Family home wish list

[TheGirlWithGlassFeet]

We've just started looking for 'the family home' after accepting an offer on our small and impractical (but lovely) cottage. So far we have one DS who is 9 months but would love another soon.

We are looking for somewhere bigger with a nice garden and an extra reception/dining room but I'm curious to hear from those with older DC to find out what works well in your home or what you wish you had.

Off road parking
Garage
Shed
Garden

Utility room
Bedroom for each child + spare
At least 2 bathrooms + downstairs toilet for a 4/5 bed house

Big kitchen diner with space for a sofa if poss
Separate living room

2 bathrooms (or family bathroom/em suite/downstairs loo).

Sunny, private garden with enough space for eating, playing, bike and equipment storage and a vegetable patch. Hedgehogs would be nice, but not essential.

A bedroom each. Ideally your bedroom will not have an adjoining wall with a child's bedroom so that you will feel able to have sex at times other than 3am.

Kitchen with room for two people to do stuff without getting in each other's way.

Attic to store things in.

Biggish hallway.

Space for a dishwasher.

Enough space for different people to be in different rooms.

Some sort of den/playroom for the children's friends.

We have just moved and moved into a character less house in an area I didn't really want to be but I love love love it now.

Because the house has all the boxes ticked and is £100 grand less than our desired area we can make it how we want it - eventually. We have an eat in kitchen with views to the garden. 1 mile from primary school, 1.5 to secondary. Off road parking, a utility room, downstairs loo - we didn't have any of those before and I wouldn't be without them now.

We have 2 living rooms - 1 of which is a play craft area - bliss. We are lucky enough to have 2 bathrooms, so we use the shower room and kids the one with bath in.

Phil and kirsty bang on about location but to live in our prefered area we would have had to sacrifice all that. Our house from the outside is plain and boring but I only spend 5 mins a day looking at it. I don't have a proper hallway and would love one, I have a tiny porch that is rammed with bags coats and stinky shoes.

We are lucky to have lovely neighbours as well.

Location. To me, this meant walking distance to park, at least a small shop, and likely schools. And some transport. Doesn't need to be near a Waitrose, posh restaurants, or a posh area (which is how we afforded it...)

At least two toilets, and at least two areas for socialising. A big hall is great even past the buggy stage (scooters, so many shoes, bags, coats, chest with hats and gloves and torches...)

Table in sight of the kitchen, but otherwise not open plan (friends with open plan downstairs and a teenager are currently fixing that!)
Meet the neighbours.

We compromised so have tiny garden, and a lot of decorating to do, probably in a decade when the kids are grown up...

Our house has bags of soul op. So much so that we spend hours renovating, repairing and maintaining it.

Hours (and money) we don't get to spend elsewhere.

School catchment would be my priority.

In decreasing order to me:

Less than one hour commute

School catchment (including breakfast club and after school clubs)

Affordable even during nursery £1000/month years

The number of bedrooms

Garden not northern facing.

Two receptions

Everything else is a bonus.

Schools. Schools and schools. If you are moving with a 9 mth old jen up on primary and secondary catchments.

Yes that is a concern mission I would like to have some spare money and time to dedicate to other things. It's just hard to accept that the dream family home you always imagined is not to be. Still to be in a position to have a family home makes me extremely lucky.

We live in a large village with one secondary school and a few primary schools. All are good and undersubscribed so schools aren't an issue thankfully.

Although I love our little cottage it's always nice to stay with other people who have much more space, especially with DS. I think it would make things easier so that will be the priority.

Thanks for all your words of wisdom

Yes definitely schools are important. And commute time.

In the house itself -

Storage
2 toilets
Separate spaces for when they're playing Xbox or whatever
Eat in kitchen

My kids shared bedrooms quite happily for years but like having their own space now they're older. And we're just hitting the stage where desks in rooms are really handy.

I sounded really bitter didn't I! I'm not really. The house with soul give us space inside and out plus great schools. Our options round here are limited (very rural) so you kind of buy what you can. Very few new builds, or at least none with more than 3 beds.

Good luck with the house search. We compromised in the end but did get the big things on our wish list. Took nearly 2 years to find it