upsize: large three bedroom or small four bedroom?

[midnightOK]

we are trying to sell our current property and buy a large house. Our current one is a three bedroom semi with a small kitchen and small garden. Ideally I would like a four bedroom house with large garden. However, I rarely find anything within my budget which fits these criteria. Should I go for three bedroom with large garden then? My kids are young and always like a large garden.

I would. Can you extend in the future? I hate small cramped bedrooms. Or is one big enough to divide into 2? Reconfigure upstairs?

Get the three, I maybe in time a loft conversion will give you a great fourth bedroom. It did us.

How many dc do you have? If you don't have 3 or more dc what do you plan to use the fourth bedroom for and how often would it serve this function?

Have you got 3 children OP?
Agree that many 4 bed new builds especially have tiny bedrooms other than the master bedroom.
A traditional bigger style 3 bed semi have at least 2 huge rooms and one smaller (not as small as new build)

We just made a similar move and ended up with the big 3 bed. For us it was 100% the best decision. Spacious bedrooms make the entire house feel bigger. In our old place our bedrooms were small and cramped, as a result they were hardly used. Which put more strain on the living space, which in turn made the place feel more cramped.

I do think it depends on each homes lay out though. We viewed lots of 4 and 3 beds and some houses with higher square footage just felt smaller somehow. It's also about how your family uses the space. We know that we all tend to want to chill in the lounge together as a family, so focused on a house with a large lounge.

How can we help you make a decision if you don't mention how many children you have?

We have 3 DC and bought a 3 bedroom house. All the 4 bed houses in our area were either significantly out of our price range or had 4 pokey bedrooms. Our house has 3 double bedrooms and loads of space downstairs as the previous owner had extended significantly. Our plan is to do the attic at some point, probably in the next 3 years or so when the younger 2 need a bit more private space

Depends on what you want to use the fourth bedroom for, but buying a 3 bed then building a garden room may be cheaper and might serve your needs better than having a 4 bed or extending a 3 bed.
Wouldn’t work if you need the 4th to be a small child’s bedroom, but if you’re after an office or craft room or something it can be brilliant (even better if you can make it en-suite and use it as guest room too).

So what did you want the 4th bedroom for? How many children do you have?

Personally, I’d be inclined to go for a house that has big rooms and can be extended further. Paying for a small/big garden depends what you need- I’d work out what space you need to do the things you want in it.

thanks a lot for all these very helpful replies. I got two children and would like a fourth room just as an office or occasion guest room. Our current house got two double bedroom and one small single bedroom. It's fully open plan downstairs which I find can be annoying sometimes. And the garden is small.

Depending on how often you have people staying over, you could just get a sofa bed for the separate reception room downstairs. At least you wouldn’t suffer pokey bedrooms on permanent basis but have the large bedrooms of the 3-bed houses.

In terms of office space, we’ve got a small study but DH likes to use the dining room as it’s nicer to be in a larger room. Some people put an office building in the garden if they work from home a lot.

So I’d just look at how flexible the houses are and how you could use them.

thank you all for these great advices. We will definitely start to look at large 3bed houses now. Hopefully we can get hold one before long.

We have two DC, are presently in a 4 bed but would consider a 3 bed if they are good sized rooms and there are other options for reception space downstairs for a study, or money left to create a garden room. Unless you have regular visitors it isn't worth having a "spare room".

I'd go for the bigger house with few bedrooms (as long as there wasn't a compromise on the location) and either extend or put in a garden office.

NB could you extend also into the loft for a guest bedroom?

I find with modern houses if you want 3 good sized bedrooms (and good downstairs space) you have to go for 4 beds, we use the box room as a gaming space for DH, it wouldn't work as a guest room as it's a single, still a useful room though.

Depends on whether you work from home or if the office is more for use as a casual place for filing, books, computer stuff?

I would have happily opted for a large 3 bed a year ago, but with both DH and I now working from home full time (we did two days each before so were never home together) we decided we needed 4 beds, or space to extend/convert a garage to make a small office.

We looked into garden rooms but decided it wouldn't be as convenient as we couldn't supervise the children if we weren't inside the house (ours are still young 3 &6) and sometimes we like to start work early in the morning while they're still in bed or chilling in front of the TV before or after school/nursery