Big garden vs. large public green space (woods + playing field) on doorstep

[FiveSecondsMore]

If you had a choice between a house with a generously-sized private garden but 15+ minutes' walk from the nearest nice public green space, or a house with a very small garden, but two minutes' walk from a lovely, decently-sized wood with an adjoining large grassy field for playing games/sitting in the sun etc., which would you choose?

To respond to a pp about whether a 5-bed is necessary, DH and I sometimes prefer to sleep apart (e.g. when we're working on different schedules, which happens fairly regularly), and we also need a study for working from home, so that's 3 bedrooms we'd be using already, before any kids enter the scene. It seems like unnecessary hassle to get a 3-bed only to have to upgrade in a couple of years.

It's also important to us to have a detached place, as we're musicians and don't want to disturb the neighbours or have to be careful about noise, so that really narrows down the options.

A with any child not old enough to go out by themselves. You can get stuff down while they play outside, not spend your time stopping them running off/eating random things/taking other kids’ scooters. There is no relaxation in a public place until they’re older.

@FiveSecondsMore

To respond to a pp about whether a 5-bed is necessary, DH and I sometimes prefer to sleep apart (e.g. when we're working on different schedules, which happens fairly regularly), and we also need a study for working from home, so that's 3 bedrooms we'd be using already, before any kids enter the scene. It seems like unnecessary hassle to get a 3-bed only to have to upgrade in a couple of years.

It's also important to us to have a detached place, as we're musicians and don't want to disturb the neighbours or have to be careful about noise, so that really narrows down the options.

Will you not still want to play music when you're old?

Where are all these lovely detached two bed houses? This is what I'm struggling with. I'm perfectly happy with smaller, as in fewer rooms, but I still want a decent kitchen and I don't want to move back a terraced starter home.

Sorry, that's the wrong thread

A for us. We used to live right next to a massive park (tenement flat, rubbish back garden) and rarely used it. Main reason was the hassle of coming back to the flat for the toilet etc. if we wanted to spend a nice day outdoors. So it was fine for a walk but not really utilising it to its full potential.

Now we live in the suburbs, good sized back garden and use it all the time. We have lots of nice spaces to walk reasonably nearby as well, especially now we have a dog, but love out garden.

We have B - although we do back directly onto the park/playground. We have been overseas for three years and moving back in three weeks - can’t wait as know our extended grounds will have been well cared for!!

We should be back in time for ‘screaming kids day’ - the one perfect day of the year when all kids in the playground display through sound their delight at how life is so good at that moment (have missed hearing that day!).

How is this even a dilemma?

Can you eat dinner outside in the summer or sunbathe or let your kids wander about or let them be noisy and enjoy water fights?

ALSO trust me it’s noisy for residents living near a park in the summer, gangs of youth wandering about drinking diamond white ...

Private garden

I'd choose the big park - solely because I don't really have the time for gardening, and DDog would enjoy the big park (with all its bottom sniffing, squirrel chasing, rolling in awful things potential) far more than a garden, and I would avoid a 15 minute daily schlep to the park.

A - I like to be alone in my garden and have peace and quiet and not need to make small talk. And this is a generalisation but when you say small garden but open space it makes me think of a new build estate and I hate them, there's one near where I live and it has no pavements, no front gardens, lots of garages but they're too small for cars so cars are parked where they can which means it's hard to navigate as a pedestrian. If it's not an estate but a beautiful cottage with a small garden completely unoverlooked and near openspace I would probably choose that though!

We have the latter. Less work and there are other benefits to our location such as presence of amenities on our doorstep.

There is no House A?! So you are just deciding on one house that is available, have you even been to view it OP?!

@ChicChaos yes, we've been to view it, and we like it, albeit with reservations about the size of the garden. The thing is that in the relatively small area we're considering, pretty much all of the other houses with a similar spec (1930s detached) have significantly bigger gardens. None that would interest us have been on the market recently, and we're wondering if we should hold out in the hope that one of them will come on in the coming months. There's obviously a limit to how long we'd want to wait, e.g. if it was going to be two years before something better came along, then I think we'd rather have this place. I'm not sure where we draw the line in terms of waiting time, but we do want to move in the relatively near future, as we're currently in a rental.

Sounds like us! We’re buying a 30s detached house with smaller garden than the rest of them due to the way things were planned when house was built. So we are compromising but houses on this road hardly ever come on and as we are in rented we’ve gone for it. The house and location are lovely.

@LemonSwan

Ie. Would you want a higher spec smaller garden like this... www.charlotterowe.com/town-gardens/barnes-common

Or a larger expanse of lawn and a garden you have no idea what you are doing with. See image attached and every other garden you see on rightmove with a lawn, a few sad beds and a patio.

Who are you actually trying to convince here? 🤔

You can have a "super sleek table with benches" in a massive garden. It isn't going to look silly. Pleached trees would cost a fortune along a massive boundary it's true... but generally they're used more in smaller gardens as they don't take up much room.

I'd take a huge lawn over a few squares of gravel anyday

@CellophaneFlower

Lol its not a convincing thing. Its a how big is your bank balance thing. If you can afford to do a large garden to that spec then good for you. But I doubt you would have to be umming and ahhing over the bigger house or the bigger garden.

[quote FiveSecondsMore]@ChicChaos yes, we've been to view it, and we like it, albeit with reservations about the size of the garden. The thing is that in the relatively small area we're considering, pretty much all of the other houses with a similar spec (1930s detached) have significantly bigger gardens. None that would interest us have been on the market recently, and we're wondering if we should hold out in the hope that one of them will come on in the coming months. There's obviously a limit to how long we'd want to wait, e.g. if it was going to be two years before something better came along, then I think we'd rather have this place. I'm not sure where we draw the line in terms of waiting time, but we do want to move in the relatively near future, as we're currently in a rental.[/quote]
To be honest, your thread would have provided more valuable answers had you just said that and been honest from the start.

@LemonSwan It's more that we haven't seen any detached houses in the area we want that have all the features we care about (fairly large, nicely proportioned, ideally well presented, close to transport links, quiet-ish road etc.). Even when we search for houses 1.5-2x the price, we don't find anything we'd particularly want to buy given the option. We just haven't seen any houses that satisfy these conditions and have a sizeable garden too. Most of the houses have a bigger garden, but are lacking in one or more of the other respects.

OP You have to weight up what you want. What is more important to you. Unless you have an unending budget you will always have to make a compromise somewhere. Its up to you where that compromise is.

Besides theres no guarantee you will get this house. If you like it its likely others will too. You could put in a cheeky offer if your not too fussed whether you win the bids and be happy with a bargain if they choose your offer over higher due to your rental position.

I’d generally say go for the garden but while I absolutely love ours, for a family that is always out (eg long working hours, long day car, weekends, lots of activities out etc) a smaller garden could be quite manageable as that type of family might not really be at home very much. If you have any inkling you might be part time or staying at home I’d personally want a bigger garden.

While obviously we all hope the pandemic won’t happen again, I’d have gone absolutely insane if we hadn’t had a good garden for mine to play in during lockdown.

How long are you planing to live in this house OP? Children below 3 don't really need that much space and if your garden is massive you will have trouble keeping track of them. At that age the most important thing is an enclosed garden and I mean fence not hedge!

A big garden where you can have a sunk trampoline and climbing frame with swingset is only really worth it from 5 or so. And then if you are planning on 2 you will have to chase after the little one when they try to follow their older sibling.
So by all means go for a bigger garden, but do it for yourself and because you will enjoy it.

Only on Mumsnet would a 90m2 garden be considered small. Back in the real world, it's an average sized garden that would serve the average family just fine...unless you're planning on having lots of children or are really into gardening.
There would be plenty of room for a patio, shed, lawn, some flower beds around the borders and play stuff for kids. Ok maybe not those big wooden climbing frames with swing sets, but a smaller swing, slide and a trampoline, for example.
I also don't see how you'd make a loss or have trouble selling, family homes are generally in demand, even with gardens smaller than 90m2. Just pick the house you like best, like someone else said it's about the overall package.

A, my mum was in real estate - its land which goes up in value not bricks and mortar. plus big private garden much nicer.

I think my hesitation is also because it's pretty much the smallest garden in that particular area. Most of the gardens on that street and the adjacent street have much bigger gardens, so in comparison this one does look rather small, and that might be off-putting for future buyers.

When we were viewing the place, the EA said that it had pretty much just been pre-children couples like us viewing, despite it being a family-sized house. This makes me wonder if the people with kids had discounted it pre-viewing because of the garden. Whereas we childless couples don't yet realise how important it is so are okay with it.