Would you stay in your new-build with average garden or old fashioned bungalow with huge garden?

[sarah13xx]

We’ve always been happy in our house. It’s a 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom, new-build, average sized garden, nice area, big driveway, garage. It’s very modern and probably more spacious and well built than a lot of new builds. We’ve not long had a baby and it’s become more evident since having him and seeing how much ‘stuff’ babies/children need that we will need to move to a bigger house at some point within a few years. We have our small third bedroom as a dressing room/ironing room/office all in one. We have no utility room but a large open plan kitchen/living room. We have a dog and I would really like a big utility room to be able to keep him out of the living room when my son is on the floor etc as he starts walking.

We had no plans to move at all but a very old fashioned reasonably sized bungalow has just came on the market. Same area as we currently live but just a nicer street. Basically everything in this house would need ripped out. There are a few walls I would knock down too without getting carried away. The major plus point of this house is the size of the garden. You could fit this bungalow in its own garden about another twice at least, it’s huge! It could be transformed into our home for life with an extension too, whereas our current house never would be. Alternatively we could build a second house in the garden and sell it or sell both. I have one of just about every trade person needed to build or renovate a house in my close family so that wouldn’t be an issue but it would obviously still cost a lot. The price difference would mean this bungalow was roughly £30,000 more expensive but we would need to move from our ‘nice’ house (with a small baby and our dog) into this old fashioned house to start this project.

Would you take the risk and potentially gain the price of a house or your house for life out of it OR stay put in your ‘nice’ house that’s fine for just now? 🤔 Part of me wants to be brave and go for it, knowing how stunning it would be when finished, you only live once etc but then I picture loading vans up with our things from our current house or driving past after we’d moved out and I feel really quite sad, like we’re maybe not ready to leave here yet! Help!

How exciting!!!! What you're describing is my dream house.

@sarah13xx Congratulations! that is excellent news. And thank you, this thread makes me feel I have found my tribe - many friends live in trendier and bigger houses with postage stamp gardens. I am not being critical, they love their houses just as I love mine. It's just very heartening to see so many happy bungalow-dwellers here!

We did this, bought bungalow now extending it further and massively increasing its value

@ChilliWillies amazing! That will be out long term plan but doing up the existing bungalow first

@userxx okay if it does terribly you can have it 😂

@ScoopyDoo thanks! I know, I read a similar thread about someone wanting to do up a Victorian house just as I posted this one and everyone was saying don’t touch it, no way etc so I thought this was a bad move then I saw all the encouraging comments on here from people who have done similar! Long term a big garden is definitely the way to go 😊

What you’re buying really can be a home for life. Most family homes aren’t due to the stairs. Go for it.

@sarah13xx this is kind of what we’d like to do but with 3 under 4 we’re holding off until they’re older and in school etc. Occasionally we see doer upper houses/bungalows with big gardens that we’d love to offer on but we’re just not in a position to take on that much work at the moment.

If everything goes through ok I think you should post a thread about the renovation!

@sarah13xx

Glad you recommend it *@WithLargeTableMouse*

We’ve only gone and had our offer accepted, eeek! 😅 half delighted/half terrified by this haha

Whoohoo how exciting! Congratulations, it’ll be brilliant

@WithLargeTableMouse

Good point, *@BlueMongoose* my bungalow is 1970s and self built and according to my neighbour who has lived here since before mine was built, it wasn’t built very well so that’s probably why it isn’t very well sound insulated. I’ve got the most stylish avocado sunken bathroom suite though Also my bedrooms are very small which doesn’t help. As previous poster have said, you can sound insulate whilst renovating which would be easier than extending upstairs and that’s what we’ll do if we ever get round to it. I still wholeheartedly recommend bungalow life with a big garden, I love it

Ours is 1920s- every room wall is brick and goes right down to the ground under the house, and every room's joists are for that room only. Some ceilings are lath and plaster, some plasterboard, at several different levels, so no sound transmission there either. Sound transmission is almost nil! Avocado suite. We had one in an 80s house, and I got quite fond of it. Here it's awful- hammered greeny-brown finish, slightly iridescent. Brown and green tiles, some with swirls on. And a salmon pink coloured carpet with fawn textured walls/ceiling. And gold taps. Unfortunately it's next to last on the room renovation list, so I expect to have to live with it for a good few years yet.

[quote sarah13xx]@ChilliWillies amazing! That will be out long term plan but doing up the existing bungalow first

@userxx okay if it does terribly you can have it 😂

@ScoopyDoo thanks! I know, I read a similar thread about someone wanting to do up a Victorian house just as I posted this one and everyone was saying don’t touch it, no way etc so I thought this was a bad move then I saw all the encouraging comments on here from people who have done similar! Long term a big garden is definitely the way to go 😊[/quote]
I think some of us have warned people against older houses and/or doer-uppers when they were too stretched or unrealistic on their budgets/timescales what with covid and brexit etc., or clearly wouldn't be able to cope with a house that wasn't like a furnace to us old-house dwellers. You seem to be realistic about timescales and inconveniences, and have the connections to get work done.

We don't regret getting our sort-of-bungalow and the large garden, despite there being an awful lot to do still. It means we hope we will be able to stay here even if we get frail as we get older, too, as we'll have to deal with all that ourselves as we have no kids.

Good luck.

@BlueMongoose the avocado suite was going to be the first thing to go from this house but I’ve really grown to love it, you’re not supposed to get rid of original features after all are you? It must be a modern classic by now

@BlueMongoose thanks! Yeah definitely, that’s one of the main perks of a bungalow when you’re old and can’t do stairs 😅 This is true, it depends on people’s situations and I think that’s why so many people viewed this house and didn’t offer (or didn’t offer high enough) because there are some big things needing done that are more than just basic decorating but I’m confident we have all bases covered with the tradespeople and will hopefully get the really messy bits done reasonably quickly

@WithLargeTableMouse thanks 😬

@TheMagicDeckchair that sounds like the best plan! For all it will be difficult with a small baby itl actually be a lot easier because he’s still sleeping in our room and isn’t on the move. I’m sad that I spent so long doing his nursery in our current house when he’ll never remember even having seen it let alone having spent a night in it 🙈 I will try to! The before/after pictures will hopefully be impressive 😊

Always buy the one with land. It's the land that will give you greater return longer term.

My sister did this at about your time in life. She was able to have a house built in the garden which she moved into, then sold the original renovated bungalow and almost paid off her mortgage by 30.

It really helped her finances and with housing shortages councils are now very amenable to planning consent.

If it’s liveable for the moment, albeit very dated, I’d def, go for the big garden. Gives you so many possibilities for later.

Another advantage of a bungalow is that more is DIYable as it doesn’t need scaffolding or long ladders.

@beautifullymad that sounds sooo tempting. The only issue is I’m then doing myself out of a garden which is the whole reason we bought it in the first place. They’d both still have a garden but it just wouldn’t be huge. If we were to do that I think we’d sell both and use the money to buy our forever home. We’ll see how nice it is when it’s done up first 🙈

@MMAMPWGHAP currently starting at the scaffolding that is required for some roof work! And the ceilings are vaulted at the back of our bungalow and it's 4m to the top of the velux, so we have invested in some long ladders (probably should have bought internal scaffold for decorating). But yes in general it is easier to clean the gutters etc

Go for the bungalow definitely! Sounds like a great opportunity that you are really excited about.

(unless money would cause real stress)

@irregularegular money is already causing real stress just trying to get ours ready to sell, pay for the home report etc 😂 but I always say when I’m skint ‘it’s only money, it always comes back’ 🤷🏼‍♀️

No brainer. Buy the bungalow.

@KirstenBlest done 😅