What was your compromise?

[PaleGreenAndBrightOrange]

They say there’s always a compromise with houses. What was yours? In my first house there was no compromise, my current house has a tiny garden and kitchen, and it’s looking like I’m going to have to accept a long list of compromises if I’m ever going to find house #3... just interested to hear what others were willing to overlook! Thanks in advance!

My first solo house I traded size (it was tiny, had to choose between space for oven or dishwasher - I chose a dishwasher with a hob over the top. ) for ideal location.

Next hose bigger, still perfect overall location but overlooked at the back. The windows that overlook us are at right angles to use and from the neighbours's stairways rather than actual rooms but still, no one could call our garden private.

DH uses it as an excuse to avoid the garden so I'm planning to build an extension to get a bigger kitchen.

We dont have a driveway or front garden. It's worth it though as we have a beautiful end terrace with period features and a decent garden. We looked at around 12 other houses, and the garden was the sticking point with most of them, I just wouldn't have compromised on it

First House - not so nice a road and near a substation (slight worry about resale) but it was such a big house, all nicely done, lovely big garden, on a bus route and good school within a short walk away. I fell in love with this house so the compromises were worth it.

Second house - We are in this now and have been here for about 8 months. Needs decorative work to every room; we have done a few of them now. It is smaller and we bought it on the premise that we would convert the loft to give us the space we want. The front of the house and drive need work but we can't afford it yet; having just nicely done the drive on the previous house before our move. It is on a much nicer road, nicer neighbours(very nosy too), quieter and safe for dd to practice on her bike, scooter and whatever else she fancies. Still within walking distance to dd school and bus stop to town. The house itself has less but larger rooms with better proportions.

In the UK it was buying on a main road. The living room at the back, and secondary glazing in the front bedroom rendered it no problem. Was also very quiet in the evening and at night.

In Australia, we had to buy in a hurry as leaving a rental, prices about to go up and we didn't want to get locked in a rental contract.
We were overlooked at the back, but trees have changed all that. No hallway, so nowhere to put shoes and coats immediately. A very odd arrangement in a large detached house, but there you go.

Would not compromise on a garden or area: excellent amenities, very quiet and near the sea.

Current house is on a busy road. Spent ages being indecisive on whether to buy it.

Ticked all the boxes apart from that (great location, enough rooms, garage, nice garden, south facing)

Have found the road noise surprisingly easy to tune out so am pleased every day we bought it.

My house is in a town I swore I'd never live in.

Oh I have a long list of compromises, in fact I don't even know why we're still here!

Basically we moved to be close to the school, and there wasn't much choice of four bed houses in the area so just had to pick the best of the bunch at the time.

No utility room (had one at previous house) small bedrooms apart from one, small garden, poky main bathroom.

Kids are grown up now and just can't be bothered with the hassle of sorting the house out to move!

Huge garden, big kitchen extension with full width of the back bifolds, double driveway, dead end road backing onto bridal and cycle paths BUT we now heavily rely on a car and where we would walk from our old house to school, shops, family and friend's houses - it is quite annoying. Although it is all walkable but a good 45min walk. There is no way we could have afforded a house like this in town.

We have a bit of an odd set up, the double garage on our driveway has one garage that is ours and the other is our neighbours, so their garage in on our land. They also have a right of access over the driveway to get into garage - it's not really a big issue as it was a bargain when we bought it, I live in a very nice area which is really expensive so I can deal with it. I'd like to buy the neighbours house when it comes up fir sale next and do something about the weird set up

Compromised on 4th bedroom size - more of a nursery or as is currently my dressing room and overlooked to one side.

Gained - a much bigger house than we thought we could afford, in my favourite location, mature front and back gardens, 2.5 garages.

Location. Wanted the area but to get what we wanted we had to buy on the busier road rather than the side roads(100k price difference)
In doing so it freed up cash to extend and convert the house to exactly how we wanted and still stayed within our budget.
Don’t even notice the road noise which I thought I would.

@PaleGreenAndBrightOrange

They say there’s always a compromise with houses. What was yours? In my first house there was no compromise, my current house has a tiny garden and kitchen, and it’s looking like I’m going to have to accept a long list of compromises if I’m ever going to find house #3... just interested to hear what others were willing to overlook! Thanks in advance!

First house we compromised on size and location. This house is a lovely size, excellent school catchment, lovely location, but we compromised on back garden size. It was a bit too small for the footprint of the house and is 16msq shorter now that we’ve extended lol.

Compromised - main road having previously been in a small quiet cul-de-sac.

Gained - beautifully finished 4 good size bedroom house with kitchen diner, bifolds, massive garden within walking distance to school.

We only moved in yesterday so time will tell...

No downstairs loo and nowhere to put one.

I'm regretting it!

First flat - ex-council in a council block. Huge, well-proportioned, great location. Some neighbour issues, wee in the lift every other day and social stigma.

This one - brilliant in all respects but the (huge) garden is round the side.

I suspect the next one will be perfect and the “compromise” will be a mortgage the size of a small country’s GDP!

Garden overlooked, and facing NW. Was pretty apprehensive having left a private SW garden!

Gained much more spacious footprint, top location, lovely kerb appeal.

Needn't have worried as the garden gets plenty of sun, and with screening plants we don't feel nearly so on view now.

We had to compromise on a 4th bedroom. We also had to move 350 miles away to get on the ladder at all, but that's less a compromise and more a lifestyle change I think.

On street parking - but, the fact it doesn't have private parking also means it's more central and we can walk more.

I had to compromise and buy a flat.
I would have liked one without a communal main entrance and not in the middle floor, and with a garden or balcony , but that was not to be.

Still it is light an airy with two double bedrooms. A better view than my house had. It has parking. And a modern kitchen and bathroom.

Only compromise is the amount of work that needs doing.

Large Edwardian house, big garden, loads of rooms and potential for 2 more in the loft so could easily be a 6 bedroom.

Lovely quiet street, brilliant neighbours and 5 min walk to kids school/ my job.

No off street parking, but never have a problem parking the car.

All I really need now is about £100k to do it up!

Our first house was a freshly refurbished Victorian cottage in an area we liked. We thought long and hard about it because it was a terrace and had access across the back of the houses ie a path running between house and garden. Also no dedicated parking. We loved it for 5 years but moved when first child was a baby, mostly for room but also due to above.

Current house needed a lot of work which we weren’t looking for so I guess that was a compromise. We’ve extended here twice and now have a fab house in a lovely area where children can easily cycle to a great school and great transport links. It is however a bog standards 1950’s semi and the price jump to something detached or period is unreachable without compromising on location which we are not willing to do at our current stage of life.

I compromised on location. I'm only a (really long) walk away from my preferred areas though. It does however mean that when I extend and renovate I'll probably go above it's ceiling price. I'm expecting yo be here for a while though, so I'm not worried.

I gained a playroom, a 4th bedroom that isn't a loft conversion or downstairs, a lovely wide unoverlooked garden and plenty of potential. I've kept my alerts on rightmove and in 4 years nothing has come up nearby or in my preferred areas that I'd rather have bought.

@OldTinHat me too!

But we are mortgage free, close to family and the commute for DH is fine (certainly now it's only 3 days a week).

And dh loves this area (to be fair, it is lovely...just not where I wanted to end up).

garden
in our budget we had the choice of tiny house with small garden or large maisonette without.

Square footage and entire floor kitchen diner. Have gone from a large open plan 3 storey to small semi with a garage extension. I was worried about v small rooms when I moved in.

I have gained an extra bedroom, amazing location, a bigger garden and a mortgage (ftb in 40s)

One month in I could actually cry with happiness.