Bad house vs Good School

[Elllie]

Trying to find a good sized family home that we can settle in on our return to the UK.
Very little coming onto the market that is right for us - in the right location but too small or just too darn expensive.
The area has lots of bungalows (or 'single storey homes' as I have taken to calling them ) but my DH has a real problem about living in what he sees as an 'old person's house'.
I do see his point, but I think he lacks vision. There are a couple available that I think could be turned into cool homes (think minimal/ transitional deco etc...) and are bang in the good catchment areas. True enough, they will need loads of work - but lots of lovely garden space.
I'm sold. He isn't.
Do you live in a bungalow? How do you find it (he has a problem with the whole sleeping downstairs thing)? WOuld you live in a bungalow?

I don't live in one but I live in Australia where most houses are 'single story homes'. All my friends think I am strange as we have stairs. All the children who come here to play just go up and down the stairs all the time.

When I got here I did think it was weird that everyone was sleeping downstairs but nobody else does, just us English people. Surely he will get used to it! Does he just think it's a bit weird of does he think someone is going to murder him with an axe as he sleeps?

Personally, I wouldn't feel safe leaving the bedroom window open at night if bedroom on the ground floor. I would also think about whether lay-out means that kids will hear much more noise from the living room once they have gone to bed, compared to a two storey house.

I was brought up in a bungalow and it was OK as far as I recall.

It wouldn't be my choice now if I am totally honest as I like to go upstairs to bed, but if you found one with good space at the right price it would be OK I think.

My childhood home (ahem!) had the bedrooms at one end of a corridor (kind of an L-shape to the whole thing).

My mum still lives there and when the DC were small we often stayed there with no problems wrt them waking up etc.

Do you know the area you will be moving to? If not so much, you may be wise to rent for a bit rather than buy so you can wait for the 'right' house, and also to reacquaint yourself with the area and how you want to live after being out of the country.

Your dh may ultimately decide a bungalow isn't such a bad idea after all.

We live in a flat - it's not the same as a bungalow but it does mean that everything's on one level so none of that 'going upstairs to bed' feeling.

DD1's bedroom is next to the living room, DD2's is at the opposite end of the flat so is next to the kitchen. We are lucky in that we have direct access to our garden from our kitchen and there's no way we could be without a garden now.

Our flat is actually rather larger than the houses some of our friends have so, if it were me, I'd definitely go for a bungalow that I could make my own and that had the added advantage of decent outside space and likely places at a local school.

The layout of a bungalow is important, but we lived in a rented one for 5 years whilst the DSs were 4 to 9ish years old and it worked for us.

The upsides:
Generally bigger gardens
Kids can't disappear upstairs and shut the door on the rest of the family (which may be a downside!)
You can listen out for younger kids more easily
They are easier to heat
No constantly trogging up and down the stairs

Downsides:
They can be more expensive
Security
Noise (hence check the layout)
Having casual visitors being able to glance into your bedrooms- even stride on in, something they'd never do if that entailed physically walking upstairs.

I hated the idea of a bungalow, until I lived in one, now I love them (but we're currently living in a Victorian terrace.)

Bungalows are ace, so flexible, the room definitions are far less defined, ie. a spare bedroom could be a dining room/playroom. In our last one I could put DD in the bath and still be able to watch her whilst cooking dinner. No traipsing washing up and down stairs, it came off the line and straight through the French doors into our bedroom.

Also a lot of bungalows are ripe for big attic conversions, as the attics are huge. Downside to that is if you don't convert, then you really must insulate well as there's a lot of roof space to loose heat into. By the same token, none of the rooms will benefit from rising heat so you will be heating all of the house from scratch.

I would love a bungalow!

Bungalows are now officially cool.

You can do clever and interesting things with them. Like - dramatically increase the attic size, creating a whole new exciting storey!

(My job involves restructuring bungalows with large gardens into ultra homes.)

Thanks for the opinions.
Builde - what you say is very interesting. As an example, this is the sort of property I mean. I think it is way overpriced at present and it has been on a while.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-30021962.html

I see potential - DH sees a money pit, pipe and slippers. Sigh.
Out of curiosity, how often would you decide to just knock down a property like this rather then redevelop?

DH is probably right in seeing a money pit.

A house typically costs between 1000 - 2000 pounds a square metre to build and anything that is interesting or cool is at the upper end.

Plus, factor in professional fees (architect 10,000pounds, engineer 50000pounds) and it can be costly.

With a bungalow, I would imagine that you are looking at 50,000 to fully redevelop a top storey.

i live in ab ungalow and love it no runnng up and down the stairs putting washing away ditto everytime someone needs the bathroom.

mines front door at front (not that we ever use that door* bedroom one side and junk spare room other then kitchen next to my room then left turn a corridor bit with bathroom and then ends in 2 bedrooms .
from front door you walk down corridor to lounge which has double french doors everyon knows to knock down there now.

Ours has been converted so ds1 and ds2 have a large bedroom with ensuite upstairs.was already done when moved in.Lounge is far end of property so tv not disturbing younger dc .Security wise i do have small windows open in dc room but do tend to ahve mine open at night

as for anyone looking in to bedroom I just keep my bedroom door closed , but seriously i would hate to have a proper house.