Which of these houses would you pick for your Forever Home?

[TisapityshesaGeordie]

I should start by saying we haven't offered on either yet, so there's a good chance we'll get neither!

We currently live in a small city outside London, and we love it here. DH commutes in daily - train journey is under 30 mins. I'm a SAHM, DD is 5 and at an Outstanding primary school that she (and we) love. DS is 3 and at an Outstanding nursery down the road from DD's school, at which he's pretty much guaranteed a place next year thanks to the sibling rule. We've accepted an offer on our current house, and our chain is complete - they're just waiting for us.

House A is on the outskirts of a different town, about 5 miles away from where we are now. It's huge - 1000 sq feet more than we have now, and their asking price is £15k under our maximum budget. I absolutely love it - it's pretty much my dream house, or as close as I'll get to it in this part of the world with a limited budget. It's on a quiet street near a river and a nature reserve.

However. It's at least a 20 min walk to the station - which is a stop further down the line then we are now. DH's train journey would be closet to 40 mins, and with that and the longer walk he'd never see the kids before bed - which he loves to do. He leaves very early in the morning so is gone before they're up - he'd have an even earlier start if we move here.

The local primaries are fine, so we could move DD - but if we decided not to (because her current school really is amazing), I'd be driving the school run at peak times on a busy commuting road every day - 6 times a day for the first year while DS is at nursery.

The local secondary is Outstanding, and less than half mile away.

A smaller factor to all this is that I'm very active in our local theatre which currently a 20 minute walk away. Moving here would make this much more problematic as DH wouldn't be home in time to let me get away. Other things like play dates and nights out (we don't have many but enjoy them when we do) would be more problematic - although there are plenty of kids activities and bars and restaurants in the nearby town; it's not like we'd be moving to the middle of nowhere.

Have I mentioned it's my dream house?

The other house, House B, is round the corner from where we are now. It's handy for school, the station and the city centre. It's a nice house - very nice - and is about 400 sq feet bigger than we have now, so big enough, but not huge. It doesn't put us in the right place for the best secondarys in the area, but the nearest ones are still good. You'd have to work hard to find a bad school round here tbh.

Downsides are it's right on a busy main road - and round the corner from the hospital, so you'll have siren noise at all hours; has only on street parking (which is always tight round here), and I don't love it. Can't imagine spending the rest of my life in it. DH likes it more though. Its asking price is right at the top of our budget.

Well done if you got through all that! What do you think?

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-46719039.html

I dont know the area, but I'm bored and your budget is much more fun than mine :D

What about a cheeky offer on the one above ?

Or this one, not all to my taste but so much potential and i love some of the rooms !

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-48691119.html

Whatever you choose, make it work for you. Your OP is all about times and scheduling and distances like they are fixed, and most of the time, they aren't.

For example - change the kids bedtime - or don't have one, and go with the flow, if that suits you better. Eat dinner later as a family. Then put the kids to bed together.

Get a nursery place that is 2.5 days instead of mornings or afternoons. Get a childminder for the nursery run so you don't do it as often or for flexibility.

See if your DH can start earlier finish earlier, or do a half day, or wfh even for an hour or two a week. In many places that doesn't work but equally in many it's doable and you can but ask. For your theatre, find a babysitter. Ask a friend. Set up a local branch of your group. Invite local people. Expand. Take your kids with you and get DH to pick them up from you.

Just....make it work. Flex. Nothing has to stay the same as it is unless you want it to. If it doesn't work for you, change it.

I would choose b on the grounds of having more quality time both for yourselves and with the dc.

I'd go for B. Normandy road isn't really a main road, and the hospital is only minor injuries so no sirens. It's so close to town too! If you don't like driving, you'll probably get fed up in Batford, and it's a big old hill to walk up to the town centre. The new secondary school planned for harpenden may mean that you won't get into SJL from there anyway. If the school is a big selling point of A, that's definitely worth looking at in more detail.

House B
Lovely house..even outside.
I would not put myself somewhere unfamiliar with lots of commuting and no family time for a house. Especially as B is really nice

I don't know the areas well so can't comment..

I wouldn't move and keep the children at the same school, you want local friends and doing that drive 6 times a day would be crazy!!!!

I was going to make the point that 30 minutes on bed time will be gone in the blink of an eye. Very soon they will staying up later.

I would choose A for the garden alone. B seems already to be extended though I love the front of it. A is already a lot bigger and you are less likely to grow out of it.

Saying all of that, going from 30 minute commute to 60 minutes is significant if your DH doesn't love the house.

House B is much more attractive with lots of character. Lovely location too. Harpenden isn't that great, and with the low ceiling in loft room and ugly car port it doesn't look appealing to me. I do think being nearer to everything is a huge bonus. We moved closer to my DH's work so he has a 20 minute commute and he is so much happier and healthier.

Put them to bed 10 mins later. House A. Problem solved.

B is beautiful, A has a great kitchen. It the rest is a bit meh and the car port is ugly. An extra 30 minutes each way on a commute for your DH means an extra 5 hours every week that he could be spending with his kids. If you are sticking with current primary school it will also make having friends for tea, etc harder.

I'd go for B and maybe re-evaluate when your oldest is nearer secondary school age.

I'll put a vote in for neither. I sold, rented, then bought. And yes it was an incredible pain to move twice in one year with all our mountains of crap. But it did mean we were ready to pounce when our forever home came up, in fact the only reason our offer was accepted over another was because we were chain free.

House A, it will mean a bit of pain short term doing school runs while your son is at nursery but you can live with that I assume.

As the kids get older, and stay up later, the being at home to see kids before bed resolves itself.

You are thinking ahead to secondary and situating yourself in a good position providing the school is consistently outstanding year on year. If it wasn't then there is always the possibility that by the time you dd goes to school it may have slipped.

I have done a similar thing but it's my commute that been extended (we are almost exchanging)we are moving to a bigger house in a better location, further from my job and outside of the area for ds school, but still ok to do the school runs. To an area with a consistently outstanding secondary school that ds school feeds into. DS is only 7 but I'm planning ahead!!

B!

What way do the back gardens face?
That would be a deal breaker for me.

Now going to see this one on Saturday - it's been on for a while but has just been reduced to within our budget.

It's not quite as handy for town and school as House B, but is still just about walking distance, and it's bigger (though the garden looks a bit poky) and has parking. DD has a (slightly) better chance of getting into the Outstanding girls' secondary there - though it doesn't help DS.

I'll report back when we've seen it.

Forgot the link!

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-48599142.html

Ooh. Actually I just checked on the Herts website and the school they are currently classing as the nearest to that house (House C) is a bloody brilliant co-ed.

I live on the Luton road in Harpenden ( on the bloody Turing to Roundwood School) and drive past House A a lot
I totally get where you are coming from on house A it's a lovely house and the schools and area are amazing, have you checked the flood risk aspect on house insurance as when we re did ours recently they said as we were within a mile of a flood risk river it would up the premium massively ( I pointed out the massive hill in the way and they re-assessed) so that's something to keep in mind. I personally would prefer Batford over St. A because of the schools and the area.
You do get used to the traffic and most of the ambulances and Fire Engines use Luton Road (rather than Lower L R ) as it's on the main route/Road from the ambulance/fire stations. To be honest you tune the noise out of the traffic and sirens only sound when the traffic is very heavy. Feel free to PM me
I used to live in WGC and moved in with my DP 3 years ago so used to moving and getting used to the change of living on a main road

Fingers crossed for you. that is a much better house than either of the others and quite the blank canvas.

Ps there is a cut through on the Nature reserve to Station Rd which cuts off a fair bit of walking time too and many many men here Cycle to the station( yup in suits etc.)

house A is the nicer house by far, BUT
location B is better by far.

time is precious, you will both be spending too much of it in travelling.

Walking distance to primary is precious, lovely place to be

BUT secondary comes round faster than you think and secondary school is pretty important

OH, just seen the new one.
lovely, much nicer than B with the same location advantages

(really didn't liek the seperate kitchen adn dining room in B, not with small children, a table in the kitchen is essential for me)

B looks rather cramped and that kitchen would drive you mad after a time - I know, because it's very like ours, and I'm sick of the fact that as soon as there are two people in there they are constantly getting in each other's way.

Now I've seen House C, I'd say that's the best of the three.

I discounted house C when I looked because the garden looked teeny. Hope it ticks all your boxes, the inside is lovely

Thanks for the advice and the offer, MissCherry, but I think I've made up my mind that we won't be going for House A. We'd miss too much of our St Albans life to make it worthwhile.