What was that one compromise?

[Fancypants2022]

when buying your house - what was the one compromise you made? Mine was accessing the kitchen through the lounge. My last house has this and I was hoping to avoid it. It was great in every other way (apart from being a bit small!!) - is there one thing you gave in on in order to get the house?

I have a bedroom in the loft. I love being a separate floor to kids and one more floor away from living room noise. As I also wfh and have an office at end of bedroom it works better for that as well.

Another tiny entrance hall here. My neighbours have lovely entrance halls. I'm green with envy but won't spend the moneyand potentially mess up the look of the house - our brick work is quite special and irreplaceable, so it won't be possibly too make it look a part of the original design.

First house - absolutely amazing, huge, glorious garden, great location, big enough etc but just kind of... soulless. 60s bungalow with no interesting features.

Second house - the opposite! Lovely big Victorian house, beautiful fireplaces, alcoves and original features, loads of character. But a teeny tiny garden!

On balance the compromise on the second house was far more worth it than the first for me.

Garden. Nice but NW and overlooked, which on paper was a no-no.

We got an attractive spacious detached house in a top location. We loved everything else so much the garden suddenly became like an "oh well, can't have everything!"

Would I love a SW with views beyond? Yes! but there's no chance we'd have afforded this house in this area AND dream garden. In reality we get loads of sun until late, and have planted semi-mature evergreens. Love living here, no regrets at all!

Small garden. But it meant getting the location and house space we needed.

We also didn't want a house on 3 floors as loathe the townhouse we're currently renting - house we're buying has a loft conversion but think we'll just use it as storage.

Internal bathroom, so no window.
We’re all used to it now. Extractor fan is a bit loud sometimes, and we have to leave the door open while the room is empty so it can air a bit.
The house suits us perfectly otherwise, so no regrets.

Small bedrooms but we've spent a lot of money doing it all nicely and extending downstairs. About to add another small living room extension so when the kids have their friends round they can use one room and we can use the other. I appreciate they are lucky to have their own bedrooms and we absolutely love the house and the area. I don't think we will ever move.

Terrace and no off road parking. Meant I had 3 double bedrooms for my teens & I. Parking never an issue as I live at the end of the road and plenty of spaces around the corner if needed as not many houses on that road.

I also have the quietest neighbours ever so no issues with noise - my last house which was a semi had the loudest family next door.

Paved back yard instead of back garden.

Replacement windows (and lack of original features in general actually).

pintsizedproblem the stairs really aren't an issue, it just doesn't occur to me that we have lots of stairs, it's only two sets of 13.
But we have teenagers on the middle floor and us on the top floor so when I go to bed it doesn't matter if they are watching TV in their rooms or playing games online or chatting with friends. I don't hear any of it.
What were currently trying to buy will mean our bedroom is sandwiched between their rooms and I'm a little bit worried about the noise as I'm so used to silence.

Only one toilet, and it's in the bathroom. There is potential to put in a downstairs toilet but it's going to be a bit disruptive to do. Starting to get a bit more frustrating now.

Location. It's a lovely location, but not the one I ideally wanted.

Our compromise was that the garden is overlooked on all 3 sides. My gardening skills have not yet managed to produce flowering climbers to block some of the view (grr). But it was the biggest garden we saw on our budget, plus the only stone-built period property in a good location. Previous owner marketed it as a 3/4 bed, which it clearly isn’t, and I think that put a lot of people off. It’s really a 3 bed and the third bedroom is tiny, but it has 3 reception rooms downstairs not counting the galley kitchen. I could have had lots of 4 bed new builds but not in the school catchment I preferred, and they all have tiny overlooked gardens anyway.

It’s location is further out than we would have liked, a little rural and twenty min drive from where we wanted, but it would have been three times as much there.

Tiny garden.
Overlooked at the front.

North facing garden. In perpetual shadow. Drives me bonkers but it is good in heatwaves.

East Anglia covers four counties. If you can’t find something to entertain you in four different counties I’m guessing the location isn’t the problem.

Mine goes against everything said on here and was location. I've never regretted it though, my little culdesac is absolutely lovely and my neighbours are fantastic. I'm not as bothered about the surrounding area, it's not terrible but not as highly thought of as my preferred area. I wouldn't have compromised on garden, busy road, house/plot size.

Downstairs bathroom and no bath. It's a mid terrace ex council house exactly where I want it to be within the village and has a massive garden which is unusual here. Was £100k cheaper than any alternative with same space.

Kids used a fold up bath in shower cubicle. Youngest is now five and still just about fits. Easier to get on with tea etc while she's in as she can't slip under water and I hear her singing!

Husband had major surgery and couldn't get up stairs. No idea what we'd have done if we'd only had an upstairs bathroom so the compromise was worth it. Bathroom is bottom of stairs and doesn't bother me at all though we have squashed in a toilet and sink upstairs in a former cupboard

Small kitchen, but hoping to extend this year

East anglia may be 4 counties but location wise none of them are for me!

shared parking. requires careful negotiations with the neighbour, but in London its is shared or street parking, so we manage.

We had two compromises with our current house. The garden is pretty small but having spent every weekend for months sorting out the garden, I now realise I hate gardening! On the plus side, there’s a full height fence at the front so we can use that space and it’s a private road which is perfect for bikes etc.

The other compromise was that our sellers had done the house up and it was therefore priced accordingly but it really wasn’t our taste. We looked at a house 2 doors up that was £30k cheaper and a real doer upper but the layout just wasn’t as good. We’ve spent the last 15 years obliterating everything the previous owners did!