Opinions on this house please - heart vs head!

[Pootles34]

I'd really appreciate opinions on this house please. Its sensibly priced for the area, but a few issues - no off road parking apart from the garage, and the layout is a bit peculiar - but I think maybe that's just an older house thing? Obviously it'll need a bit of updating (bathroom carpet...!), but we'd be happy to wait to do that.

I love the garden, and the house does look really cosy. We haven't viewed yet as our house isn't on yet, although it will be in the next week or so. I'd really appreciate any thoughts - thank you!

That cottage would drive me round the twist. I can't see how it would suit a young family. I wouldn't even view it.

I would view Bravo's suggestion because it's cheaper, more practical with two young children (off road parking, nice garden, all the bedrooms are upstairs). You could always use the saved £20k to build over the garage and make bedroom 3 bigger and create an en-suite to the main bedroom.

It would need a bit of reconfiguring but stage 1 could be:

• gut the shower room upstairs and turn it into a small bedroom for a 4 year old. Then all of you would sleep on the one floor and the downstairs bedroom becomes a study / guest room / playroom and the downstairs loo.
• put a wall up to the RHS of the entrance door to make an entrance porch / mudroom. This would stop the direct access from the rush into the kitchen for privacy, drafts etc.

Then second stage:

• open up the wall between the kitchen and dining, move utility into to entrance porch, have one big kitchen diner with duel aspect.

I don't think you'd be able to build another floor above the garage without completly knocking it down and building a new two storey extension, which you may not get permission for.

It all feels really small and claustrophobic to me. I couldn't live in it.
The parking wouldn't be an issue for me though.

I'm not fussy about houses but honestly, this would drive me mad.

The layout just doesn't flow and the third bedroom being downstairs with only a skylight and with an entrance off another room would be a total dealbreaker.

@bravotango

I like it a lot, the parking thing wouldn't bother me at all. There looks like there's another house just down the road that has slightly less charm but possibly a better front garden situation?

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-90251576.html

Still like the cottage though. Your plan described above is a good one

Yea I much prefer that. The cottage is cute but with children I think I’d take space over cute. I guess you have to imagine 10 years times when you have two almost adult/teenager age kids who will take up more space, want friends over etc.

It’s a very personal choice though. It you value charm more than space then I can see why you like the one you found .

I love it!
So much potential. I absolutely love the beams and its warm coziness. It has a real 'French farmhouse' feel to it. It's a real 'home', isn't it? And the garden is fabulous. I can imagine a family being incredibly happy in such a home.

I think the boring one maybe would be better actually. I was just cooking tea thinking if it was that cottage - the kids would be 2 rooms away, iyswim. I think we'll view it still just to make sure, but I think the 4 bed one is probably better - and cheaper!

I brought my family up in a similar place. We eventually converted the garage.
We had walkie talkies at one point when the DC and I were on different floors.
Check it has enough storage and think about covering the pond.

Hmm some things are lovely, some aren't.
I wouldn't be worried about the parking, if it is OK to park on the pavement and quiet lane.
Lovely stone cottage, fireplace, character, lovely garden

Not lovely
bedroom 3 is awful, no window, squished in the middle of the house, fine for an office, not fine for a child's bedroom.
kitchen is awful too, long narrow and pokey.

I am going to make a guess that it is not possible to remove the wall between the kitchen and dining room, I bet it is one of the old cottage walls and is too thick.

if money were no object, but without needing to move any walls (which are probably impossible in an old cottage) I would make the garden room into a kitchen diner. Lovely big bright family room with dining table etc.
make current kitchen into a bedroom, with access to the ensuite. Nice bright room with windows, and not far from bottom of stairs
make current bed 3 into a study/office.
make current dining room into playroom/kid's zone

gut the shower room upstairs and turn it into a small bedroom for a 4 year old.

That's what I thought too.

It's lovely and has loads of character, bit it's clearly not a sensible choice for a family home. Having said that, my husband and I are both heart buyers and have never bought a sensible house! We've always been very happy in our homes though and most problems can be overcome with a bit of imagination!

I love it! Please don't park over the pavement though - think wheelchairs or prams!

gut the shower room upstairs and turn it into a small bedroom for a 4 year old.
yes I was thinking this house has more than emough bathrooms!
Then bedroom 3 coudl be a guest suite.

i would still move the kitchen to the garden room though.

Interesting that they have the dinding room labelled as adining room, bu thte table is all the way in the garden room. Food will be cold by the time you get there!

Have you looked at many others? We fell in love with a house very few others liked but it had our heart so I completely understand why you would be taken by it . However I think it may be dark and rather impractical

I think its lovely. Lots of character. Living in York there are many houses where you have to street park (I've not had a driveway for over 20 years!)

Wilberfoss is a quiet little village so it's not as if you're walking out on to a main road.

I'd go for an old house with charm any day, over a new box that looked exactly the same as the neighbours.... just my personal choice though.

I know the village and the on street parking wouldn't be an issue per se but it's not ideal with a 4 year old but not an issue, & I adore character old homes, however I don't think for a family of 4 at those ages it's the right house. The bedrooms, and the kitchen are too small & to take out the wall in between would be a big job. Lovely but not right.

I think it's done me the world of good being bought up in a small house with lots of people. I look at a house like this and I'm baffled by comments saying that the kitchen is small. I rented a flat where the kitchen had no window and, was a double cupboard wide by two double cupboards long. That was small and I still managed fine.

@Pootles34 have you noticed that the table lamps and overhead lights are switched on in every single picture except for the garden Room ones? I think it would be incredibly dark with no lights on and the lie dark ceilings.

Yes I did notice that Mrs.... I think we're going to see it, more to discount it than anything else. I have a feeling that once I'm in it it might feel pokey and dark - i'll just have to try not to look at the garden!

I really don't like it, sorry.

There is really only one parking space directly outside because of the corner. The street view image has a car in front of the house next door too.
That said, I think this is a gorgeous house which is liveable for now and has loads of potential for later. I'd put both your boys into a shared suite upstairs 'you've even got your own bathroom like a hotel!' And use the bedroom downstairs as a playroom for the next 2 or 3 years. By then you'll have worked out how the space works for you and you can make any changes from a more informed position before your boys hit puberty and may want more privacy ( or not, you never know they may prefer to have an Xbox room to entertain their friends than a bedroom each by then).
It will be darker than a modern house, but the garden is big and lovely and you are on a quiet back street in a village.

It's a no from me. It's dated and dark throughout and would require a lot of money to bring it to a decent standard. The kitchen at the front of the house is a big turn off and so is the general layout of the downstairs. The only nice feature is the garden, hence why that's the main photo!

I am just about to move into a house with a bedroom on the ground floor... but it has three windows. Bedroom 3 of your house isn't a bedroom as a PP pointed out... and I would worry about building regs and planning. Parking and being on the road aren't an issue if it is quiet as you say.

It could be a fab two bedroom though. I would make the whole of the original footprint open plan with the stairs going up the middle to get more light in. Bedroom 3 would be an office/studio with sofabed for guests. The garden room would be a playroom/teenage hangout when they are older.... but how long would your children be happy to share? I don't think it is really big enough.

Would it be possible to go up into the roof and create a third bedroom there? At the same time you could create a lightwell over the stairs to bring more light into the ground floor.

I wonder if you could get planning to get a window in Bedroom 3...

I like it! It has charm, and feels like a proper home rather than a bland plastic box.

Ideas to make it work for you...
Convert one of the two upstairs bathroom or shower room into a bedroom. Doing so shouldn’t be too costly, will add value.

Downstairs- ideally convert the long, narrow living room into a kitchen/family room. U-shaped kitchen on the street-facing wall, then table, then sofa at the south-facing garden end. This gives you a dual aspect, good-sized, good shaped family room.

The current kitchen becomes a large entryway/utility/pantry/etc, but with everything contained within full height cupboards. This gives you a really practical area that makes life very easy to live in.

Utility becomes downstairs loo, if you think you need it. Otherwise office/music/x-box, whatever.

Current dining room is a living room (from pictures it already is!).

Sun room is play room/day room.

Bedroom 3 stays as us, but as a guest room (or office).

The location sounds great-in effect a cul-de-sac. Loads of village houses are straight onto the pavement but this is a properly quiet one.
You have parking with garage, road, etc.

Personally I don’t understand why anyone would choose the other two houses suggested upthread as an alternative!

It's a bit dark for me and pokey. The living room is like a corridor. I much prefer square living rooms. I don't like the kitchen but if was opened up into a big kitchen diner that would be an improvement.
The layout is really odd. I prefer more downstairs than upstairs space but only if it works.
I quite like the sun room and the garden is ok.