Moving to a bigger home..

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Hi,

I have lived in the West End of Glasgow my entire life, tenement living, near parks, social life etc..

My husband and I have a toddler and another on the way so the time has come that we sell our first flat for something bigger.

With this has come the complicated decisions of where we should move, given that the cost of buying/selling is fairly high we are likely to be in the next place for a good long while and as such have to consider things like schools..

We are torn between living in a larger tenement (which arguably has more floor space than some houses!) and moving to the suburbs for a garden and garage..

My husband works in Ayr, as such our 'potential' living area could be anything from Ayrshire/East Renfrewshire to Milngavie/Bearsden (the only non west end area I know well..)

Can anyone advise on suitable areas or even just supply an opinion as to whether you think tenement living is a bad idea?...

My mind is boggled.

Thank you, and apologies its so long..

It's a tough one! We live in a big 4 bed tenement with our large family and love it. We are in the west end overlooking the park so are close to everything.

We did try moving to the suburbs - Westerton - a few years ago so we could have a garden and a house. This is just my opinion but we found having a garden a bit over rated. We both worked FT at the time and simply didn't have the time to maintain the garden, and from Oct - March I rarely went out in it at all. But when it was sunny, and the spring and summer came in, it was really lovely to have a garden for the kids to play in. I don't particularly miss it though it was nice to have our own private space in summer and also somewhere to hang the washing out!

I am from Bearsden originally, Bearsden and Milngaive are both lovely places to bring up a family IMO though obviously can be pricy.

HTH.x

carovioletfizz - Thanks for your input. My husband hates gardening so I can see where a garden can be over rated, I never missed having one when I was a child.
How have you found the schooling in the west end?
I think I'll struggle with a double buggy in a tenement.. main door would be ideal but hard to come by..

Too many decisions..

Our dcs are at Hillhead Primary and it's brilliant. Not everywhere in the west end is in the catchment area though and places are hard to come by if you're not in the catchment.
We have a double buggy, it's been ok in a tenement, we just park it folded in the downstairs close.

Thanks. I've heard lots of good things about Hillhead but also that it's oversubscribed because of its reputation. Have details of where falls into catchment (a lot of permit parking, which is a pain as my husband has various company vehicles he uses!)
I leave my buggy downstairs now so I guess it's more the getting the children upstairs that I'd have to worry about, my toddler climbs them now but I'd be nervous trusting her not to fall..

I have found some lovely 4 bed tenements and I'd love to stick around here.. We have other baby friends and a support network on hand.. Ideally we would move to a bigger tenement for 5-10 years and then look at moving again..(but that was before I realised the cost of buying/selling!)

I think I might write a pro/cons list for the potential areas..

Yes the stairs are not ideal. I recently brought my two home from playgroup in the buggy and they fell asleep on the way. Was so excited by the thought of a peaceful hour or so I couldn't bear to lift them out to wake them so managed to bump the double buggy up four flights of stairs! Was exhausted and sweating but it was worth it for a lovely hour to eat my lunch and go on Mumsnet! I guess you could use a sling and carry the baby upstairs in that and hold your toddler's hand.....
Pros and cons list sounds like a good idea.