To not view this house

[Elaine222]

Name changed as I've spoken about this a lot in real life so don't want other posts linked.

DH wants to view this property. It is in the area we want and he loves it from the outside. I hate how it is set up, think it's really over priced and can't imagine how we would use the space.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/150168083#/?channel=RES_BUY

Currently we are in a smaller property and I think we'd need to spend a lot to "fill" this house. I worry our current sofas etc. wouldn't fit. Looks like the family there now had the same issue. Lots of badly matched furniture round the sides of the rooms has honestly put me off.

There are 4 of us so the bedrooms would be good. The living areas, dining rooms etc. looks like too much dead space. Not a cosy feel at all has made me unable to see what I could do.
He is keen to go and view but I don't think that would help me get a view of what it could be, just more what it is.

Gut feeling is a no. Possible too much money considering I'd want to re do all the windows, the bathroom etc. But interested on opinions and what ideas for making this a home, other people have please.

Presumably location is reflected in the sale price. Personally I would never live further than a ten minute walk from a mainline station with good services. I like also to be near some shops, the dentist, Dr, Vet, etc.

FWIW DH poo pooed our current house based on the right move links. Wasn't interested at all. I included it on a lost of six we were viewing. It was house no. 5. We never saw house no. 6. At the top of the drive, he reached out for my hand. One look and he bought it with his heart without stepping inside. It was a probate sale and very tired inside and badly presented. Nevertheless all it's arts and crafts features were still in situ and it viewed much better than its pictures.

I like it - what a great space!

Filling the house is such a non issue. Families will always expand to fit a house. It is far more sensible to buy a property with "too much space" than to buy one with the right amount of space at the time and then realise that you need more.

If you are picking such trivial reasons like that not to view a property then you are never going to get anywhere.

I’d rip the kitchen out. But it’s exactly what we’re after! One day!

Yes as I posted, it is massively under resourced. I wouldn;t really describe it as near the south east tbh. Yes you can commute from Pboro to London but it costs £££ and is a bit of a pain. I'd much much rather live in a big northern city for example.

There is no public transport, shops are minimal, hospitals are poor. I wouldn;t live there again for anything (apols to those who do).

Flooding is a good point actually - deffo worth checking out.

I know nothing about the area so take note of what @Spitalfieldrose says re flooding. However I do think it’s always worth seeing houses that got a lot of what you’re looking for - especially if they’re in the right area.

I kept scrolling past a house on rightmove because I didn’t like the “look” of it even though it was the right size (actually slightly bigger) and in the right area. It just looked weird on the website. Eventually I thought fuck it and went for a viewing. We’ve been here 10 years now and won’t move until we downsize or win the lottery and buy an island.

I think it’s worth looking at the house. I rather like it! (Except the ghastly kitchen but as pp have said, that could be sorted)

Horrible on inside - would need totally redecorating so depends if you have the budget to rip everything out and re do it ?

The house is 320 sq metres. That is a big house. A typical detached home is going to be about half that size.

Don't know this area but I second this totally!! Only consider anything very low risk from flooding from all types on the EA website. I say this as someone who suffered a very serious flooding event in a previous property. It’s a horrific thing to experience and the fear of repeat flooding is almost as bad. Our previous home/area was recategorised after our event. We went from a 1/100 yr risk to a 1 in 10 yr risk. We were so lucky to sell it and you have to be brutally honest when selling, plus details of recent floods are all online now. Anyone who says oh the garden floods a little in the winter or we had a little puddle of water in 20 years ago is usually being very economical with the truth or situation. This will be harder to cover up going forwards so people will be stuck with unsellable houses. Especially with the weather changes recently.

I'd definitely view it.

1. as useful as photos are, you really can't tell what it's like till you are in there.

2. I agree furniture placement etc isn't good, but that's easy to fix. It's not a problem with the house.

3. I didn't notice it myself but note other posters say there are mobility aids. That would explain the furniture placement etc.

Definitely view it.

It looks like a lot of pics are distorted to make the rooms look bigger.
Worth seeing for yourself.

It looks great - you should definitely go and see it.

You don't have to keep rooms as they are. My initial thought would be:

• turn the dining room into a family TV room/snug
• in the lovely big living room, place the sofas facing each other on either side of the fireplace with a coffee table in between, and put in sideboards/bookshelves/maybe piano to make a nice calm relaxing and entertaining space (no TV)
• put a table in the kitchen for family meals
• I'd put glass doors between the kitchen and conservatory to make it less open, and put seating in the conservatory or else make it a playroom if the kids are younger
• turn the downstairs study into a dining room if you like a separate dining space or keep it as a study/music practice room/craft and making room/rowing machine/gaming space - depending on what your family enjoy

• zone the master bedroom better with a seating/reading area separate from the bed
• one bedroom as lovely spacious study with sofa as well as desk (could be sofa bed for guests)
• another bedroom either as second study or as permanent guest bedroom

You'd probably need a few more sofas, and some extra tables, desks and bookshelves: all of that can be found very cheaply second hand.

Just go and see it.

You don't have to make an offer, but I'd be bloody irritated if my partner wouldn't even consider a house I liked the look of.

If you find something you really like and your DH refuses to even go and see it, you won't have a leg to stand on.

beautiful

A friend of mine sort of lives in that direction. Checking out Google maps I think that location can be described as the arse end of nowhere. No stations or shops for miles and the fens are not very picturesque.

Shift that house 25km to the west near and around Stamford and it's going to be costing you over £1m easily.

I like it! Some strategic painting/decorating would warm the place up a lot. I think, if your DH really likes it, you can’t really form sound arguments against it if you haven’t been to view. I find both myself and DH know within a minute or two whether a house is for us or not, and it can be a surprise when we get inside one we’ve seen online. If you view and still don’t like it, it’s fair to veto. House buying and baby names are our ‘right to veto’ issues.

It comes back to the old thing of location, location, location.

You don't even have to look to the south east. If this house was in a village surrounding Cambridge rather than Peterborough, so about 30 miles away, then it would easily be worth twice as much.

For example, here's a similar home, although a bit smaller, in the village of Great Shelford, it's just been sold and the asking price was £1.5 million. Great Shelford is about 4 miles from the centre of Cambridge but the OP's house is about 8 miles from Peterborough

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/141287087#/?channel=RES_BUY

Of course you need to view it. Pictures can’t tell you the feeling you’ll get in the place, and okay, you may still feel the same IRL but it’s going to be DH’s house just as much as yours, so you at least have to humour a viewing for his sake. If you genuinely don’t like it once you’ve seen it then that’s a difference conversation. It’s like saying you don’t like broccoli without ever trying broccoli. You have nothing to lose by viewing it.

Can’t see what’s wrong with it? Just use what’s currently labelled Family Room as the Dining Room as that makes more sense with its positioning, and make the Dining Room a media room. Then repurpose Bedroom 5 as a second study or a craft room if you don’t need a second study (handy if you both wfh at times).

You should definitely view it. It’s far nicer than the one linked by Another2cats. That 1/3 acre plot is worth a fair chunk.

I would love all that space! I would go and see it as things always look different than in pictures. It might not look so roomy in real life.

Posted too soon. Idk how old your kids are but the extra room can easily be a den for them, party room as they get older etc.

It's badly presented, photographed and labelled - no dimensions shown on the floor plan. The rooms look cavernous and unappealing and the garden vast and empty. Yet if you look at the overall square footage and the room dimensions, it is a large house but not unusually so and the rooms are spacious but not ridiculous. It looks like good value too, compared with London and environs prices.

I know living rooms that are of similar dimensions and don't look in the least bit empty and forbidding but rather comfortable, inviting and manageable in terms of furnishing and using. The bathrooms are large and the en suite could have been made smaller but the bedrooms aren't unduly large either.

It's worth taking a look at least. Maybe it's not the house for you and you don't need or want that large a space or a garden on that scale to manage but you won't really know without being in it and forming an impression from that.

If you don't want to view it, don't go. Don't waste the vendors' time. Other properties will come up.

I wish that house was closer or I'd snap it up!! That garden 😍