Size of garden versus size of bedroom, which would children prefer?

[denialandpanic]

We are looking at a new build estate in a village (Surrey). The two plots we can afford are

A) Three beds master and equalish size other 2, garage and car park space (you would have to park in garage). A 9m x 5 m garden :(

B) Three beds en suite master, decent second bedroom, tiny (2.2 x2.5) third bedroom, car park space and car "barn". Slightly bigger garden (12m x7m)

The village has loads of play areas walkable from the houses and lots and lots of easily accessible common land. These are the nicest sized three beds we have seen that we can afford in the area. But I'm worried about the garden in option A or one child being consigned to the tiny bedroom for life in option B.

The lofts have so much insulation they are virtually unusable and permitted development rights are removed i.e no sheds without planning permission so the eaves storage in option As garage is very tempting.

Anyway the question is which would kids appreciate more in the long term, more garden or more bedroom????

The local primary school has big ground is v close and even has an outdoor pool for the summer

Another thought, you state that they are plots so my assumption is that they are not built yet?
If not I may have found the perfect solution.

House A doesn't have an ensuite but has 3 equal bedrooms and a smaller garden
House B does have an ensuite but a tiny 3rd bedroom and slightly bigger garden.
Can you not go to the house builder and sacrifice the en-suite for equal size 2nd and 3rd bedrooms? It sounds as though the developer has just nicked space from the 3rd bed for the en-suite in any case.
If it is already built can you find the funds to do this yourself? It won't cost much to move a partition wall and you can sell the brand new and un-used bathroom suite to recoup some of the cost.

I had the choice and I went for garden.

OP could you not find somewhere with a bit more garden and a bit more house? Newbuilds tend to be poor for both of these.

I can't picture the size of the garden, but so long as it is not the size of a postage stamp, I would prioritise the indoor space - so long as it is an area your children can go out to play.

Whenever the weather is warm enough to go outside, I don't see my eldest (8) for goldust - she is outside, playing somewhere with friends. Our garden is wasted on her. A smallish garden is enough, but not too small as it might be difficult to sell.

We have been looking on and off for about two years. Sold out flat in November and moved into expensive rented. Prices round here are horrific and seemingly unbudged by credit crunch / recession / downturn. Perhaps they have started going up a bit slower but that's all. We have looked at every slightly cheaper area locally and a bit further afield and considered moving away from the extremely expensive area we sort of fell into when dp got first job out of uni. Basically I have been spoilt living literally beside work, nursery, school and can't imagine how I would fit an hour drive in each way every day and still do the hours I need / want to do.Plus we have made so many friends. So 385k for a medium sized three bed terrace with a small garden seems to be the choice. It is a lovely area. We are possibly making a momentous mistake. Its very hard to decide.

I am going to explore runtys suggestion with the developer, its complicated by the fact that they are not complete new builds they have retained the "shell" of the old peoples flats that were previously on site and turned them into terraced houses. Either really sustainable or a way to make planning easier and avoid affordable provision depending which way you want to look at it.

All opinions very gratefully appreciated, its really food for thought. I suspect we will dither so long someone else will buy the plots in questions and perhaps that will be for the best.

denail :( The price of housing is quite depressing isn't it. I'd like to move house (not area, just house) but to get anything better than what we have I need to pay 2.5 times what this place is worth. There isn't much in between and what is in between isn't worth moving for. So here we stay.

I think if you have been looking for two years you know what is available in your price bracket - you aren't just jumping into the first available thing. You have now sold and are in expensive rented, which isn't good for your finances or your peace of mind. If you are sure that these places are good value for money in your area, then I think you should just make your mind up which you want.

Can you actually see the garden sizes yet? Have you seen them? What size (in actual measurements) is your rented garden? If you can't see or picture the difference in the gardens, go to someones house with the bigger size garden and measure out the small one inside that - or go to a park etc

Is there anything else to choose between in the two places? Better size kitchen/dining area, end of terrace, etc (other than the parking/garages)?

Depends how you lay out the garden. We decked our entire (tiny) garden and block paved the adjoining driveway, so the whole area is now all-weather and totally flat - ideal for scooters/bikes etc. No weeding or mowing, no muddy patches in the winter, no cat poo to tread in!

As for bedrooms, as they get older they only need a bed, wardrobe and computer desk. We swapped our DCs over once oldest outgrew her 'toys', so she now has smallest room and youngest has the biggest room filled with plastic tat.

Like you, we have plenty of parks nearby and the older ones go off with friends to play out. Younger ones go to neighbour's houses to use their trampoline to play with their friends.

I'd defintely go for more indoor space than bigger garden. My kids are 5 and 8 and when we bought this house before they were born we imagined they'd play out loads in our garden which is fairly big (ish). Well, they haven't. The weather is hardly ever nice enough where we are in the northwest to make much use of it, even though we are south facing (well, not for the past few years). Last year, they had the paddling pool out in April (!) and October (!!!!!) and there were never any nice enough weekends in between really.

They have after school activities or go to friends' houses during the week or we have to do shopping or whatever after school (I work school hours) so there is not a lot of opportunity during the whole year to play out in the garden anyway. During the winter when they have friends over to play and can't play in the garden, believe me you will be glad of bigger bedrooms! But as someone said above, once they get past THAT stage, of lego and other toys everywhere, then they don't need so much "playing" space in their room I suppose.

As long as there is somewhere to put up a paddling pool, they can kick a ball around a bit and you can put a table/chairs/barbecue out there, that's all you need.

Plus, bigger gardens make for more maintenance!! We are thinking of extending onto ours - not sad about losing some garden, we just need more inside space!

We have reserved option B :) Fingers crossed

Well done and good luck! Was the developer able to help you with the bedrooms or did you just decide to go for it anyway?

We just went for it, visited again sunday and the bigger garden and the fact that the "car barn" is now getting doors, ie. is a wooden garage, swung it. To be honest if option B was gone we would have had option A. now for the 28 day exchange race argggghhhh

Well done on making a decision before they both went

Why do you need 'fingers crossed' and why is it an exchange race? (Where are you - UK?)

oh I just need something to worry about. We have agreement in principle for the mortgage but there seems to be constant media doom and gloom re mortgage availability at the moment which makes me scared there will be a problem. The developer wants us to exchange in 28 days which also should not be a problem but I will fret until we have the mortgage offer!

It's just such a stressful time moving house, isn't it ? You don't feel relaxed until you are actually living there.

Oh I see :)

If you have 10% deposit and neither of you are self employed then you should be OK.

Good Luck!

Are you getting in early enough in the development to have a say in any of the interior colours/fittings/design?

Well preferred mortgage company A was pretty positive today yay! We are fortunate to have >10% deposit and not self employed. We get to choose kitchen counter tops granite / quartz. Then they say it "will be painted in a range of Farrow and Ball / Little green company paints and either wool carpet or quality wood laminate flooring, tiles in bathroom and kitchen diner". Not sure what input we get in anything other than kitchen counter tops, I need to find out.

OOoh yes, you have to find out, anything they haven't yet put in, you should be able to get a choice in, which is nice. If it's all going to be new, it might as well be something you like & the colours you like :)

Mtge sounds good!!

It all sounds really exciting! Fingers crossed

I'd go for the bigger garden. We are out in ours in all weather.

Small bedrooms don't bother me. As a teen I was mostly sat on my bed reading/watching tv/ playing computer so I didn't need "extra" floor space. Plus if one room is bigger I'd have both kids sharing a room anyway.

A big garden is always my top priority when looking at houses.

Oh I see you did.

Good luck with it all.