beyond them!

[EdwardBitMe]

Go for it.
Lots of positives, and just a quirky "negative".
It's called character!

[EldonAve]

It would totally put me off as it would be a hassle to sort
Would you want to get rid of one staircase?

[goldenpeach]

That's a really unusual layout. Can you post photos when you've bought it?

[Owls]

Sounds fine to me. In fact we lived in then sold a house with a similar layout a few years ago. No problem with it at all if everything else ticks all the boxes.

[EldonAve]

also bear in mind if you don't fix it then it may affect the resale value

[CarGirl]

a floor plan would be good.

[HeadFairy]

Eldon, if we got rid of one staircase then you would only be able to access the bathroom by walking through bedrooms 2 and 3. By keeping it we can at least go downstairs and back up the other stairs if we don't want to walk through beds 2 and 3.

There's no floor plan on the property details which would really help me. If you look at the exterior front pictures, you can kind of get the impression, all the rooms are in one line upstairs.

[HeadFairy]

Oh and yes, the decor is very old lady, but as I said, easily fixable.

[CarGirl]

It's lovely, I think you'd get to used to it, and it's part of its charm IYSWIM. Are all the bedroom twin aspect though?

[goldenpeach]

It is lovely and the colours are not too bad, we saw worse old lady styles!

[EldonAve]

Agree decor is fixable but the layout not so easy

Is it cheap compared to similar sized stuff locally?
How small is the kitchen? I see they suggest you have your washing machine in what was the outside loo

[expatinscotland]

Ooo, I likey!!! I'd go for it.

[moomaa]

Wouldn't put me off if you can fix in the longer term.

[HeadFairy]

sorry, got distracted by ds waking up...

cargirl, no only bedroom one is double aspect... all the others face the front.

Eldon, it's not massively cheap and a lot depends on how much we can negotiate with the owner. She has found somewhere she wants to move in to and doesn't want to be in such a large place so she might be in a position to take a good offer.

We saw another house in the same road for similar money, which was immaculate, but it was tall and narrow, two rooms on each floor, and I think we'd outgrow it pretty quickly. This house feels more like a family home you could grow in to.

We were thinking of either converting one of the cellar rooms in to a laundry room, or knocking the family room and the kitchen together to give a much bigger kitchen.

[slackrunner]

I like it - you can easily see the potential. Go for it!