big house, garden small and out of proportion - wwyd?

[givemeaclue]

apols all as every week I am posting a new house dilemna - the search continues and with pressure to move before december to apply for schools in Jan I am feeling under the cosh.

We have viewed twice a house which is what we are looking for although at the top end of our price bracket, but the downside (why we haven't made an offer yet) is that although it is large (IMO) inside (6 bedrooms inc 5 doubles, 3 large reception rooms) the garden is out of proportion to the size of the house, its small. You step out into the garden and think 'is that it?' .

We're not massive gardeners and to be fair the garden is twice the size of our current (even smaller) one, but it still seems on the small side for such a large house.

Also - what would I do with 6 bedrooms? We need 4 I would have 2 extra - so would be paying a premium for extra bedroom space that we don't need.

DH wants to make an offer (see above time pressure issue) but I feel that spending over £500k on something wiht a small garden is not ideal BUT we do need to move soon or end up stuck where we are (in schools black hole). We have viewed 8 houses this weekend alone covering a massive area. what we want is:

2-3 reception rooms, 1 big enough to 'entertain' in (i.e can seat more than 5 people which is current living room issue)
reasonable sized kitchen
4 beds
2 bathrooms
reasonable garden
would like garage or off street parking but can compromise on that
within distance of good school that we are confident we would get in - this is key issue

this doesn't seem like the world's largest list!

Thanks for listening!

...just to add.. we've viewed lots and lots of houses and think we have done a very exhaustive search!

Try renting for a while in school catch ment area and buy when your ideal house comes up.

Agree with Thermos about renting for a while.

Failing that as you've viewed "lots and lots of houses" you need a word with Kirsty and Phil I'm sure Kirsty will sort you out! Why are you even looking at 6 bed houses when you don't need or want that many bedrooms? But to answer your original question a tiny back garden to a very large house is generally a no-no. Unless you are in Knightsbridge.

We have a small garden in relation to the size of the house - and four children. When we bought the house 12 years ago I did worry it would be an issue, but in all honesty, it has been fine. Are you worried about not having enough outside space for the children, or are you thinking about possible difficulties in selling on?

All the houses on our road have similarly small gardens and, over the years, all the houses that have been for sale have sold fairly quickly, so the garden size doesn't seem to have been a deal breaker in general. Like yourselves, we're not keen gardeners, and the space was big enough for a swing/slide set few years ago, and large trampoline now. Children are all old enough now to be out and about doing their own thing (cept for dc4) so its really not a problem.

Two more bedrooms than you need - guest rooms, hobby rooms, dressing rooms, extra bathrooms, store rooms, games rooms, more children in future (!), upstairs sitting room?

Is this a house you propose to be in for a long time during the kids teenage years. If so, the extra rooms will be a wonderful den for the kids so they don't take over your living space when their friends are round.

singingtunelessly - we looked at a 6 bed as its in a good location near a really good school and with the time pressure we are under to move we are (trying to be) flexible -however from the particulars/chat with estate agent the size of the garden was not apparent until we viewed it in RL.

I viewed a house with lots of bedrooms the other day, they had turned one of the spares into a laundry room...can you imagine the heaven that would be a room just for washing/airers/ironing etc. Is there a park or other outdoor space nearby, if so not really an issue I think.

You don't sound entirely happy with the house so i would carry on looking.I live in an area where a lot of the old house have had new houses built in part of the old garden.Round here it really does make them much less attractive to buy as the garden is totally out of proportion.The 6 bedrooms is not an issue though if you can afford it.We bought a 6 bedroom house 10 years ago with one child.Now we have 4 and lots of visitors [and loads of bloody furniture in the attic courtesy of dh!] and house is fully used.