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?

Quietness.

Couldn't bear being on a busy road.

My husband really laughed but when we moved to a bigger house it was essential to me that there be a corner shop within walking distance.

Three things stand out: (1) location; (2) construction; (3) orientation. Namely, south facing, well built and in a good area. More or less anything else can be sorted out after moving in, far more cheaply.

Really good internet, and far far away from other human beings. Very tricky to actually find both of these together...

I was adamant that I didn't want a downstairs bathroom and I absolutely would not consider living on X Street.
My husband was immovable on needing off street parking and the house MUST be a semi detached at the very least, preferably a detached.

We live in a terraced house on X Street with on street parking only and one bathroom, which is downstairs.

On paper this house was a flat no. We walked in and it was spectacular. We offered asking price almost on the spot (rang the agents immediately after leaving).

Be flexible.

That all said, i have said that I will not consider less than four bedrooms for out nect house. This house is amazing, but if I'm going to go through the cost and stress of moving, it needs to have something I don't already have. And that's a fourth bedroom. We would also like a huge kitchen please.

When we bought this one the must haves were 4 bedrooms, decent sized kitchen and separate living room. We wanted a utility room (got space to convert to one) and a drive or allocated parking spaces (didn't get and DH spends a lot of time moaning about parking).

I couldn’t live in a house that had an overlooked garden anymore. I don’t have any blinds or curtains on the back of the house and I love waking up to the dawn light.

I’ll also always want a main living room with no tv in it and a separate family room for vegging out in front of Netflix, even once all our kids leave home.

We are hoping to house hunt very soon. I'm in Oz, hence swimming pool.

Essentials are:

At least three bedrooms and two bathrooms
Two living rooms (pretty standard in Aus)
Detached bungalow with decent sunny (northish facing)garden
Swimming pool
No more than ten mins drive to beach, preferably 5.
Good sized kitchen
Double garage
Nice neighbourhood

Would also like:
A walk in pantry
A spa
Home theatre room

I wanted off street parking and a separate dining room from the kitchen. Had to be three bedrooms and we were specific as to the area as it would be walking distance to a station with good motorway access. We got all that but we're now in the "everything needs renovating" stage. First house though so it is still fun to be doing all the house things.

No more than 10 minute walk from good station
Boot room or scope for
Large garden

In budget, good location, off street parking, south facing garden. Garage or large shed. If I had more budget, I would like a house with country side or seaside views. But I would swap all these for a house boat or a camper van to go travelling !

Off road parking, without exception .

I made the mistake of buying my current house with street only parking with no way of building off road parking. It's been a nightmare since day one , due to neighbours thinking they own the road outside their house. So I think I'll struggle to sell and will be here a long time with their passive aggressive "polite notice " notes they leave on windscreen.

We wanted rural and old. I knew I wouldn't get an upstairs bathroom, because they didn't really arrive in this part of the country until the 1950s/60s and very few of the old cottages have had them put in. What I really did want, given we were moving to the north of Scotland, was central heating. 10 years later we still have night storage heaters on a really stupid dual meter tariff which I can't transfer to another company without getting the meters taken out and replaced with a single one. Ironically it's called Total Heating Total Control - I have no control over it whatsoever, Scottish Hydro turns the heating circuit on at the four coldest points in the day!! Hopefully it's coming out next year and being replaced with underfloor and radiators :)

We're rural; south facing garden with room for a big patio, plenty of parking, mains drainage, outbuilding/sheds, space for chickens and a great view.

We did fairly well but have got a sceptic tank and the shed needs rebuilding.

Wow. Ours were fairly simple;

Nice area - village location near A roads
Character
A project
Walking distance of a dog friendly pub
South facing garden.

We didn't get the south facing garden, but we did get a lovely walled courtyard and a compromise, allotment which turns out to be far better for growing !

Then DC turned up and turned out gorgeous cute character cottage into one of those miniature houses. Still love it though.

Must haves:
Detached
Good sized driveway/front plot
Kerb appeal
Downstairs loo
Garage/storage
Good position
Non-overlooked garden

That seems a lot written down but I wouldn't move from where we are for something that didn't have those things.

Room for a kitchen table. 😞

It's ridiculously long! 1/2 acre minimum, private garden not overlooked, large open plan living dining kitchen plus separate snug, decent sized downstairs office, downstairs toilet, boot room/utility with garden access. Upstairs min of three double beds suitable for double beds plus lots of space for storage, boarded loft for storage, ideally another box room for use as second office. Yep, won't be cheap, added issue that the area we like has the best secondary in the county pushing up prices (but our kids are post school age so we don't care). This house does exist btw, it's just we want to move to a rural location!!!

My must have's were....

1. Downstairs loo (or adaquate space to put one in).
2. Parking. Not necessarily off-road but at least adaquate, un-permitted on the road.
3. Accessiable by bus to the train station
4. Kitchen and Bathroom that didn't require work (we wouldn't have had the spare cash and I couldn't live with a horrid kitchen/bathroom).
5. Not near to a main road or train station.
6. Medium to large main bedroom.
7. An area that feels 'safe'.
8. Decent sized garden

We got all but number 3. Everything else was perfect so I will bow drive to the station.

Must-haves:
A garden. Somewhere to park (in the street, on the driveway, wherever), at least three bedrooms, quiet neighbourhood, distance within an hours drive of MIL.

Preferred by DH:
Detached house, leafy street, posh towns.

Preferred by me: toilet up and down, a garage or attic or something to store stuff out of sight, a railway station at a reasonable distance.

We found it including all the preferred ideas except for the leafy street. It's still pretty green though but they cut down a lot of trees last year because of the chances of one falling down in a storm. It helps that we have some money though.

We widened our search area and ended up with a major renovation project.
Must have for us were
Downstairs loo
Upstairs bathroom.
Large kitchen (love cooking)
Utility room
Naice space for home office
Extra bedroom for guests
Large garden
And after our recent house a drive way where we didn't have to park behind each other. Swapping cars drove me bonkers
Good luck with the house hunting

We needed:
Within 10 mins of mainline station to London
Space for 18 bicycles
Plenty of car parking
4 bed at least 2 bath preferably 3
At least 1 acre
Quiet road - we have four cats
Near a shop for milk, papers etc

We hope to find:
Somewhere that felt like our home

We think we have found it and will hopefully exchange shortly.

My non negotiables were semi or end of terrace, good bedroom size, not low ceilings, ability to convert loft, upstairs bathroom and quiet low crime area.

My wants were driveway or garden to turn into driveway, garage, bigger garden, decent 3rd bedroom, cheaper as work required, good structure and bones, as well maintained as possible, near bus routes and 30s, 40 or 50s style of house.

I got it all except decent 3rd bedroom and since my budget was low, I'm very lucky.

All I wanted was detached with a private garden, not overlooked, in my preferred area, with two bathrooms.
I got it , the compromise, was the house only had two bedrooms as one had been converted into a second bathroom.
With 4 dcs this wasn't easy initially but DH is a builder and 4/5 years after moving in we had a spacoius four bedroomed house in a lovely area.

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