Is this the opposite of a tardis?

[RCheshire]

This house is good looking from the front, in a nice location and with an ok (but not big) garden.

The thing is, the rooms all look really small from the interior pics. I think this is partly down to poor photography as the room dimensions look ok. The exception being the bathrooms (which are definitely small) and the kitchen (some juggling/combining of dining/kitchen/utility needed I think, maybe utility > cellar).

So is it an anti-tardis (smaller on the inside than the out) or potential to be ok with some changes? Am not a huge fan of only two beds on the first floor as it means at least one child (or both) on second floor, but that's because the first/second floors are a much smaller footprint than the ground.

i guess its because the house is semi detached - looks like it should be one house but actually you only get one of the bay windows at the front, etc....

It's a long thin house. I think it has scope.
I'd knock through from the kitchen to dining room. I'd also knock through from the dining room into the lounge, installing sliding doors (the ones that retract into a wall cavity). Or, someone I know has installed frameless bi-fold doors between her kitchen and playroom. Very funky, you can see what the darlings are doing, but not hear them.
The lounge would be my family room/ play room and the front room would be my grown up space. I'd consider getting rid of the separate utility as space is tight. Just hide appliances behind kitchen cupboards.
How old are the DCs? Perhaps if they're teeny they could share the room on the 1st floor, then move up when older. Teens would appreciate this.

Its just getting your head around town house living. You get the rooms on a small footprint. I agree about opening uo the back of the house to have one large living/dining/kitchen. Factor in a downstairs loo. Is there a bathroom on the top floor? I can't make out what it is. If not that would be nice too.

My DD's room is on a different floor to me, but she is only just going into this at 2 now she can go up and down stairs well. I just kept her in my room untill then, I don't imagine it will be too much of a problem if your DC are old enough to use the stairs well.

Pretty. I agree about knocking out some walls to give you a more open plan living space. Although the rooms aren't huge, they have nice high ceilings to stop them feeling too poky. Kids on a different floor is a drawback or an advantage depending on how old they are really.

I like it.

There's a gardener's WC accessed through an external door (it's part of the house beyond the utility). The dining/kitchen/utility needs combining. There's a (tiny) shower room on the second floor.

The big pluses are a 10min walk to the primary, 5 min walk into the centre of the village, 5-10 min walk to massive country park, 10 min walk to 25 min train into Manchester.

And the price. It's an awful lot cheaper than other houses we've been looking at, so a massive difference in financing.

This is the one we were already planning to look at in the same area (main house is 3 beds but they're so big I think you could split one of them into two child bedrooms) but it's obviously a lot more:

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-16462749.html

It's the semi thing. Looked like a detached house.

Ooh now thats a mighty fine house RC, thats just my cup of tea!

Out of the 2 I wouldn't go past the second house, BUT its almost £300k more, thats an awful lot of money.

If you can afford the more expensive house comfortably then I think you should discount the first, however 300k just keeps spinning in my head.

If this is a long term home, I think the second offers you more scope too, that barn is amazing, think of the 'play house' that could be for your DC, or if you were so inclined further living space, or holiday cottage.

I would also where ever possibly buy a detached house rather than a semi, I'm in a semi now purely because we couldn't get the size of house as a detached for our budget. I wouldn't recomedd it and I have fantastic neighbours.

Yes, me too oreocrumbs. We've not looked at them yet, but on paper then without a doubt I'd go for that second one. Fairly pricey for the area though despite the fact it's lovely/has a barn.

It's just the head/heart thing I guess. Both affordable but completely different situations in terms of mortgages/spare money/reliance on future earnings not going down etc.

I suspect we'd move again more quickly with the first, although we're only talking baby and toddler, which is a bit different to two 10 year olds.

Well, I suppose you will have to be sensible about the money side.

My DM gave me this advice. Before you have children, buy a house that could accomodate them if they came along and you couldn't move.

Once you have children, buy a house that can accomodate that number of adults - in case you can't move or can't get them to move out!

I think its good advice, because if you love your home and want to stay, you need to have the space to accomodate two (or anymore there may be) teenagers, who all want their friends round, who all want, computers, tvs, pool tables etc and most importantly space from their siblings!

Of course you could manage in any house, but since you are looking at this budget, I would be inclined to go for as much house as you can have.

Oooh, the second one is gorgeous! No contest. They're both nice houses but if you can stretch to the second one I would.

you could think about a two storey side extension on the first house to give you a big family kitchen on the ground floor and another bedroom and family bathroom on the top floor. You could then merge one of the other bathrooms into the one of the bedrooms. This would cost £150,000 or so and you would get an amazing house

Marple Bridge is lovely too - and so much nearer to get to civilisation than Compstall which although nice might be rather isolating with a baby and toddler. the road itself can be busy though and rather narrow with people going up towards Rowarth so check that out when you visit.

Thanks Lucycat, good to get input from someone who knows the area. That second house looked like only a moderate walk into Marple Bridge, much via Brabyn's park - do you think it's more of a hike?

We currently live 10-15 mins drive from the nearest shop to put things in context ;)

The 'busy road' - are you meaning Longhurst Lane? Sadly there's not loads available that appeals (& our search area is massive). Marple Bridge would be quite a good balance of three of the things we're looking for - countryside, ready access into Manchester and a village (one still with shops/school/pubs etc)