Would you buy a huge apartment in a better street or a smaller house in a not so good street

[Kaloo20]

I am struggling with the very British middle class concept of houses over apartments as a famly dwelling. I am reluctantly downsizing and everything I look at gives one of the dcs a box room size bedroom, and a cramped amount of living space in comparision to what we are used to. Plus they are usually not what I want and the street is not as good as I wish. Typically everything I like is out of my price range.

Well .... now I have found a freehold conversion apartment (cannot being myself to call this a flat!) where the smallest bedroom is 17 x 9.3 but is directly off the dining room. I just not sure if this would work (although DD is very keen and is not bothered by the double doors).

It has a lovely patio area for me to potter, a good expanse of grass for the children (admittedly on a slope) and a copse at the back where I could build them a fab treehouse. (DS loved this area)

oh hell, look here is the link

Your opinions please
DCs 8 and 7

ps I must tell tech apostrophes are not working

It looks lovely Kaloo.
Find out where they keep their washing machine above you too.
I had a friend whose upstairs w/machine drove them mad on top spin thru the night!

Well, it looks huge, excellent that it has two toilet/bathrooms, excellent that it has a reasonable kitchen plus dining room PLUS utility room. There is room in the garden for a shed (overflowing toys, bikes etc), the bedrom in the side extension has nothing above it, so if noise from above is very troublesome, you sleep in there, or put the most noise sensitive dc in there. I thnk it's lovely! It has fabulous original features, beautiful fireplaces.

But I would find out who lives on top, and whether that causes noise / car parking issues - do they bang through the hall v late at night, park 3 huge vehicles in the front and splatter gravel in all directions as they rev away? I see a window in the attic / second floor is boarded up?

I have huge concerns about the layout working for family life. The dining room has no direct light and having the rear lounge as a bedroom kind of seals it off.

[doom][gloom]

sorry but to me from the floor plan that is a 2 bed flat with loads of entertaining space. Might work with one child, less sure about 2. Would also be concerned about upstairs, would you own the entire freehold or a share, and security (ground floor bedrooms at front) ?

Location is more important than size imo
looks like a nice place but agree with Soupdragon re layout commens

It's the entire freehold.

Could you split bedroom 2 into 2 smaller (8 x 10) bedrooms - adda window to the side for one of the rooms. Then at least both dc's bedrooms would have natural light. Shouldn't cost too much.... Knock a window in the kitchen wall too and make kitchen/family room into one giant kicten diner, Then you'd still have 2 receptions on top.

Both DC's rooms do have natural light, it's the dining room that doesn't, it gets it's light from the open walls either side of the fireplace from the huge kitchen skylights that flood the kitchen with sun all day.

I am toying with getting one of those light pipes into the dining room (see anther thread I have open). I don't want to knock it about really. It's really just the rear lounge (bedroom 3) layout with the dining room that is worrying.

Cellar bathroom is going to get a refit into a fab luxury bathroom with fully lined walls, a new staircase and recessed lighting etc. At the moment it is exactly what it says - a bathroom in a cellar!

The big bonus about this is even at full price it's below my budget, even after doing the bathroom and my mortgage will be smaller than anticipated, giving me a little more money to live on each month.

Everything else I am looking at is 30-40K more expensive

Ok then how about adding a partition wall a couple of feet away from the left hand side of the dining room to create a small hallway to the 3rd bedroom at the back? The dining room would still then be big enough to be a dining room and dd wouldn't have to go through dining room to get to her room. French doors from her room to the gardne wouldn't be aproblem I'd have thought, unless you'r worried about being broken into at night?

What you plan with the cellar bathroom sounds lovely by the way!

Definately go for a better area if you can. A good guide to what the neighbours are like is the condition of the communal hall.

I would try to visit at different times of the day weekday & weekend too to assess noise levels.

I'm still undecided, I want it for all the right reasons but I still can't get over the dining room and the fact it's on one level

thank you Califrau you have just voiced all my fears....

huge appartment

sounds great, looks great kids are happy
bring it on!

I like it. Dh would hate a flat, but I quite like the idea of a big apartment with a huge garden or even huge communal gardens.
the rooms are HUGE and I keep thinking you could knock the back rooms together to make a wonderful family room.

just to say, my 2 year old DD's bedroom is off our dining room, and that hasn't caused us any probs

but this is a house (strange NZ room arrangement). I would look VERY CAREFULLY into how soundproof and private the apartment is. It's lovely though, and huge!

I like it.

We live in a flat, all rooms are on the same level. It's a purpose-built block of 6 and we have no problems at all with noise from neighbours. Admittedly, we are the only ones with children. For us the good location, the space and the distance to the school make it difficult to leave, although we are expecting our 3rd in only a 3-bed flat with not huge garden.

The layout doesn't bother us, although DH thinks that "go UP to your bedroom now" would have more authority than "go to your bedroom now"