Background: DH commutes to London 2 days a week (1 hr train) and I work locally. My job is stable as I far as I can see, but if something happens like my company getting acquired or something, I might have to commute to London twice a week. There are a lot of remote jobs in my field, so I may not have to commute to London. I don’t know. That’s thinking too far out perhaps!
House A: Love the house, but it’s in a lane 2 houses away from a traffic road. Not super traffic, but it connects two villages and couple of busses on this route. Also, this house is 2 miles from the station I have to drop and pick up DH from the station. I do it now, no prob at all.
DS1 - Y10. I could drop him off too or he could take the bus (10 min ride)
Twins: this house is a 13 min walk to their primary school.
It’s at 740k, 100k under our budget. it has a small south facing garden. I don’t mind small gardens.
If I have to commute to London (unlikely) DH and I could work things out so only one of us commutes on any given day. And worst case we both cycle to the station. This scenario is very very unlikely, but not impossible.
House B: it’s a nice house. 10 min walk to the station and DS1 still takes his bus to school (10min) . I have to drive 2 miles to drop and pick up the twins. It’s at 850k - the top end of our budget. It’s slightly smaller than house A, but has bigger rooms. Same number of bedrooms, but house B has one loft conversion bedroom. It’s also narrow and long IYKWIM. Tighter parking - being so close to the station. Its 4 houses away from a busy road. So there IS road noise, but I’m not sure how it compares to house A. when the twins finish primary (4 yrs), it’s walking distance to local secondary schools. This house has a large east facing garden.
Which house would you buy ??!! Im probably giving too much importance to proximity to the station. Hmm I don’t know. I commuted to London all my life, took up a local job just before the pandemic.