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Property/DIY

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Original poster

is going from detached to a semi a backwards step?

44 replies

dizzybiatch · 26/08/2012 22:49

We have a detached house. Past 2 houses have been detached. We have 3 young kids. Looking to move and not finding much in our price range that is detached.

Would buying a semi be a backwards step? My father seems to think so.

OP posts:

lljkk · 27/08/2012 11:39

DH takes that atttitude, quite tricky as we now live in detached & I want to move to area with much higher house prices!!

financialwizard · 27/08/2012 11:54

Having lived in terraced, flat and semi-detached for the last 4 years (work accom) I would now pick detached over anything. I much prefer the peace of it though.

Trills · 27/08/2012 11:56

Not if the area is better or the house is nicer or it has a better garden.

It's very unthinking to suggest that the attached-ness of a house is the only quality that makes it better or worse.

fussychica · 27/08/2012 12:20

It's not a backward step if the area is better but if you are used to living detached you may not like it. We've only lived in one semi and it was fine initially until our neighbours moved and some nutters moved in. It was a nightmare and we moved in 10 weeks (thank heavens). We vowed never to live semi again. That has been difficult on two occasions - once when moving to an area where the housing stock in our price range was mainly semi cottages and more recently when we returned from abroad with a limited budget due to being unable to sell our house in Spain. However, we stuck out for detached and got it but have had to compromise on space but not area to do so. With 3 kids it could be you that's a problem to your neighbours as well as the other way around.

Original poster

dizzybiatch · 27/08/2012 13:18

fussy tbh i am more worried about my kids making noise and feeling i have to keep them quiet all the time rather than having noise from the neighbour. I wouldn't mind a bit of noise between 8.30am and 8pm. What i would hate is noise that would wake us up early or stop me getting kids settled at night. During the day while we are up i can cope with a bit of life.

OP posts:

lljkk · 27/08/2012 13:22

yeah but I'm currently living in large detached & having terrible neighbour problems (see my thread in Chat). I wonder if we lived in an area of more, er, like-minded people, if we would have an easier time.

Original poster

dizzybiatch · 27/08/2012 13:31

lljkk can't find the thread. Can you direct me there or tell me whats been going on with your neighbour.

Funnily enough my df has only ever has hassle from the neighbour beside him in the detached house not the one thru the wall!

OP posts:

fussychica · 27/08/2012 13:32

dizzy our problem was wait for it --- incredibly noisy, screamy, sex - thought he was going to kill her the first night we heard it and was close to phoning the police plus opera music on full blast - again the first time was so bad I couldn't hear our own TV above the noise. They had no kids but 2 barking beagles! We couldn't sleep at all and as we were both wotking had to drag our mattress downstairs every night to the dining room which wasn't attached just to get some rest. Luckily the woman who bought our house was completely deaf and sent us a Christmas card saying how much she loved our house! Ok it was extreme but ......
Since living detached we have got used to playing music, not thinking about how much noise we make etc when we are inside the house and I wouldn't want to give that up. Good luck whatever you decide.

Original poster

dizzybiatch · 27/08/2012 16:35

fussy sorry that really made me

Sounds like a scene from Sleeping with the Enemy.

I'm just flabbergasted they did it everynight, with the music and such enthusiasm!! I could perhaps muster up the energy for a nightly quicky but not a shagathon!!

Glad it all worked out for you!

OP posts:

wannaBe · 27/08/2012 16:41

well, we moved areas and the difference between a detached and a semi was about £100k. so backwards we had to go.

kilmuir · 27/08/2012 16:43

depends on house and area.
we have a detached and I would hate to move to a semi, would feel sorry for neighbours as we are noisy

fussychica · 27/08/2012 18:03

dizzy makes me laugh now too - I wouldn't mind but I think they were older than us

Hulababy · 27/08/2012 18:07

Depends on individual house/area/etc.

Our first house was a detached house. We moved from that to an apartment, and from the apartment to a town house (end terrace.) However, each move has always been a move up, not back. All of them were new builds.

Our apartment had more floor space than the detached house, was better located and was worth more.

Our current house is a townhouse - but it is larger than our detached or our apartment were, again in a better area and worth a fair bit more again.

lljkk · 27/08/2012 18:09

This is my thread about neighbourly woes. DH, me & DD all extremely upset about prospect of moving, trying to be practical, but just UGH. And much higher house prices for less. Ugh ugh ugh.

Blackduck · 27/08/2012 18:10

We live in a semi, my neighbour has two children, we have one. We hardly hear each other (adjoining walls are corridors not rooms) so depends on the semi!! Next house is detached - but only just :)

Hulababy · 27/08/2012 18:12

BTW we rarely hear our neighbours at all. When they first got two new puppies we sometimes heard the dogs in the early hours or late at night if they were "crying" and we can hear if the neighbours do heavy diy - banging, drilling, etc into the joining wall - but this is very very rare. Rest of the time we hear nothing despite there being 2 young children and 2 boisterous dogs living there. It's a new build and maybe they are built in a way which avoids this. Was same in our apartment - infact even more so, never heard the people above, below or next to us.

Original poster

dizzybiatch · 27/08/2012 20:37

lljkk that sounds awful. For what its worth we have had a similar situation here. Not in our street but in the village. Its so sad that a few people can have such a devastating effect on a family that they feel they have to move. They should be ashamed of themselves.

OP posts:

lljkk · 27/08/2012 21:00

Thanks Dizzy :).

QuenelleOJersey2012 · 28/08/2012 11:26

You have to judge each house on its individual merits. A detached house with neighbours who make loads of noise at night in their garden (eyes next door's dog) is no quieter than a semi.

You might find a semi you can afford that actually has a larger square footage than your detached. Similarly, you might have more outside space if the semi has a big front garden. Our detached house has no front garden at all, just a narrow flowerbed and opens almost directly onto the pavement.

I do understand about not wanting to be attached though, we have had trouble in two previous houses with noisy neighbours.

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