help!!! Which one would you choose?

[flatbread]

We are house-hunting and have found four suitable properties, all very different, not sure what to go for. Which one would you go for?

A bit of background, DH has a work contract in Scotland, and we have bought a small one bed flat near his work place. It is too small for us and our dog, so we are looking for a larger place. We are also ttc, but it is likely that nothing may come of it.

Neither one of us is from the UK and long-term, when we are retired, we would like to spend 6 months in France and 6 months in the UK (assuming we can afford that lifestyle then). Also, my work is flexible, so can work from really anywhere as long as there is internet and an airport close-by.

Of all the places we have seen, these are the ones we are torn between. In no particular order -
a) Modern 4 bed detached house in an estate. Pros: Very close to DH's work, secluded garden and nice conservatory, and a 20 minute train ride into Edinburgh city centre. It is comfortably within our budget plus we can rent out the one bed flat. Cons: Boring and if DH has to move to another part of UK for work, we would feel no pull to come back to this house. Requires a bit of work to make it suit us, but wouldn't add value (e.g., combine two small bedrooms into one master suite)

b) Four bed cottage with a good amount of land, in the middle of western Scotland. Pros: Absolutely charming and beautiful with loads of windows and cross ventilation in every room. Open views. Requires little work - mainly changing carpets and a lick of paint. Within budget. Cons: Would need to keep flat for weekdays and live in the cottage on weekends as it is one and a half hours from DH's work. It is 45 minutes from a major airport. It is really not walking distance to any shops, and the nearest village is a 10 minute drive. Also, it has a long half km driveway that will need gravel to make it easier to drive over winter.

c) Four bed period home with a good amount of land in west Scotland. Pros: Very beautiful, high ceilings, lovely cornice work, lots of space and nice woodland views. 20 minutes drive from two major airports. Walking distance to a small village/town. Short drive to the coast and some nice coastal towns. Cons: Would need to really stretch our budget, requires work, village closeby needs a face-lift, although it does have a large Tesco. It is one hour commute to DH's work, so might need to keep the flat for weekdays..although we probably should rent it out to cover the extra mortgage required on this.

d) Two bed modern detached house in a coastal village in west Scotland. Pros: Amazing sea-views from house and garden, low heating bills, nice looking home. Lovely garden and two beds and two bathrooms, pretty much all we need at the moment. Within budget and will require only a lick of paint and removing carpets. Nice area and close to to a lively coastal town (5 minute drive). Train links to a major city. Cons: Small, expensive for its size and may be difficult to sell later on. It is one hour and ten minutes commute to DH's work, so might need to keep the flat for weekdays...

Which one would you go for and why? We don't have family or friends close by for help/advice and really don't want to make the wrong decision. So any perspective we can get would be enormously helpful.

Sorry for the long post and TIA

amd you cant live in suburbs of edinburgh or glasgow and be near enough his work? (which sounds more like what you are looking for in terms of lifestyle)

I agree about dicount A in comparison to B and C which look amazing! Is B the whole thing?

A Definitely.

Either B C or D would be great if he was working west side of Glasgow or East Kilbride. DO NOT move to Livingstone.

Befuzzled, yes, B is the whole thing and it is absolutely charming. But the access road will need some work. It would have to be a weekend retreat for us, as I am not sure I could live there alone during the week.

Swedes, what do you like about A? I do like it from the financial side of things and it is sooo convenient. But but also a bit scary suburban, and if we don't end up having kids, it will seem a bit pointless having a four bed house in an estate. Everyone around there seems to have children. I feel it puts even more pressure on me

Jaca, that's the problem. DH works in Livingston. But I want to live in B, C or D and the only way it seems we can make that happen is to keep the the flat for weekdays and spend time at our 'real home' during weekends...

Not ideal...what to do

Having seen them, I think A is very nice, but can see why it doesn't live up to B or C.

My one experience of Livingston was mid-January, mid-week: not just cold & wet, but so dark & grey & miserable. Not somewhere that appealed - though I didn't exactly catch it at its best. Can see why you wouldn't want to be there: like Milton Keynes but without the weather.

West side of Edinburgh sounds like what you are looking for lifestyle-wise, if someone can just scare up a beautiful house in a decent area...

There must be some nice areas to live in striking distance of Livingston although I can see you might not want to go for the exec-detached-estate. Wherever you choose will be in demand from all the other Edinburgh-Glasgow commuters, you might end up picking a slightly unloved or undersized house but in a really great community where you can be at home with or without children. If you find it you will need to pounce on it like a hawk but you'll be glad you stuck out for it. Isn't there anything on the Forth coast along the Tourist Route for example? You really need the locals to fill you in. Don't write off an entire area, I live in the English Midlands which is also a bit bleak and post-industrial but I love my little corner. Don't fall in love with unsuitable cottages in the middle of nowhere, there's a good reason they're stuck on the market.

just to check, have you lived in Scotland in a hard winter? How do you feel about midges?

I'd advise against having two homes. You will end up using only one of them, and you might come to resent the long trek from one to another. In my experience it is very damaging to relationships for one of you to work away from home.

If you are not the one doing the commute it might not seem bad to you, but a long journey is, at the least, no fun, and get get very draining and depressing, especially if there are delays.

Lastly - if you have to ask - none of them.

Piglet

I am already so depressed about this area. Apologies to the people of Scotland - it is a beautiful country, but we seem to have hit upon a bit of a grim place to live. And we gave up mountain view in California to come and live here .

Ideally, we would like a place within 10 to 15 minutes commute to DH's work.
As mam said, I would love to find a little delicious spot that I can love and call home, in this area. I looked online at Dunblane, but it seems an hour away. Maybe west Edinburgh as Auntie mentioned, but where...and it would probably be north of M8 which would probably mean traveling with traffic jams during peak hours.

Gosh, I really need to find something, I just feel so unsettled here. And I want the dog to have a nice big garden asap.

Thanks all for your suggestions. Will keep looking

Hi, can't look at your links but here's what we think about buying, just in case it helps you:

• Only buy somewhere you can sell again fairly quickly, eg if one of you got a job elsewhere or you had a large family or if you lost job and can't pay mortgage.
• Location is really important, both for resale and your own social life. Are you happy having to drive everywhere or would you prefer to be able to walk to places or to use public transport after a night out? Would you be ok with having to drive to next village just to get a Sunday paper or a loaf of bread?
• commuting time for your DH. I think 50 mins drive is the most either of us would like ideally, or 1 hour train roughly. Will train be standing room only? Is that road always crawling with traffic or would you be going against the flow?
• is there enough room for at least 1 child so that you wouldn't have to move quickly again?
• would you be able to afford to cover mortgage on flat if it isn't occupied?

Hope that helps. We are househunting at the moment and have been lucky enough to sell ours in 2 weeks. Our last house took over a year to sell and my poor DH had to endure a very long commute in the meantime which is why resale is our highest priority now.

West Linton?
Don't know about traveling time.

Hmm... harder than I'd expected.

E Huge, if slightly loud decor.

F Great views.

G Probably over budget but Amazing living room.

H Gorgeous inside, and has a kennel. Could be too close to motorway.

Good work Auntie.

I like E and H

Thanks, Auntie. We saw H, but could really hear the motorway so ruled that out. The house is nice though!

E could work but I I'm not that taken with the street it is on...the general area does have some charming bits, so a possibility.

Am a but puzzled by the 15 mins rule. In live suburbs of London and still commute for an hour each way, everyone I know does. Isn't Livingston within an hours drive off west Edinburgh?

I must admit that if DH was working in Livingston, I would assume that we would live in the western part of Edinburgh.
I am no road expert, but think that the original timings you gave for the west of Scotland properties are underestimations.
I too had looked at H online!

befuzzled

If I was moving house for a job, would I choose to give myself two hours a day of commuting hell?

Not if I could get a home without it.

(p.s. I did, and I didn't)

I too think trying to find a house within a 15 min commute is unrealistic.

Maybe 10 years ago it would be possible, but the volume of traffic now means it takes me about 30 mins to travel to my nearest town (rush hour) which is only 6 miles away.

We live to the west of Falkirk. It took DH nearly 2 hours to travel to work near Glasgow Airport last year. This was mainly due to roadworks on the A80. That journey used to take about 40 mins.

True, true - but if it meant living in the suburbs of a big cosmopolitan city rather than on an executive estate in a new town like Livingston I would take the 1 hour commute, personally.

I drive for 1 hour door to door and I actually quit elike it - time alone, no kids, can listen to music/hear myself think.

hi Flatbread,
A lovely morning here in Scotland!
It seems that you have been a bit miss led in your search. If you want a 15 to 20 minute commute for your DH then you will have to look round West Lothian and not be diverted to looking round Largs!
You will have to accept that you are looking at a very small pool of houses and that you also have a limited budget. At the moment, you are not limited by school catchment areas, which is a good thing.
I presume that house H but further from the motorway would be OK? You will probably have to sit it out until house H+ comes on the market. You may have to be a bit open minded as regards decor and possible building work.
probably just sit it out and search methodically in your chosen drive-time catchment area.
Is this the right move for two non-native Scots moving to Scotland? I don't know. Is it possible for your DH to travel to work by train?
Edinburgh is cosmopolitan, beautiful and can cater for all sorts of people. you will find somebody there that you have something in common with. I have lived there and found it easy because lots of people are "blow ins" This is much less the case in Glasgow.
I look at some of the places you have linked to and cringe, but I can't say too much here or I will be flames.
Where do your husband's colleages live?
have they any advice?
We have moved around a lot and taken the advice of local colleagues lots of times. it has worked well.

I absolutely agree. I definitely wouldn't live in Livingston, edges of Edinburgh would be much more agreeable!

tbh it sounds like you need to make a decision about whether or not your husband comes home at night or stays in the flat during the week before you think about houses.

Thanks so much. We wonder too, if we should buy, given that neither of us are from Scotland. We bought our flat here without taking out a mortgage and feel a bit 'free' in the sense that if it all gets too much for us, we can go elsewhere.

But on the other hand, if we give it our best effort to make it home, we would definitely need a place I can love and call home.

We like Edinburgh, but within our budget, we can barely afford a two bed flat. I find it hard to justify spending a quarter of a million on a two bed tenement in New Town or Marchmont, sandwiched between people above and below and no private garden for our poor dog.

We looked at Corstophine and found a lovely 1930s bungalow there. But it was priced at £320k, was only 800 square feet and had no interesting cafes or bookstores within walking distance.

We also looked further in Edinburgh in the Newington area near Holyrood park, but the only bungalow for sale there went under offer very quickly.

Which western suburbs of Edinburgh should we look it? Are there suburbs that have a vibrant mini-high street or does one have to go to the city center for that? And if one has to go into the city center for activities, then what is the point of living in these suburbs...?

I guess I am trying to figure out whether there are interesting pockets outside the city. In Mountainview, we were far away from San Francisco, but we had a lovely village with excellent restaurants, cafes, and a lively feel about it. We also lived in Greenwich in London, with lots of activities without having to go into the city center. Is there an equivalent vibrant satellite near Edinburgh or West Lothian?

Thanks so much. We absolutely love the Scottish highlands, the coast, the absolute beauty of this country. Just trying to find our little corner to call 'home'

I do think we are lacking in interesting pockets. I have always thought South Queensferry looked quite nice but I don't know what it's like to live there and it does seem a bit 'squashed' in the town centre.

Morningside?
balcarres street £299,000 3 bed end terrace garden for dog.

When you moved, did you not view Livingston and surrounding areas before your DH took the job?

you sound depressed and desperate about the whole thing, is there any chance of another job move?

I have read the whole thread again and it seems like Scotland was a dream based on the coastal scenery and highlands. the reality is not like that and I wonder if the dream can ever be realized. You seem to be looking for something that does not exist. Lots of people would love to live in a flat in the West End of Edinburgh and the ones that would hate it would not be looking for a vibrant high street and coffees.

Calendar, Aberfoyle, St Andrews, possibly Perth have something of what you are looking for but they are not within striking distance of Livingston.

I think you made a mistake buying your current flat. Please do not make another and buy an unsuitable property just to give you the stability and feeling of home that you crave.