Moving house soon, what should I look for?

[KindergartenKop]

I'm moving house soon. Due to ridiculous property prices we can't afford exactly what I want (big house and garden!). Which would you prioritise? My kids are 6 and 8. Hopefully we will stay here until they leave home so do you have any ideas about things that are great for teenagers which I wouldn't think of with primary school aged kids? Thanks :)

Bump?

What do you mean?
Things in a house that’s great for teenagers or things around a house?

Things that are great for teenagers!?

You mean, like local amenities being close by and good public transport?, or things like big bedrooms are a plus because teenagers spend all their time in them?

Your op is a bit confusing

Things like the layout. Anything I should avoid or seek out? I'm set on a location so that's not an issue.

Sorry, it's not very clear!

Separate room downstairs. So not too open living. We put the wall back in between lounge and dining room in a terrace Victorian so the teenagers had a place to see friends.

The layout of a house?
I would just be making sure they have a decent size bedroom.

Bedrooms on a different floor, more than one bathroom, a decent bus stop and or train station nearby. Some kind of decent cool things to do like a small city or big town not too far away and the ability to get a decent Saturday job. I grew up in an idyllic village with no bus service. I hated it as a teenager it was so uncool. And restricting on life to have to get a lift from my parents for absolutely everything. Stunted my confidence and independence.

If you had to choose between a big house or a big garden which would you prioritise with kids aged 6 and 8?

Bigger house

Big house every time.

A playroom which can become a teenage social/TV/gaming space, not everything knocked through, parking (off or on street) could potentially have 4 cars at some point plus boyfriend/girlfriend cars visiting. When DB and I both still lived at home as late teens/young adults, my parents had a double drive you could also park across and also lived on a green that had visitor parking down one side but there were sometimes six cars at the house!

And definitely bigger house as long as you have some kind of garden space

Oh and definitely more than one bathroom even if one is just a shower room

If you mean size of house versus size of garden I'd go for a bigger house and smaller garden over the other way round. In winter you won't be in the garden much or if it's raining. And there's always the local park/green space for summer. Teens will want their own rooms so smaller room to themselves is better than a space that's bigger overall but has to be shared. If you're not within walking distance of the town then near a bus stop or train station so you don't end up taxiing teens around everywhere all the time.

A separate room, either a second lounge/snug or a spare bedroom is really helpful. We converted our garage and it's been great and pretty soundproof!

Bigger house. They’ve all buggered off now and we’ve bought a house with a big garden....

Bigger garden for me please as long as every child gets a good bedroom and there's decent living space. Mostly necause I like gardening and would enjoy it better extension potential too. Location would be most important though!

@KindergartenKop

If you had to choose between a big house or a big garden which would you prioritise with kids aged 6 and 8?

Definitely a bigger house - you can make use of open space away from the house (parks etc), apart from an extension there's not much you can do if your house isn't big enough IYSWIM. Def if you have the funds to do it, go for the bigger house

This is helpful, thanks. We are in outer London so public transport is great. We currently have a tiny 9 x 4m garden and they love playing there in the summer so I'd love more space outside. However, fast forward 7 years and the kids will probably be festering in their bedrooms all year round and I worry I'll regret prioritising garden size!

@KindergartenKop

This is helpful, thanks. We are in outer London so public transport is great. We currently have a tiny 9 x 4m garden and they love playing there in the summer so I'd love more space outside. However, fast forward 7 years and the kids will probably be festering in their bedrooms all year round and I worry I'll regret prioritising garden size!

You could get a bigger garden then add a summer house when the children are older, if you wanted?

Definitely the more space/rooms the better with teens, but I suppose it depends if you want to encourage them to have mates round, I've always liked having DS's friends round and pre Covid used to have a few every Friday night (miss it!), but I know some wouldn't want to encourage it!

My dc are teens and other than last summer when there was little else to do they rarely go in the garden. As another poster said a bigger garden could be good for a summerhouse if not. We are very lucky in that we had a playroom which is now a second tv room/PlayStation room. They spend all their time in their bedrooms or in there. You will be grateful for more indoor space when they have their giant friends round, leaving their huge shoes all over your hall

In lockdown ds1 has gone from a size 1 shoe to a size 3 so I'm already feeling the massive shoe pain!

Thanks for the advice 😊