house hunting - what's on your must have list!

[autumnin2winter]

Currently looking for a new house and finding it so hard. I started with a 'must have' list of about 10 things (which i now laugh at!) and it's slowly whittled down because a) i can't find anything in the teeny tiny self imposed area of the map I am looking on or b) DH has veto'd it.

Essentials currently are - a drive and a downstairs toilet.

Tell me your MUST HAVES?

Detached, with large drive and good sized garden, lovely village. Large kitchen dinner, utility, 2 reception rooms, down cloaks, Master with ensuite with bath and shower and walk in wardrobe. 3 other bedrooms, large family bathroom with separated shower. Oh, wait a min, that's our house, coz we built it ourselves!!

Detached
Garage
reselling Value
Near green space
Near public transport and highway
Kitchen that overlooks the living area so I can cook and keep an eye on the kids
Open plan
Plenty of light
3 beds in the same floor

I could go on.....

Mine was
Garden
Parking
My budget I was lucky to get a house in location I wanted!

Or a nice house no work in shitty area

Settled area with mix of age groups and some amenities close by.
Not beside a Green or any other area likely to attract gangs of teenagers or badly behaved kids.
Separate kitchen - not open plan.

Detached
No immediate neighbours
Not overlooked
Garden
No major traffic noise
Low crime area

Pretty much everything else? Negotiable.

We'd rather squeeze into a tiny house that meets the above criteria than have a bigger house that does not.

To us, size doesn't really matter.

I forgot: parking for at least 2 cars.

At least 2 bathrooms.
Within a specific area.
Individual property.
4 beds min
No low ceilings

Blimey! We were looking for long enough and were nothing like as explicit in our requirements.

Essential:
All rooms must have windows
2 bedrooms
Bathroom rather than just shower room
Some outside space

Nice to have:
Some character / older build
Big kitchen
Quiet road

We got all of ours apart from the big kitchen (though I think there's scope to swap it for one of the bedrooms when we can afford to) and have some bonuses (lovely neighbours on all sides; hedgehogs in the garden) and some distinct disadvantages (getting to the garden involves going downstairs out of the front door, down the side of the house and past the garden for downstairs; dining bedroom anyone?)

my list last time was:

office space

A bath, space for a freezer, two bedrooms, not ground floor. In an ideal world I'd have space for a dishwasher and a balcony, but I can only dream.

The only thing I would never compromise on would be location. I would much rather have an ugly house in a decent street than a beautiful house in a crap one.
And as I don’t have young children anymore I don’t want to listen to other people’s so hence why I wouldn’t want to be near a school or park so I wouldn’t comprise on these. Most other things I could work with ie open plan putting walls back up.

My only requirements were an upstairs bathroom and off road parking. I have neither

(Although the EA said there was off road parking - there really isn't, unless I can teleport my car past the large tree on the pavement. They really were a bunch of shysters.)

I would advise anyone thinking of starting a family to check access into the house/garden with a buggy and suitability of stairgate fitting.

Unplanned dd spent two years blocked off from the stairs with various boxes and I missed out on any chance of buggy naps sitting on the sofa drinking tea because we couldn’t get the darn thing up the stairs to front door without waking her or access the back garden. Little bugger had two years of naps firmly on my lap.

I also forgot :
Bath or space for a bath because of DCs, not just a shower room.
Working fireplace for open fire or woodburner.

I'm pretty sure that's it now for the essentials.

I need 4 toilets in our house very important 😊, 4 beds, large garden, and if I won the lottery stables and at least 6 acres

Plenty of storage space
Parking
Garden
Not on a main road
2 reception rooms
Not a new build
Walking distance to town

We moved in last year, my must have list -
Road with no traffic
Near woods and fields
One acre garden
Room to add or covert for a boot room
Three bedrooms
Large kitchen diner that backs onto garden
Garage
Large driveway

Cottage. We didn’t get a cottage, we bought a large seventies bungalow with land and neighbouring thatch cottages. When done it will look more like a barn conversion that an ugly retro fungalow.

When we were looking;

Two bedrooms
Semi detached
Driveway (I will never ever have allocated parking again )
Decent sized south facing garden
Good sized rooms
Downstairs toilet
Quiet family friendly area
Good transport links
Local amenities

Got all of them in a new build!

Good catchment area.
Detached
4 bedrooms.
Not overlooked
Spacious rooms ( not new built)

Could not care less if south facing, if there is an ensuite or downstairs loo.

Detached
Off road parking
A separate hall with all doors leading off it.

It would be detached house, large, well lit kitchen; garden; at the very minimum a parking permit system so I can park near my property and two bathrooms.

Open living
Grown up lounge separated from above!
Downstairs loo
Off road parking
Detached
Easy garden which gets sun in the day
Laundry room
En suite for master
Garage
Four bedrooms minimum
In our catchment area

So difficult where I live as it's really expensive here plus we have almost all of the above
Anyway ... to buy the extras we 'want' would be an extra 250k on top of what we'd sell for, so decided to invest about half that in our own home to create open living and extra bedroom plus en suite plus re-arrange current living spaces and create storage solutions - we live a stones throw from our high street and it's a really good location/ town so definitely best solution all round

If I was going to go through all the upheaval of moving the non negotiables would be nice area, detached, off road parking and pleasant garden, 2 decent sized bedrooms.
Desirables would be a nice view, unoverlooked garden, garage, en-suite or 2 loos and close to Waitose

My dream list would be:

3 double bedrooms
2 bathrooms, preferably not ensuite
Big kitchen, lots of counter space
Driveway
Garage would be nice but not essential
Easy to maintain garden

Location
Detached with no close neighbours
Parking
Private garden
Two bathrooms
Four double bedrooms
Utility
Kitchen/diner/snug
Two separate living rooms
Conservatory but not south facing