Large garden........ is it worth it?

[Eatweeds]

Please help! I was looking for a house but have inadvertently fallen in love with a flat with an amazing garden - 160 ft, mature trees, sunny veg plot, city centre.

Unfortunately the flat has a strange layout and is small, 2 bed, tiny lounge - but we can chuck out some stuff and spend lots of time outside.... is this realistic? It is also quite shady, with a large mossy lawn.

Do you think a large garden can compensate for small flat. Or should I be realistic and buy a small 2/3 bed house with a damp patio!

Trying not to let heart rule head... any advice very welcome, thanks

If it's quite shady, it limits the number of days you can just decide to spend lots of time outside. Plus I've noticed it rains quite a lot in this country... not to mention the cold, snow, etc. I think you risk going stir-crazy in the colder parts of the year.

This is the UK, remember we only have approx 2 sunny days a year .

We have a good sized garden (moved here in october), i'm sat here looking out at it and its just a bog (due to the past few weeks of rain and snow), if i'm lucky i might get to sit out there for a few weeks in the summer but the rest of the year is spent indoors. House size and lay out is far more important, a garden is just a luxury which is great when you can use it.

If you have small children, shady is good. We have a large garden but almost no shade, and it puts me off inviting people over if they have tinies.

A large garden is lovely. But it's important to get the house right too.

We're a very outdoors family and love having outside space - for us its as important as inside space.

The first thing that comes to mind is what are the planning restrictions in the area?

Could you build a large sun room/ conservatory on the back of the flat to increase the living space?

Could you build a couple of insulated sheds (garden rooms) and run power to them for a play room/ music room/ childs lounge and a study?

For me storage is the key in a smaller house. If you can declutter all your stuff to an accessible loft or big storage shed and rotate it as you require you maximise the living space.

Would you have the facility to extend or have a conservatory if it is a ground floor flat to increase space?

Personally, I'd go for the big garden / small house option any day, but only if the garden got plenty of sun, not if it was shady.

I'd rather have a summer house than an extra room/space indoors.

Many thanks for that.

Unfortunately need planning as property is listed but I think I could get permission for a small office/chicken run. not a conservatory.

Hmm, I just can't decide, as a farmers daughter i was always outside and would love to chuck away the telly and get some chickens. DD not so keen!

I was thinking that friends could camp but that kind of limited when they could stay

Would a tree house or similar not swing it for your DD?

Apparently tree houses now have strict planning constraints, especially in a city ... a rabbit and a cat might tempt her! Tis tricky to work out how shady the garden is at this time of year. Ho Hum