Our house shortlist currently has just two houses on it. It's a bit head vs heart and I'm not even sure what I'm looking for anymore!
House 1: Large barn conversion. 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms. Beautiful. High vaulted ceilings (presumably with accompanying huge running costs). Huge kitchen. Two (!!) utility rooms. Medium-size garden. Very rural, but other houses close by. 15 minutes to the nearest shop. 25 minute drive to work for both DH and me. Lots of ferrying kids around to friends and activities.
House 2. Very modern style townhouse, not sure whether the style will date a bit tbh. 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms. Small kitchen. No utility room. Tiny garden. Very urban area, supermarkets and city centre very close by. DH and I can both cycle to work very easily. No more ferrying kids around, they can get cycle or get buses very easily. Near a train station, so opens up more job opportunities for us both.
Price-wise there's only about £20K between them. Instinctively I love house 2, however we've been living semi-rurally for almost 20 years and frankly, I'm a bit sick of commuting and driving everywhere. On the other hand most of our friends are local and would still be close by with house 1. The size of house 1 is a plus in some ways, but actually the children will (probably) have left home within 4 years, so I think DH and I would be rattling around on our own most of the time before very long.
Help!