Which house would you choose?

[TheVeryHungryPreggo]

House A: modern and well-thought out finish, small but neat garden, recently renovated. On top of a hill, stunning views. Parking for one car. Backs on to one of the best primary schools in London so you would never be out of catchment. A bit of a hike to the nearest stations, coming home would be a 20 minute walk uphill at this end. 2000sqft, 6 bedrooms - 4 double and 2 small singles. Slightly overpriced for the size.

House B: old and half again as large and needs some TLC, but not in need of significant work besides plumbing (new bathrooms) and wiring, the rest is paint and carpet jobs. 6 huge double bedrooms with original fireplaces in each. Large garden with pond, patio and greenhouse, end of terrace and on a corner so not really overlooked - also has parking for 3 or more cars (we only have one car btw!) Right on the edge of catchment for an excellent school - you may or may not get in - but other primary schools in the area have recently been Harris'd or had a change of leadership so there are options if a bit further away or wrong religion. Costs 150k less than House A and is closer to two stations - and on the flat!

We are torn. House A is beautiful and neat and modern and is next to a great school. We wouldn't have to touch anything, it's perfectly finished already. But House B is exciting, the exact layout we like and somewhere we could really make our own - and when we went to see it my two year old loved it and loved running around the garden. We could spend less money on it and on stamp duty and have more to do it up... DH and I really want it for ourselves! But we are supposed to be moving for primary schools and there probably isn't much point moving to a house that isn't guaranteed a good primary school close by, especially with the cost of moving.

WWYD? Either? Neither? Keep looking for one that ticks all the boxes of schools and style and space? Children are 2 and not-yet-born but due in summer... I'm also a bit of a nervous driver and worried about driving up in the hilly area, lots of narrow residential streets and sharp too-high speed bumps.

Appatite ours is 6 bed, was 7, and ours rooms throughout the house (bar the smaller room we use as an office which is 11' x 10') are massive!! Ours is apparently 2100sqft over 4 floors inc celler. Our kitchen is one of the biggest we've ever come across as is our master suite. So the theory of the rooms being small I would strongly disagree with, sorry.

Fwiw too, older properties do not necessarily cost you more in repairs etc if everything is done properly.
We lived in a 6 year old house (our only newer house, never again) still under it's 10 year warranty and the roof leaked and we had draughty windows!! The insurance people wouldn't pay out even though it was clearly their error (lead flashing issue), and the window installer had gone bust!! That's the only problem we've ever had with a house and we've always bought old, they are more substantial, have soul and built properly imo.

Apatite sorry I stand corrected! Ours is 298sqm, I thought it was 198sqm damn conversion!

Ha ha choccy your house is over 3200 sq ft! apology accepted

Yes, the bedrooms are rather small in the 2000sqft house... I think it's actually less than 2000sqft and that includes the garage in that count, so it's not huge. We would struggle to fit two desks/PCs/chairs into one of the double bedrooms along with a bookshelf and some wardrobes (because not enough space in the master for the kind of storage we need)!

But there is a third contender as of this morning... Any fans of Lee here?

House C is a 4 bed house, old on the outside but newly renovated and extended by its current owner, a developer. All bathrooms are lovely! Kitchen (new) and diner is open plan and big - one end could be a good play area. Garden on the small side but large shed and patio, off street parking for one car. Small front room. Very close to three good primary schools, and to Lee station, so a better commute to work for me and DH. And it's a short walk to shops/GP/parks, along quiet - and flat! - tree lined streets. We saw the house at 10am and spent the rest of the morning playing on Blackheath common!

Cons - it's not as good for the cats - they are indoor cats and while I'd let them in the garden, supervised, I wouldn't let them roam. It might be a bit cramped for them as I wouldn't like them upstairs - one has peeing issues so they might find it too small. We don't know anyone in the area. There isn't a room suitable to use as a study, and the 4th bedroom is loft extension and is basically all sloping roof, so nowhere to put a normal sized wardrobe except on one wall which would block the window! Nowhere for DH to put his weight lifting stuff unless it would fit in the shed.

Actually, I think I've talked myself out of it just now... Shame, as we really liked the area!

I like Lee but personally I would still prefer Beckenham

Definitely B for me! We are - and always have been - old house people and have never considered a newer property, although having refurbed six and just started on our seventh I am starting to tire. That's probably because we do masses of the hard graft ourselves which some people don't of course.......

Sounds as though house B 'feels' right and I'm another heart over head person - when we bought what was supposed to be our forever home (sold up after ten years) on the South Coast it just felt right when we walked in the door. Even though the vendor had converted it to four manky flats, it still had a sense of the Victorian grandeur intended when it was built. Despite the gross brown bath (stained - it was meant to be primrose yellow!), I swooned at the prospect of the potential awaiting us. That was a 3500 sq ft, six bedroom house and there were just the three of us, but with family that visited frequently and it never felt too big......well, not till DS went to uni and we did start to rattle around a bit.

Our current Victorian/Arts & Crafts house is 2000 sq ft but with four beds and whilst the receptions and master are pretty large, the other three beds are not massive, I guess it does depend on the distribution of the space whether it feels roomy or not.....otoh, our last house (a Georgian vil?age house) was larger at 2500 sq ft and whilst the kitchen was humungous at 36' (plus three other receps), the bedrooms were all quite pokey.......

The garden would also be important for me - our 'forever' house had what was considered a large garden for a city (65' x 35') and it felt in proportion to the house. When we sold that one we bought a period house with tiny wrap-around garden (majority of the land had been sold to developers) and even though it was just DH and me, the outside space felt overshadowed by the surrounding houses.....didn't stay there long!

Depending on if you intend to be 'hands-on' with the work, doing it with young DC shouldn't be too much of an issue. We always choose to live on site and did so even when DS was tiny - we moved into our first proper project when he was six weeks and just got on with it.....again, that's not for everyone though - most of our friends thought we were crazy. DS learned all about DIY watching us and the trades we had to get in for some stuff though and despite being a geeky kid who went on to graduate with a degree in philosophy, at 25 he's now on his own second refurb project and loves getting his hands dirty.

B :)

I want to see them! who are they on with?

How incredibly rude JackieHarris! I don't think anyone was anywhere near that unpleasant to you on the DailyMail/frothing thread! or are you joking??

Op I would go with house A. The views are so very good up there, it does the soul good to view them every day .

I am rather bored of Victorian houses, they all feel the same to me now. Wish I could move to a town house but stairs are a problem for my aged Mum and I will have to wait until she passes on. And never ever understimate how important catchments are!

House A doesn't have details anywhere; I think they're not 100% that they actually want to sell so they haven't let the agents do floor plans or photos. If it sells, nice, but they're not really pushed either way.

House B is here: www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-50105117.html but the photos aren't great I think - they don't show the good bits off or show the bad bits at all!

I know the price probably looks very scary to those of you who aren't buying or selling in London at the moment; it is a lot of money but our own flat has doubled in value because of the location - which makes this affordable and we can still keep our original mortgage and just port it over. Now that we've been looking for a while, I think we've just become normalised to eye-watering prices in this part of the country... The first weekend looking I was honestly shocked by people charging a million pounds for a very average four-bed semi, now it just seems par for the course!

The link's not working x

Sorry, just had to go to my PC as I can never do this from mobile!

House B www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-50105117.html

House C www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/36128332?search_identifier=e4ad1d70516ecb904702e46d6023cc49#TSh61flKH78QGzZu.97

Aw house B is lovely!.... Some random shots of fireplaces though :/.... Also some interesting artwork on the walls :)

Ha! You've just reminded me.. they also have a room full of weird artwork that didn't even make it onto the walls! I saw another house not very far away from there that had a room full of china dolls, which was a bit uncomfortable, when you're trying to examine a room but conscious that your every move is subject of a hundred glassy stares...

Either subject TO or THE subject of, silly baby brain, my typing skills have disappeared into a black hold...

Hole. Goodness. I am on my PC now, I can't even blame autocorrect for that one...

Haha! Creepy!

Beckenham is nicer (by far) than Forest Hill.

Definitely B. Think longer term.

Just seen the links you posted - am confused by you calling them House B and House C. It's the Beckenham house you should buy - don't be confused by the nice empty space and white walls of the other one!

I'd go for b, but then a garden is all important to me, and I would hate to back onto a school. Noisy!

C looks nice too, but I'd go for the space.

Is this how descriptions are worded now?

The Beckenham house is much bigger and in a better area, albeit £100,000 more. The Other house is expensive, because it's been decorated nicely, but it's much smaller.
If you bought the Beckenham house and did it up, it would be worth a lot more than the Other house. Think long term. I am only slightly jealous!!

I know, there is no link to House A but I put in the other link because we saw House C this morning - think I was more taken with it because it was next to a nice school, I liked the area and it was lovely and sunny - even though the house itself probably doesn't suit our needs.

Right, DH wants to know what you think of this house in Penge:

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-33523452.html

Be sure to take a good look at the garden...

B..B..B..B!!!!! It's fabulously gorgeous. Put an offer in before somebody else does.
(I'm incredibly envious by the way!)

Well the Beckenham house looks gorgeous (compared to House C IMHO). That's the house I would like

But I am going to go against the grain and say please consider your secondary school options too. A lot will change and you may be perfectly happy with the idea of moving again in 8, 9 or 10 years' time. And obviously schools do get better or worse etc. in that time but just bear it in mind, even if only at the back of your mind, please? It's an enormous hassle to move to get into secondary catchment for the first child with younger kids already settled in one primary, or having to find new primary places for younger kids etc.