Help me choose between 3 houses

[Flamingoose]

We're renting. Can't afford to buy.
Not in UK (not sure if that makes a difference)

House 1:
Main advantage: We already live in it. We're comfortable. It's big enough for all our stuff. Kids activities are all nearby.
Disadvantages: Old, cold, damp, dark, shit school zone, dangerous electrics (already caused one fire), 2 bedrooms downstairs kids refuse to sleep in them, no storage.

House 2:
Advantages: Great location, on a good bus route, walk to the shops, good school zone, walk to high school next year for eldest, bedrooms all upstairs, no garden to maintain.
Disadvantages: at the bottom of a hill, dark and closed in by big damp trees, damp, driveway so insanely steep I don't know how we'd take the bins out, no garden to play in.

House 3:

Advantages: Warm and dry, light, 4 big bedrooms, nice garden, masses of storage, good school zone.
Disadvantages: marooned in suburbia, a drive to everything.

House 4...? Keep looking...?

It just seems that overscheduling might be the issue here rather than the house... just a thought!

Might there be any other parents on the swim team you can lift share with?

Any chance of the older one taking themselves some places on a bike?

Your main problem here seems to be you doing a very large workload of running around mainly on your own, so that's what I'd try to change.

Can your DH ask for flexible hours to do more? If the swimmers are doing morning and evening training, one of you needs to do the mornings and one do the evenings, or make this arrangement with the parent(s) of others on the team.

House 3

Lift sharing sounds like a good idea

Need to leave a house that's a known fire risk, so option 3 immediately while keeping am eure out for option 4.

3

House 3 is the best option, I wouldn’t consider either of the others. If you’ve got the right House then having to drive is less important.

3

House 3. Can they cycle to activities?

Is it the busy road or the dark & damp that puts you all off House 2?

Both

But especially the dark and damp

That would make me depressed

3 obviously.

House 2. You'll get fit dragging those bins up the hill once a week.
House 3 is my idea of hell.

Is there a good bus route on house 3 that kids can start to use when they are old enough?

House 3 or keep looking.

We live in a really, really tall house but with quite a short front garden that backs onto a neighbours back garden.

There were, until recently when new people moved in, a row of sycamores at the end of the neighbours gardens. They were at least 60 feet high. From the time they leafed to late autumn we looked at a wall of dark green leaves. They leeched all the light and were so oppressive.

They've just been pollarded and the difference is IMMENSE. I love throwing open the curtains, and the light in our house has improved so much I need to get the sitting room redecorated.

Do kids ride bikes, can't they take themselves some places?
Get they want to stay with activities but start new ones locally and see if alternatives for others