Advice re renovations plz

[LovesBeingAMum]

Hubby & I are looking at buying an old house that needs some renovation work & an old farmhouse as caught our eye!

House is on a lovely site but needs alot of tlc. Downstairs has a small kitchen & 2 seperate, small reception rooms.

I think we should keep the 2 seperate recpn rooms but hubby thinks that we should knock the 2 rooms into one & have a big room with a central fireplace. I know that we would like this space but this will only be our home for a few years and I think persepective buyers would prefer a small sitting room & then a wee kids den/homework room.

Which do you think you'd prefer from a practical, family life view?

IMO people will prefer seeing one big open space rather than two small spaces. could you knock the wall down and have double doors that fully open in between to give the best of both?

I have seen a beautiful house which has knocked through but installed floor to ceiling wooden doors that, when shut, look just like a panelled wall. It's painted white so is lovely and light and tucks away so not obvious when the doors are open.

Very jealous!

Um: not being troll like here, but curious: why do you guys want to buy and renovate a place if you are only there for a few years? Is this an effort to make money or because you just enjoy a challenge? Which it is will make a difference to your tactics. Try checking on roghtmove locally to your purchase what the other places locally are like and try to judge whether a larger "character" room is worth more (it may well be). Also think about who you will be trying to flog it to (family, childless professionals, commuters?) amd of course if you have DC yourself will it be possible to safely do this around them?

(and from what you've posted I suspect a family would prefer a bigger house esp if the kids are big enough for homework, so unless it's got pots of extension potential I'd prob concentrate on making it nice for a couple ie one big room)

We will be moving in a few years due to personal reasons and would like a project that will hopefully make us money, however this is not our primary objective.

We want to live in the house as a family and due to the location of the house and large gardens we feel that it will appeal to a family when we go to sell it on, however the house is not the biggest it has 3 bedrooms so would suit a modern family of 2 kids comfortably.

Does anyone have any experience of central fireplaces seperating a room? What are your views on them?

Right, so rather than this being a purely investment property you want to make it yours, but with an eye on resale value, I get it. I must say you're brave to take on a project knowing you'll not be enjoying it for long at the other end, but fair enough! Keeping a double-sided fireplace to seperate the room into two would I think work very well in a peripd property: it would emphasise the character while opening the place up (and presumably avoid any bits-falling-down issues that you can get if taking down very old load-bearing walls). The only thing that would be odd would be ultra-modern fixtures: I think that more "traditional" styling would suit an older house with fireplaces better.

why not keep it structurally the same - but decorate it to a high standard ? maximise your profit as you need to clear overheads like moving costs when you move again in a short space if time . Just give it the wow factor !!