What (if any) compromises did you make for the right home?

[RunRunGingerbreadMan]

I'm just curious really, I've been watching old Escape to the Country episodes and it's funny how people are willing to compromise once they find a home that feels right. We were the same, we wanted a garage and a big hallway and in the end went for a house with neither! If you don't mind me asking, what did you compromise on? Do you think you made the right decision?

Compromised on the garden. It's tiny and north facing...I hate it. It's virtually useless. The positives were we have a playroom, two bathrooms and a driveway...

And yes it was worth it. Luckily we live near lots of nice parks

We bought a bit further away from where we actually wanted to be (we were looking for a very specific type of property within about a 100 mile radius, we ended up expanding that search area a bit more than expected). And we live near ish to a busier road than we would have liked. But the house is beautiful and the road isn't too noisy (not directly next to us). We have a river than runs at the end of the garden, which is lovely, and when you're outside you can only really hear the water.

@Comedycook That's interesting, I think North facing gardens are underrated anyway, we used to have one and I liked it as it meant the front of the house always seemed sunny.

Our compromise was that our house is on a main road. But perfect in every other way, lovely walled garden, great four bed detached house with garage. It was cheaper for that reason, but has a lovely front garden with the house set back from the road. There's always something - when we were looking all the previous possible houses seemed to disappear!!!!!

Our house is on the main road through the village. Which is used as a short cut between two towns so gets busy morning and late afternoon.

However in Winter it’s the only road which gets gritted (only two other roads in the village, all other ‘roads’ are just dirt tracks).

We wanted a garage but don't have one. However the house we got had an extra reception room in the basement so we just turned one of the ground floor rooms into a kind of indoor junk room/garage.

Ours is a little more rural than I’d have chosen.

@garlictwist Ah, we've done similar with quite a large shed! Hopefully we might add a garage one day but for now it is the perfect dumping ground for 'stuff'.

We wanted an old house with character that we could do up. We ended up buying a brand new house off plan as we couldn't find anything that ticked our boxes and that we could get a mortgage on. We are still in our 'new' house 30 years later - although it has been extended.

No garage or front drive. We wanted to be close to the centre of town and walkable most places, so it’s a (large/ish) mid-terrace. The on-street parking is absolutely fine and we only have one car. Very wide roads, so it’s nose-in parking and resident only controls. We always get parked outside, unless there is a sporting fixture (people park anyway and accept the ticket). DH ended up buying a lock up garage at the end of the road, a couple of minutes walk away. He keeps his bikes etc in there.

We compromised on the area - slightly more suburban than we were looking for originally.

Also I didn't want to do major building works. A new bathroom or kitchen ok. But not a 6 month build. Reader: we did a major extension.

No utility room (we had one before)
Only one sitting/lounge area

Definitely the right decision
I absolutely love my house

Shared driveway. But one you're between the houses it opens out at the back into a courtyard type area so we each have a space to park a car each in front of our respective garages and then access into back gardens directly from courtyard too. Convants are pretty watertight too wrt mutual access rights and shared responsibility for maintenance. Wouldn't have considered it previously but everything else about the house was right and we've had zero issues in the 10 years and two sets of neighbours

No drive, no downstairs toilet, a 50’s build rather than period property. After spending the first year of Covid in a small flat we opted for space, inside and out, and haven’t regretted it for a minute. Period properties or a driveway around here would have meant dropping a bedroom and/or having a tiny garden on our budget. We are currently getting quotes in for the downstairs loo though.

Our drive is on a slope and I would.ptefer a flat drive, other than that perfect for us.

I live right next to a train track, a mainline one, but it is absolutely fine. The compromise is also the garden as it is small and overlooked by the trains but it means I can afford a 3 bed semi with a drive rather than a flat or terraced house with on street parking. I especially love having a drive! The cul-de-sac I am on is quiet as well so makes up for the fact the trains are there.

We compromised on our budget. We ending up gazumping some other buyers and offered substantially over the asking price to secure our dream house in our favoured location.

Oh and it was totally worth it .- the amount we spent over by is a very small percentage of how much it has increased in value (its almost tripled over 17 years).

Price! That was the biggie for us: we didn’t want to spend as much as we did. Quite a big compromise really...

We wanted 2 bathrooms and settled for one as downstairs space, off-road parking and a lovely garden won out.

Similar to others, we compromised by being on a main road. We still have a driveway but the footpath goes right by one side of the house so can't really leave those downstairs windows open and unattended etc. But the house was just perfect in every other way (spacious, light, nice layout, decent garden etc) and we still love it!

We are moving Monday from rented to owned which is good enough!
I am losing my garden but gaining 2 parking spaces