I've lived in London for most of my life, mostly north of the river. Post-childhood, in variety of mostly unsatisfactory places, either very small and up loads of stairs and in a decent neighbourhood or with more space but in middle of effing nowhere. In the other cities that I've lived in, both in the UK and abroad (US, Berlin, Cape Town) everything about housing has been much easier!
We're looking to move house from a small 3 bed house in Shepherd's Bush (which we own) to anywhere in West/S Weat London or maybe even Metroland sort of suburbia, provided DH can get in to the Tottenham Court Road/ Holborn area within 45 mins, ideally in 30 mins. I need to commute twice a week to Oxford and accept that might take a couple of hours driving, but still need to be on west side of city, OR within easy reach of Paddington.
What we're looking to find is a big garden, 80 foot + (ideally more) and not very narrow. (Not the sort of 16 foot skinny but long garden you get with some Victorian terraced houses.) Three bedrooms would be OK, four would be better. Not too many stairs (DM stays with us a lot and has mobility problems). Maybe a flat in a big house?
We have a child in reception and a toddler, so also keen to find somewhere with good primary schools. (The reception child currently goes to a private school so that's an option, but would prefer state.) Most of all, a good sense of community. Where we lie now is relatively expensive but basically a triangle of four streets of small Victorian cottages bounded by a massive shopping mall and a main road, and the population is totally transient.
We would ideally spend under 2m but could spend up to 2.5, which I realise is a large budget (much larger than we have had before). That's why my cluelessness astonishes me. We inherited some money and thought we would be able to move somewhere we really liked, given that we were going to spend twice as much money on a house. But I am failing to identify anywhere! The main areas I've been looking at are the Alphabet Streets in Fulham (but gardens small), East Putney (ditto) Queen's Park (but schools seem rubbish and nice houses are getting out of our price range), and Ealing (lovely houses but area seems pretty soulless and centre is grim).
People of Mumsnet, I am truly grateful for ideas. Tell me about where you live, if you love it.