Location vs house size

[Pickingmyselfup]

What would you prefer?

You live in a house that is adequate for your needs, could be made a bit bigger downstairs, you could lay it out in a way that suits you and increase the value by what you spend on it. The bedrooms are ok, master bedroom could do with being a bit bigger but you do have a lot of stuff. It's in a nice area, only one detached neighbour because of the small kids park on the other side of the house.

A bigger house in your budget (but still costing a lot more than the extension on your current house) but it's on a less desirable estate. The crime stats for that estate are a bit higher and it would be further to walk to the pub, the shop, river, school by about 5-10 minutes depending on how far into the estate you go. The nicer estate is on the river and it's smaller so it feels friendlier but house prices are higher.

You don't need a bigger house but it would be a nice to have. You would likely still have to make compromises and potentially have to do work on the house that you have already done to your current house.

Or you could do both but long term. Extend short term, enjoy living in the new space whilst keeping your eye out for the perfect house that ticks both location, size and budget. It could take a while but is it better than moving to somewhere that isn't as nice asap just because it's bigger.

You have a nice house in a nice area / be happy with it. Enjoy it.

save the money for a pension or a holiday or weekend breaks. Or a skip to clear out some junk.

Location every time. We moved to a house that didn't quite fit our needs but was within budget, it's on a lovely street in a lovely area, walking distance to a great primary school and secondary school. We are a few minutes from nice walks, my son can walk to the local cinema, swimming, McDonald's etc. The location fits us 100%
The house needed some work to make it right for us, including an extension. We've been here for 11 years now, all the work to the house has been done, we still love where we are and have no need or desire to move. We've also added a lot to the value of the house.

Location, without a doubt.

Location…every time.

We are in the process of redoing our bathrooms etc and I'm the one pushing for an extension because I want a kitchen diner as opposed to a lounge diner and a small utility to store the washing. I like the area and the house and although I would happily move to a bigger one on the same estate if we could afford it I don't want to have to move to the less nice estate unless it really was the dream house (unlikely given what I want and our budget!)

My husband always had a vision of moving to a bigger house with a double garage but given our income and the house prices it will never be possible. We only ever have family to stay for childcare reasons in which case the kids get shuffled about. If we had a spare room it would get used to store the washing but that's where a utility room comes in. We would lose garden space but there seems to be a consensus that there would still be adequate space for small kids/adults and the park kind of acts as a garden because it has the play area for smaller kids and when they are bigger they can go play in it whilst you keep half an eye on them. So if we did decide to sell I think it would be sellable, we don't need the garden now the kids are bigger, I want somewhere to eat, somewhere to lounge, somewhere to sunbathe and somewhere to store my herbs, a smaller garden ticks all of those boxes.

I don't want to have to move to a house that is already really expensive and have to start spending money which we won't have because we spent it all on buying the house.

Location everytime !

I would stay where you are and extend OP if you can afford it. I’ moved to my current smaller home from a larger one on a less nice estate due to antisocial behaviour and will always put location front and centre.

Area is everything. I live on the most expensive road in my town in one of the smallest houses, that’s fine with me. When I read about some of the neighbour issues on here it’s a world away from my road.

Location but I can’t understand why people are so keen on kitchen diners and especially the barn like ones with sofas. I want to spend as little time in kitchen as possible!

I prefer a kitchen diner to a lounge diner which is what we have now. I want the lounge to be a completely separate relaxing area with carpet whereas eating areas are better suited to hard flooring.

In an ideal world I would have a kitchen with space for table and a sofa, a more formal dining room just off the kitchen, a spacious lounge and then a smaller snug type room.

But I would also have a games room, a dressing room, a master ensuite and main bathroom with space for a bath and a free standing shower plus a guest room with an ensuite.

Alas I don't have the budget and never will.

Location every time. We could/should (according to every one else) upsized from our modest 3 bed semi but we didn't want to leave our beautiful village and couldn't afford the next jump up in it ie fron 170K to 500K.
We weren't prepared to move to the nearest town as its pretty grotty so we've been here for 20 years and will probably be here until we die.
Yes we've lost out the opportunity to downsize and release a wadge of cash but I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

I love our kitchen diner, we have a settee and TV area too and a separate lounge if we need it. We don't feel like we are sat in the kitchen either as we have our back to it.

From your description, I would stay put in the house you already live in.

So I'm really pushing to get the planning permission done asap for the extension. We don't need official planning permission but it needs to go through the council but once it's approved we have 3 years to start the build.

In 2 years we can remortgage again and in the meantime we can keep our eye out for the perfect house. I'm willing to compromise on location for the right house if we can afford it. If nothing comes up I want to go full steam with an extension and commit to living here for another 2 years minimum.

Never say never, if a sudden windfall comes our way then we may find ourselves in a very different situation, there are houses in our estate that tick all of our boxes but they are close to £500K which isn't affordable likely ever and even if it was they very very rarely come up for sale. They are all owned by people in their 60s plus, I don't know of anybody in their 30s and 40s with a big detached house and double garage. I have friends who are living very much averagely, 3 beds, some renting, council, shared ownership, owned with a mortgage but my husband's colleagues all have bigger houses which I don't think helps his idea of what we should have.

Everyone I've spoken to on this estate says they wouldn't move estates for an extra bedroom and a bigger garden they wouldn't need. That plus the house prices surely say everything we need to know!

Remember it actually costs money to move house - the stamp duty etc and that can all add up to a good bit on top of the new house price.

I wouldn’t do it, if you are planning to sell, it sounds like the perfect family home, big garden will sell it and you will never recoup the initial outlay.
They kids are growing up and before you know it, will be gone, why not just add a beautiful sunroom, instead of introducing a lot of time and trouble with building work.
Having moved 16 times with my parents, Location counts and my father always regretted leaving the first house and compared everything else to its stunning location.

That's what I need to check, extension costs vs the value it will add. As long as it's not thousands more to build rather than sell then I think it's worth it. I thought about an actual conservatory but a proper extension works better for us as a family. I want somewhere to hide the washing, and a separate dining area to the lounge.

Obviously I can't guarantee future buyers will feel the same but if we haven't found anywhere in a couple of years then I think it's worth the risk. Once the kids are older then I think we will need the space even less so if we found ourselves trapped then it really wouldn't be the end of the world, when they move out we will have 2 spare bedrooms so one of them could be repurposed as a dressing room. We could even knock through to the bedroom next door if the kids lived locally and have one enormous bedroom but a 2 bedroom house, easy enough to put back if necessary.

A utility room is also worth it's weight in gold, I don't know how I coped without one. All the washing stays in there when it's waiting to be ironed, I can dry clothes in there in winter and my son can go straight into the utility room, when he's covered in mud from footy, and get undressed and grubby kit straight into the washing machine.

Location Location Location

I would compromise quite a lot on a house to be in the right location. We bought a Fugly 1960s house when our DC were small because the location was perfect for us. Over the years we improved and extended it.

This

I don't think we can get a washing machine in there because it's too far from the drain so it's just the dryer that will go in there (plus the second freezer and the cat litter tray, hoover) and I want to put a rack in there so all of the dry washing that clutters up the lounge can stay in there.

We could potentially steal 10-20cm from child #2s bedroom which means we could move our bed up and have more space to walk around. It wouldn't make a drastic difference to his room but it would give us (my husband) a bit of extra space. Worth checking with a builder definitely and I have one coming over tomorrow so can ask then.