WWYD - prioritise office space or location?

[MedusasBadHairDay]

We're looking at moving later in the year, probably after April, and so are looking at our options.

Currently we're in a 2 bed, so we need to move to at least a 3 bed so the kids don't have to share a room anymore. That's fine, there are a few decent 3 beds in our price range in our preferred area (the town we currently live in).

The problem is that, like a lot of people I now wfh full time and it's been confirmed that this can be a permanent change - which I'm thrilled about. But it does mean that my current solution of working in the living room isn't really my ideal long term solution- I'd prefer a home office. While some 4 bed homes are coming up in our price range, most are 20-40k above our top limit.

However in a town 30-40 minutes drive away there are a lot more 4 beds in our price range and they are usually bigger and nicer too. The town seems comparable to where we currently live, in that it's ok but not remarkable. But does mean moving further from most of DH's clients and from both our parents (both already 45 minutes away)

DH is reluctant to move, tbh so am I. It's not far, but will make his daily commute longer. But are we being silly not to go for it to get a better house?

I would go for location. A long commute is very wearing IME and it feels worse the longer that you do it and that's time lost forever.

Comissioning a built-in cupboard might be a good solution. When I lived in a flat we had a floor to ceiling cupboard. There was a desk-height shelf with a slide out keyboard shelf. The chair could have the back lowered enough to fit underneath the shelf and there was a higher shelf that held the printer and files etc. There was even a top shelf for supplies like paper and printer ink. The whole thing could be shut out of sight in seconds.

Alternatively, depending on what sort of place you buy, some older homes have very large master bedrooms. For example we had a Victorian terrace where the master bedroom was at the front and the full width of the house. If you had that then you could buy a really pretty freestanding screen/divider like these and set up your home office in the corner. Close the screen up against the desk to maximise bedroom space when you're not working, pull the screen back to and arrange it to block the view of the bedroom for when you're on video calls.

depending on the age of the children, you could move to a 3 bed but keep the children sharing (primary age often like sharing) so that you can use bed 3 as your home office.

that would only work if the house had potential to extend & put a new office in the garden or attic when the children get too big to share.

Also, look up images of 'office in a closet' - you can fit the physical stuff of an office in a small space that can also work as a dining room if needed.

Just one more thought and on the subject of open-plan - it might be easier to find the space downstairs than upstairs. You will find that many houses built before the turn of the century will have been originally built with a separate dining room, and even if this has since been knocked through it would be relatively straightforward to restore a partition wall.

@parietal

depending on the age of the children, you could move to a 3 bed but keep the children sharing (primary age often like sharing) so that you can use bed 3 as your home office.

that would only work if the house had potential to extend & put a new office in the garden or attic when the children get too big to share.

Also, look up images of 'office in a closet' - you can fit the physical stuff of an office in a small space that can also work as a dining room if needed.

We're moving specifically to stop the DC sharing a room, DS is nearly 9 and DD is 7, so rapidly approaching a point where they won't be comfortable in 1 room.

There's been some really helpful suggestions in the thread, so thank you everyone.

We are in the same position, first time buyers originally looking for a two bed but now looking for a three bed so we can have a home office. We would love to stay living where we are now but are coming to terms with the idea of moving further out so we can get more for our money. My partner will be wfh full time so I think it's really important that he has his own office space. We are currently both working from the living room and it's really hard. Neither of us would want to do it long term.

Completely agree that you are more likely to find the space downstairs. Smaller properties often have a single-storey extension. If you're willing to restore a partition wall you may have quite a few options. I'm not usually fond of conservatories but in this case if you can put a proper roof on an existing one to use year-round then that additional room downstairs could become your home office.

That's a good point. We found when we were looking that loads of three bed houses have had a small extension over the years to have a kitchen diner - leaving both an original dining room and a lounge behind. We considered some as you could easily make one room into an office (but the ones that came up weren't quite right for us).