Help me decide between two properties!

[Redbirdy27]

So we have been looking at properties for over a year and struggling to find the perfect house (it doesn't exist!). We are moving counties for a better lifestyle and to be near family. Kids (primary school age) will need to move schools but they are on board with this and we've found a village school near our chosen area with places.

We lost a buyer last year but have now sold our house and need to decide between two shortlisted properties. Our buyer will not wait much longer so we need to choose between:

House A - a converted attached barn on the edge of a farm. Quite rural, no amenities in immediate vicinity. 5 mins to nearest village. It's huge but there are low ceilings (DH is 6ft2) in many rooms and lots of beams - he has to duck to enter the kitchen! No windows in any bathrooms and poor ventilation in kitchen (no extractor or means of having one) - only one small kitchen window. The house has loads of character and is quirky with great period features but is listed and unlikely we could alter it in any way. We've been wooed by its charm and character and the possibility of owning something special but it's not necessarily practical - the kitchen/diner are separate and access to (north facing) garden is only via lounge (carpeted). Some rooms quite dark as small windows and north facing garden. It's been on the market for over a year and despite the value it offers relative to its space they haven't been able to sell it as it overlooks the farm sheds - worried we wouldn't be able to sell it either in the future (or is it just because of Brexit affecting the market at the moment). We can afford this house but it's at the top of our budget.

House 2 - a detached one-off new build with private driveway. South facing garden overlooking fields. Fantastic huge kitchen diner with brand new kitchen and nice finish. Some rooms lack character at the moment as everything is all shiny and new. This house is half the overall size of house 1. Chalet style with sloping ceilings upstairs. Bright house as south facing garden and bi-folds. Situated directly on an A road (more like a B road) in a village with a local shop (about half a mile away). Local school is outstanding and highly sought after for future resale (although our kids will not get in - they are full). We can afford this house comfortably but it lacks a reception room compared to house 1.

Really struggling to decide but need to make a decision soon! They are so different. House 1 is more practical but smaller and on a main road. House 2 is more isolated, much bigger but adjacent to a potentially noisy and unattractive farm!

Neither.
House 1 sounds claustrophobic, it is grade 2 listed and is on a farm. All negatives.

House 2 Sounds too small for what you want and it is on a main road.

Either rent or Airbnb for a while till something comes up. Sell and in about 8-10 weeks I think you will find more choices come on the market

From your description it sounds like you prefer house 2. Lots of focus on the positive aspects & not so much with house 1.
Personally I'd choose house 2 because I would hate to be remote but that's my preference only. Suspect if you want to move quick house 2 would be quicker conveyancing wise too.

House 2- I'm short but god the beams, your poor husband!

You can always make a house a home. You will always put your stamp on a new build and you'll soon forget what it originally looked like. I grew up in a house similar to what you describe and I'm so glad we had photos of us visiting when we were little before we moved in as the bare rooms and incomplete garden look so strange to me now!!

Have you ever lived on a farm, OP? Lovely fields, unless they spread on them, flies, noise at ridiculous o’clock, as farmers have to start so early. They don’t work 9 to 5 and even if they’re not working with machinery, you’re still going to hear the back doors open and close. Sound travels right across the fields, so you’re going to hear everything.

You can make changes to and extend the new build.

If you regret house 2 it sounds like you could sell it easily. Not the same for house 1- that sounds like the sort of place that you need to fall madly in love with and stay in forever or rue the day you bought it

Exactly what I was going to say.

If your circumstances change, or the move doesn't deliver the lifestyle you want, or for whatever reason you need to move (and let's be honest, Brexit means a whole load of uncertainty for most people), House 2 sounds like it would sell far, far more easily than House 1

I wouldn't go for either of them. Chose where you want to live, rent & wait for an ideal house to come onto the market. Don't let lack of time force you into a decision that £100's of £1000's rest on. But that's me. I like big gardens and quiet roads and access to amenities without having to worry about driving & car parking. I like to visit quirky but would never be able to live with quirky on a daily basis.

House 1!! Big and characterful wins it for me. You need to love the house you are in and you also need enough space.
I've had bad experiences choosing what I thought was the easier more practical option.... I just ended up hating it.
Go for something you have some kind of strong feeling for and that will carry you through the negatives. If the house is just all 'ok' rather than having any strong draw then you may end up hating it

Working farms can be very noisy environments throughout the year with tractors running and noisy animals. So despite the house being isolated I wouldn't bank on peace and tranquillity.

Farms also mean dust and flies in the summer, mud in the winter. Smells potentially anytime of the year.

Having lived in a rural listed building I would go for the modern property. Listed buildings are money pits! I now live in a newish house and I love the simplicity of it. Beams and banging heads get old very quickly.

House 2 would be easy to sell on if you change your mind, if only to hopefuls for the oversubscribed primary school.
North facing garden only accessible through a living room? There are so many disadvantages to house 1.

I'm not a lover of new builds but going by your descriptions I'd go for house 2. It might be head over heart but it sounds like a no brainer.

I wouldn’t by either, I would wait.

I have lived in listed quirky beautiful fairly remote houses for 20 years. We sold a house on a rural A road a couple of years ago. It had low beams here and there. Quirky but beautiful.

It took more than twelve months to sell because folk didn’t like the road or the beams.

So I wouldn’t buy house 1 or house 2.

I now live in a house that was built 15 years ago. It overlooks parkland and is on a dead end road with ten houses on it. The convenience of a modern house is incredible, warm, insulated, cheap to heat, maintenance virtually zero. I love it.

Having lived on a rural road I would not buy a house on one.

House 2 or wait until house 3 comes along

You can extend house 2 and there are more bedrooms than you need so one can be a playroom as your kids are old enough to play unsupervised. Also your kids might take after DH and in 6 years time you might have 3 of them banging their heads on the beams in house 1

House 2. I live in a listed building next door to a farm. I love rural living but it is noisy and we have flies, rats and all sorts of farm smells! The house is also really expensive to maintain and heat.

House 2 would be easy to sell on if you change your mind

I don’t think it would.

I have tried to sell a place on a main road and the feedback was always lovely house but it is in a main road.
Had to reduce it substantially to sell

But a main road in a village is nothing like a main road in a town. And the OP says it’s more like a B road...

I’d choose house 2 every time. Quirkiness and character is overrated IMO and light, space, warmth, efficiency, low maintenance and ease of access to amenities is worth far more to me than beams, low ceilings and being on the edge of a farm.

House 2 sounds more practical but in a few years you are going to want to be in a separate living space from your DC. You will miss that other reception room.

House 2, much better to actually live in

House 2

My ‘main road’ was in a hamlet and my house was accessed down a private farm track. The garden was an acre and bordered the farm track and the road on two sides.

It still put people off. I didn’t realise that it had taken a year to sell before we bought it (before all the rightmove info that is available today).

Without seeing and knowing the road it is hard to call but having lived on a road I wouldn’t do so again.

From your deacription I would go with house 3! Wait find one you really like that ticks some more boxes. At a push house 2, but it really doesn’t sound like house 1 is a good idea.

One thought is how busy the road is at certain times. My folks live on a rural road but there is an abattoir about a mile away so they get loads of traffic at times where the shifts change.

Also, the barn might be 5 miles from amenities but will you be able to walk to them from house 2 if it is a busy road?

Don't overestimate the importance of a south facing garden.
We had a north facing garden and hardly used it.
We've moved to a house with a south facing garden and it's made such a difference!

Sorry that should say don't underestimate!!!

I wouldn't buy either. Can you rent for a while instead?

House 1 doesn't actually sound that nice, for all the character - dark, low ceilings, I can't stand bathrooms without windows, and I would never buy a north-facing garden.

House 2 is better on paper, but doesn't sound like it's big enough long-term. I also wouldn't want to live on a main road, regardless of how quiet - it's more the speed of the cars going past and how busy it might get in future. If you really don't mind the road and could afford to extend soon then maybe, but I'd hold out for something closer to what you want.