To move or not to move.. please talk sense into me

I would move purely because of the location of your current house and the concern it may become less liveable and sellable in future.

Move

I think the most concerning thing is the aggregate company and the dust. There are laws where dust is concerned. I would be getting on to the council. There needs to be dust monitors installed as it sounds like they are doing nothing to quell the dust. I work in construction and noise and dust monitoring is a very big part of companies responsibilities. By law. All this would have to be disclosed if you moved, but a buyer is highly unlikely given these circumstances. Your families health is the most important thing here. Get on to the council, they are very strict on dust pollution. All this needs sorting before you can even think of moving.

I'd move. Your house will be hard to sell at the moment but even harder as the plant expands and I wouldn't want my kids breathing in all that dust.

I think id move in this instance.

I’d move because of the aggregates co and how the area around you is changing, but I’d expect it to be tough to find a buyer. Good luck!

I’m with those that have said move, but not necessarily to the house you’ve viewed. You’ve said that moving within your current area to a larger property would cost £100k+. Can you not move to a similarly sized property and convert the garage into a bedroom or get a loft conversion? Either of which would be cheaper than £100k.

I think looking to move is a good idea but I don't think this house you've seen is a good fit. As a PP said, you don't sound like you really like it that much.

Also, if your mum's health was to decline it and you needed to increase visits then that would become a very time consuming task. We all hope that it won't happen, but realistically it can and does happen, and quite unexpectedly sometimes, and you can't necessarily rely on external care for everything. It's just something to think about.

I think realistically you would also be wanting to form friendships and sort emergency childcare or pet feeding reciprocally as that is a long way to go last minute or for a quick pop in. She may not mind very occasionally or as a house sitting arrangement but it's kind of their call.

This said, lots of people don't live 5 mins away from elderly relatives but they also may not see much of them.

I'd move, I think the downsides are minimal compared to the advantages tbh

This is a very personal response because I’m having a few dilemmas at the moment concerning expectations of me as a Mum and Grandma.

If you move 40 minutes away from your Mum, please don’t expect that she can offer childcare or pet sitting / walking without it being 80 minutes out of her day before the work / favour / labour begins. It’s quite the asking when you think about taking 80 minutes out of your day (without a traffic jam / lights etc) on top of the favour you’re asking. Fuel is expensive so if you ask her for anything that involves being at your house you are asking her to pay £7 ish in fuel before any sort of consideration on her time etc. She may be more than happy with this and be able to afford it but if she doesn’t offer when you say you need childcare / pet care then please don’t ask because having to say no can lead to some resentment. This is of course your choice and only you know how much of an impact this would will have on your Mum but often us Mums / Grandma’s seem expected to be okay with any requests even when most people would not be okay with taking so much time out of their day to help.

Because you don’t like it! You are plumping for it because it’s the only thing available currently that you can afford. You don’t want to move areas, you don’t want to move your kids, you don’t want a longer commute and you don’t want to take on a house project.

The market is shocking at the moment but you should keep looking for something you feel excited about.

If the knotweed spreads to your property, or even near to it, you won't be able to sell. So the pragmatic thing might be to get moved soon, in case it isn't dealt with.

Absolutely move. You’re always better off having the shitest house on a nice street rather than the nicest house on a shit street.
If it’s not the aggregates company it’ll be more industrial units or a data centre. It just doesn’t sound like an appealing area and likely some company will put in PP and the ’benefits’ this would bring would outweigh the negatives to the local community there.

I would move. As others have said you will find it much harder to sell down the line if the company buys that land. Unless your children are doing exams, or have special needs, they will adapt very quickly to a new school. And once you are in the new place, can you live with it as if is and do it up bit by bit?

You should move but not to that house.

Before I read the whole thread I was thinking the obvious answer is a garage conversion and an extension over the garage to create another bedroom and bathroom but it’s not just the size that is bothering you.

Could you stretch to the £100k more house? It might be worth a few years of pain for long term gain particularly if you are expecting pay rises in the future.

Definitely move. Might already be difficult to sell but will only get more difficult with what you describe.
Unfortunate that your oldest has just started secondary school. It will be difficult for them to move schools now, but probably only get more difficult as they settle in and cement friendships.
Good luck

I don't know what happened to the rest of my comment! 😂
40 minutes really isn't long for a commute and it's not long enough to prevent you seeing your mother once a week at least. As far as pet sitting and emergency child care goes, many many many people don't live anywhere near family. They manage because they have to.

Knotweed doesn't stay in one place. If it's in a field next to you, it won't just skirt politely around your fences. It grows fast. Who does the field belong to at the moment? Legally, they can have it on their land but must not allow it to spread beyond their boundary. It's virtually impossible to stop it spreading without properly being dealt with by experts. It doesn't sound as if that's going to happen so that alone would be a reason to move.

 40 minutes really isn't long as a commute and definitely not far enough to not continue visiting your Mum once a week. As for pet sitting and emergency childcare -  many, many, many people don't live anywhere near their families. They find ways of coping because they have to.

Another plus for the moving plan.
Looks more and more attractive.

Move

How does the current house and the new one compare for local communities - shops, schools, transport in walking distance etc. as your kids get to be teenagers, walking to school or a bus stop is much much better than needing a mum-taxi.

how old are the kids? It is much harder to move after the start secondary because it disrupts friendships and GCSEs etc too much. Ideally you’d move in the summer before secondary for the eldest which fits a natural break.

finally, if you market your house now it could take 6 months to sell so don’t aim for just one possible house to buy. There need to be a few options.