What sacrifices did you make

[Ladyof]

I have a list of must haves and would like for my dream house.

Area is most important and unfortunately not many come up in the area I want. One has recently it needs a lot of work but it would mean the following sacrifices.

On a busy ish country road, not an A or B road and set back a little so not right on the road. No utility or ensuite and its at the top of our budget so not something we could change anytime soon and we wanted a good size garden for having bbqs etc.

It has a big wrap around garden but the back garden is only small, its bigger at the front and the sides. Do you think you could live with these sacrifices or would you hold on for something else? We have been looking since oct.

What sacrifices did you make on your houses and did you regret it?

We sorta-compromised on location in that it's farther out from the kids' schools than I would have liked, but they did the trip before we bought and were more than happy with it (in fact, my DDs prefer taking the bus to the walking), however, it's actually far nicer than many other areas we looked at and other than the schools has all the other local amenities we wanted and then some in my reduced walking distance. It has a lot of things we didn't see in our budget elsewhere.

However, with our budget, we went in knowing we'll need to fix up some and didn't really have a lot of 'must haves' beyond accessibility and enough bedrooms. Another sorta compromise we're making is that we originally planned to do a lot more upfront, but are now stretching things out more. It hasn't really been a compromise though, it's been more than while yes there are a few repairs we weren't expecting which impacted our budget and things with doing up are more awkward at the moment, we're also seeing what would really be useful for us from experience rather than what we thought we would need to do right away.

Like VenusClapTrap our compromise is living on an A road. In every other respect the house is perfect and it is in a village I had set my heart on living in as while it's rural it also has a lot of amenities. The road doesn't bother us at all - we have excellent double glazing so don't hear the traffic and don't hear it in the back garden either. We are lucky that the house is set back from the road so also have a decent front garden with mature trees and shrubs which act as a bit of a buffer too. I don't think it's possible to get absolutely everything you want. We've been here a couple of years now and are very happy.

Our must haves were: 3-4 bedrooms, within catchment of a great secondary, big garden, quiet pleasant road, off-street parking. We got all these.

We compromised on:

• no downstairs loo
• no utility
• east facing garden rather than south or west. In our case it didn't matter as the garden is absolutely enormous, so are the neighbouring gardens, so there is always sun in some spot in the evening.
• no garage. We built nice new sheds instead.

Small garden - but TBH, there weren't any with large gardens in our primary search area and budget
On street parking - it's on the same street we lived in before and we knew parking situation was a bit rubbish, however it's good for closeness to the tube
Needed work - but the only other house (other than one that feel through) that was big enough.

Don't regret any of those ultimately, though.

Dh really wanted an older house with a proven solid structure and more character. House we bought ticked all our other boxes. I was delighted that the house is newer because it looks more modern

Must haves were 4 rooms, ensuite, big enough garden for dh and outdoor entertaining, space for shed, safe for cats, budget, quiet location, in current village so close enough to his parents, good sized kitchen. We will need to change storage in kitchen but we've done that before and may later extend so we have an indoor gym.

You say the property ‘needs a lot of work’ and that the purchase alone will use up your budget. I wouldn’t choose it, on that basis.

I don’t think the ‘dream house’ concept is helpful!

We compromised on location - further from stations and amenities, slower commuter rail routes to work, also outside the most popular schools’ catchments. In order to get more physical space and have budget leftover for property improvements.

Instead of the country farm cottage I am ending up with 1960s chalet house with dormers.

Internally it has everything I wanted, unfortunately the garden is the north east facing rather than south west.

My thing I couldn’t compromise on in the end was any sort of flood risk, my parents house has flooded twice so I know how soul destroying it is. This pushed us out of the village I thought we would choose to live in to one slightly further away from the kids school.

Our must haves:

• 3+ bedrooms (we got 4)
• 2+ bathrooms (we got 3 & a downstairs WC!)
• period property with character (it's genuinely the most beautiful house I've ever seen )
• not open plan (it has lots of separate rooms)
• double garage (yup)
• requiring little work (no major kitchen or bathroom renovations required)
• nice sized gardens, south or west facing (the house has a south and a west facing garden!)
• space to WFH (plenty)
• pretty location (check!)
• near to family (check)

We compromised on:

• there is no utility room or space for one. All washing must be done in the creepy cellar...
• the house isn't walking distant from the nearest train station, which is a slight negative to me but as it makes the location quieter my OH is thrilled about it
• my OH wants to build another garage, but we are in a conservation area so it might be a struggle to get permission.

Honestly, the compromises are really not bad at all, I think we got lucky.

Tight budget.
We went for more house and less land. It's a mid terrace with a front garden and a back yard. But we have 4 double bedrooms. We have a utility but only one bathroom at the moment. It's also in a lovely town but the more deprived side of it, although our immediate roads are lovely.
For us it was all about having lots of space for teens and still being mortgage free mid 50s. We don't have parking and I don't find that an issue at all. The small back yard is pretty and quiet but would love something a lot bigger

we compromised on:
location - we wanted to move from our little village to the small town where the older 2 go to secondary school. we ended up buying in the 'bad' end of town in order to get the space we want but 'bad' in our town is probably lovely in bigger towns and cities.
We dont have off-road parking but the road is fairly quiet and 9/10 we can park right outside, we do have a plan to create parking at the back as the garden backs onto another lane and lots of people have done the same.

We compromised on no off street parking, I have regretted it and wished we’d saved a bit more and bought a house with a drive or parking space. We also compromised on bedrooms, we got a 2 bed instead of a 3 bed, that has been OK. I think it also depends on if this is likely to be the house you’d stay in forever, we knew we’d be leaving this house in 5-10 years so the compromises aren’t forever, we are about to complete on our forever home which we haven’t made any compromises on. I’d be a lot less open to compromise on a long term house.

My previous house had more land to the side and front than the back and it wasn't a problem at all. My new house only has land to the front as we are attached at the back.

We compromised on not being detached. Really wish we'd stuck to our list of dealbreakers as it's already driving us mad being able to hear constant noise.
We're also closer to a main road than I originally intended.

We had three main essentials- off road parking, a garage for storage and an upstairs bathroom. Almost everything else was a "nice to have". DH was very funny about living near a train line. If he could see it on the right move Google map, it was too close. Naturally, after finding a house that's not too close to trains, there's a new line about to be added through the village. The building works will cause years of traffic chaos as the works will cut off the village from the connecting town. Far worse than if we'd just moved to the house I loved that was near an existing line 🤦🏻‍♀️

We couldn't compromise on:
4 beds (3 kids)
Lateral ground floor space - dh insisted he wanted a wide not tall house this time
Family area where youngest dd can make friends in the street
A blank canvas/project for me to get my teeth into

We did compromise on:
Character (zero in fact if it could have a minus score for character that's the kind of territory we're in)
It's very close to a station so get train noise, though it really doesn't bother me at all. We were previously on an A Road so it seems bucolic in comparison.

For us it was size. We sold our house in one city and moved across to the neighboring city. We used to have an en-suite master bath, as well as a large kitchen diner and a decent size family room in the basement. Now, we don't have an en-suite, the kitchen is open to the dining room but not as large as before, and the basement family room is a little smaller. We were hoping to stay around 2,800 square feet but have bought a house with 2,400 square feet (for five of us plus a large dog.)

But - and it's a big but - the new neighborhood is pretty much our dream location. Fantastic walkability and arguably the best public (state) schools in the state. Our previous city is going through massive social unrest and crime has skyrocketed, and local schools are struggling. Our new neighborhood, while only 4 miles away, could not be more different. So I'm ok with not having my own sink to spit toothpaste in 😀

Also, we sold at a premium so can't really complain that we are buying at a premium too. Buying a house the same size in this neighborhood would have cost us over $1m, which we were not prepared to spend.

Oh, yes - the garage! We went from a two-car garage to a single. I'm embracing this as an opportunity to declutter. We are weighed down with stuff and barely need most of it.

Location. We committed the biggest mumsnet moving sin! In the end we realised we were being too prescriptive on location which was strangling what we could get, we looked at a cheaper area that still had good schools, amenities, safe and everything we needed, just isn't a "naice" area and in return we've got a house that costs literally £100,000 more 20 miles down the road.

We just couldn't justify a smaller house for an area. We spend more time in the house than we do anywhere else, so long as the practical boxes were ticked we couldn't afford to be snobs.

No regrets.

We compromised on parking. Out of our original list of "wants" that's the only thing we don't have. So few houses have been for sale the year we've been looking. If we'd bought one of the others, we would have compromised on the garden, which we weren't willing to do. It's a quiet road, with plenty of space to park, and the current owners are allowed to part on a nearby business space, which we're hoping to be allowed to do too!

I wouldn't compromise on location, garden or size of the house. What I did compromise on is the fourth bedroom, which is desk in office sized rather than spare bedroom sized - we'll have to work around this until we can convert the loft in hopefully a few years time. This was, I thought, a non-negotiable, but the house exceeded all other expectations and just felt right. I don't regret it.

We compromised on the work that needs doing. Current property was a fixer upper, we swore we wouldn't do it again, but the house we're moving to needs quite a bit doing to it. But other than that it ticks most of our boxes (and will tick all of them when the work's done) and is liveable in so we can put up with a year or 2 of saving, doing a job, saving, doing a job etc. The main things for us were location, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms and outdoor space.

I love our house, but wish I could have bought it following the renovation we're planning. I don't want to move out for 3 months... I don't like the kitchen installed by the vendor 3 years before we bought, or the bathroom installed 2 years before we bought, or the fitted wardrobes installed 1 year before we bought...

So we're ripping it all out and starting again 🤦🏼‍♀️ Compromise is that I think we overpaid, given the work we're now doing. But overall there's a lot of potential and the location, space, garden, proximity to school etc is great and that's the stuff I couldn't change.

We took on a lot of hard work and sacrificed condition for space, and got a 'larger than we could otherwise afford' wreck which had 1980s decor and needed significant other work inside and out, some fairly disruptive. We have to do most of the work ourselves to be able to afford to do it. Two years on, I reckon we have another three years to get it decent, and probably five more after that to get it as good as it really could be. It will be great when done, but a huge effort by all three of us.

We are coming up to retirement and went from a double garage and large driveway to no garage and one allocated parking space two months ago. We are living in the centre of a lovely market town in a smaller house and soon realised we only need one car as opposed to two. We are lucky to have a good sized shed and a garden store. So pleased we made the move. Bought loads of crates and storage systems which are now so readily available.

We're about to move into a house that has no laundry room or boot room, and I was adamant that I wanted both.

But - it has the living spaces we want, and a great wow factor. Most importantly, it's in a quiet area with a lot of privacy and trees. Those things I couldn't compromise on, as there really isn't anything you can do about those.

Seriously think about whether you can live on that road - it won't get any quieter.