Good living space or big bedrooms?

[Snakesandpropertyladders]

We are currently househunting, we have 1 DC, and hope for another.
So far we have found 1 terraced house, which is beautiful, with lots of features. It has 4 bedrooms, 3 of which are good sized doubles, 2 bathrooms, and lots and lots of cupboard space. The downside is that the living room is very, very small. The only other living space is a kitchen diner and a large conservatory.

We had it in our heads that we would spend most of our time in the conservatory, but I'm wondering how practical that would really be?
I've read on here that they are either too hot or too cold. It does have underfloor heating, but I understand that's incredibly expensive to run. If we couldn't use the conservatory as a reception room then we would be very cramped downstairs. The living room just about fits a small sofa and an armchair but I can't see that there would be room for toys etc. The garden is also not great so not much scope for extending.

Our other option would be to buy a semi-detached house that has a good sized kitchen with room for a table, and a large living/dining room. The bedrooms are small, with only 1 proper double, 1 small double and a tiny box room. It is on a large plt though and has a huge garden so there's the potential to extend at some point in the future (years, and years away though as we don't have the money for anything like this right now).

We are really torn and I must admit it's keeping me awake at night! So I thought I would ask you wise mumsnetters for some advice.

The other long wall should still be able to have a 3 seater sofa even if there Is a door. It's 15ft long and a 3 seater sofa is 7 ft long so unless the door is exactly in the middle of the wall you should be fine.

Could remove the cupboards but I like them so wouldn't want to.

You can see how small it looks with just a two seater and an arm chair.

It actually looks like a fairly standard sized lounge for a terraced property.

Yes, that looks like an ok sized room for something that isn't a diner as well.

I guess it all comes down to what else is (or is likely to be) available in your area and budget. It's all very well having a list of "must haves" or "would likes" or "abc is more important than 123" but sometimes you just have to work with what's there.

For me, that room would be fine for a family of your size (including subsequent child). I would consider 2x2 seaters maybe if you really feel a 3 seater won't fit. I wouldn't consider blocking the door to a cupboard as a deal breaker for positioning furniture, more a case of considering what I'd put in that cupboard (stuff that doesn't get used a lot for eg).

Children playing in a room don't need loads of floor space.

If you feel that you can get a better arrangement of rooms in a property that ticks all your other boxes and to a timescale that suits your plans then absolutely do not compromise at this stage.

Consider however, that if you otherwise love the house and it's indicative of the properties on the market in the area you want, something better may not turn up.

In our case, we viewed all the properties we could afford that met our minimum requirements in the area we wanted to live. The place we're in now was the best of the bunch. I've kept my Rightmove & Zoopla alerts live (because I like to torture myself ) and in the last 12 months not one property has come up that is as good as where we are, never mind better.

I would go for the second option. We live in a large terrace and find it frustrating that most of our space is upstairs. We use one of the upstairs rooms as an extra living room but it's not ideal with 2 small children and stairs.

And remember the more space you have the more you have to clean

The second property is out of the question because it's next to a tip.

We aren't in any hurry to move but I would like to before prices increase even further. I think my DH is being unrealistic in what he wants for our budget. We currently live in a period conversion with mostly very big rooms. The layout isn't great though, there's no storage, the kitchen is tiny and miles from the living room, we have to deal with an incompetent managing agent etc. We have DH's relatives staying quite often and they have to sleep in DS's room which is a major inconvenience.

DH wants somewhere with big rooms, a big kitchen/diner and a large living room, but even the semi's with big plots have small living rooms, and/or tiny galley kitchens. There is more scope to extend though, but realistically we couldn't afford to for many years. So we'd be living with the small cramped space for a long time. Those houses that do have good downstairs space tend to have small bedrooms.

I think it's me trying to persuade a reluctant DH that this house offers more than we, realistically, are likely to get without extending somewhere. Since we are already stretching our budget and plan another child, I can't see us having enough money to do an extention for years. By which time any DC will be older and not wanting to sit in the living room with us anyway!

I can sympathise. We moved from a flat that was the top floor of a double fronted massive Victorian house to a good sized terrace. Even though we gained a lot more space in the terrace, the proportions of the rooms and the stairwells etc are so much less generous as they were never grand houses.

A flat carved out of a majestic building always distorts your perception. My friends in Wimbledon went through the same thing as again, their 2 bed flat was the ground floor of a much grander house than they could afford. They are in a tiny 3 bed semi now that realistically can only be 200 sqft more than their flat! At least its all theirs though!

Ooh maybe you lived in the top floor flat in my building! ;)

Don't think so as I know my former neighbours have already (and recently) bought some place new :)

Good luck with the move-- it took us quite a few viewings to adjust to the reality but hopefully your husband comes round so you don't lose out.

Living space definitely. We have 2 good doubles and a box room upstairs but a decent sized double reception and a kitchen which we just extended. This means we can move the dining table out to the kitchen area and use the second reception as a playroom / eventual study space for our DD and about to be born DD2. We spend the majority of our time down here and very little upstairs, we had a study/guestroom in the smaller of the two doubles and it barely got used by us. We are planning to do a loft conversion to get another bedroom and ensuite bathroom a few years down the track.

We bought the biggest fixer upper we could get and we've had renovations ongoing through the last 3 years including both of my pregnancies. It's been tough but we have a much nicer house at the end.

Flat definately do distort your perception. Every flat I lived in was a new build and so all the walls were perfect and everything lookedbrand new. Come to buying a house and wow a real shock, imperfect walls etc, door frames that are chipped and not quite straight. Some things you can fix but some you either need to rip and redo and then its a case of cost v neccessity.

Luckily my 80s house is in super condition but when I recently had it double glazed the workmen pointed out how the openings were not straight and now I noticed it when I never did before arghhhhhhh

Corner sofa along the door wall and into the bay, plus a nice 'snuggler' sofa on the other short wall?

Like this, maybe with a console table along the back to fill the gap before the window.

www.pinterest.com/pin/513973376193762072/

tart-house.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/bay-window.html

Snakes and property ladders - our lounge is the exact layout as yours. However, we have a 2 and 3 seater. It feels cramped especially when dc toys are out. When we have visitors we stay in the kitchen diner.