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New home - follow our head or our heart?

7 replies

Abubu · 06/03/2010 09:23

Hi everyone,

We are currently in the process of trying to move house.
We are in a small 3 bed at the moment and have 2 year old identical twin girls and I have another little girl on the way, due at the end of April.

Happily we somehow managed to get a decent offer on our house very quickly so now the pressure is on to find somewhere to move but we are finding there is nothing on the market that meets our criteria.

We originally wanted to move to a 4 bed, in case one day all the children turn around and want their own room (the girls are currently shraing). We think that they would be happy to share for around 10 years before it became a problem, if it ever became a problem at all.

When we were first thinking of moving one of the reasons is because DH works from home once or twice a week and needs office space. In our current house we would not have room anywhere to put his desk once the 3rd room becomes a nursery. We thought it would be nice to have an actual office rather than a desk somewhere in another room, with the potential that the office could then be a bedroom when needed.

Anyway, it has soon become clear that if we want a 4 bed house, that the price we can afford means that we would end up with a house that we think is "ok" but not ideal - either location, overall room size of each of the bedrooms, etc (as we have found 4 beds doesn't necessarily mean 4 good sized bedrooms).

We have now looked at a couple of 3 beds which are not only cheaper than the 4 beds but that we have liked a lot more. We saw one yesterday that was beautiful and I am totally smitten. All the rooms are bigger than ours (apart from the kitchen which is the same), great location, attached garage that has potential to convert one day, overall wow factor.

But then we risk that we would have to move again one day to give the kids their own rooms.

So, what would you do? Live in a house you love, that is cheaper, that meets all your criteria apart from having 1 bedroom less than you need, or live in a house that you think is ok but is more expensive and that potentially might be inconvenient in some way or have something about it that is not quite right for you, but knowing you probably would not have to move again?

We haven't offered on this other place yet and know that even if we did we may not get it, but I feel that we just will never reach a decision until we can get our head round this. In particular my DH has a mental block about moving from a 3 bed to another 3 bed. even if it is a lot bigger he doesn't see it as a move up.

Thanks!

OP posts:
FiveGoMadInDorset · 06/03/2010 09:25

Go with the 3 bed, if you have potential to extend/convert.

hocuspontas · 06/03/2010 09:29

What five said. Does it have the potential to extend? If so, go for the 3-bed

hocuspontas · 06/03/2010 09:30

oops! Didn't mean to say the exact words five said

MmeLindt · 06/03/2010 09:36

If you take the 3 bed would you have room in the budget to convert the garage?

Abubu · 06/03/2010 09:53

Hi,

Yes we would have the budget to convert the garage in fact we wouldn't even need to do it straight away in terms of space, maybe in some years to come thoguh - it would just mean that potentially it is a downstairs bedroom which isn't as nice as having 4 proper bedrooms - mind you half the "4" beds we've seen have actually been exactly where someone has done that. Hence my wondering about spending all this extra money on a so called 4 bed?

OP posts:
MmeLindt · 06/03/2010 09:57

So you would have the office in the garage, and 3 beds upstairs, twins sharing and baby in own room.

I would do that and then when the girls decide they want their own room, would move the master bedroom into the office. Would there be any way of putting an ensuite bathroom onto the office/garage?

That way you have the girls upstairs with their own bathroom - got to be a massive bonus when you have three teenagers.

Flame · 06/03/2010 09:59

3 bed.

8 years is a long time. Your DH may not be working from home etc then, you may have won the lottery .

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