Could you live comfortably as a family of 4 in this?

[KimGa]

Hello, I’ve posted multiple times with various questions as I’m in such a quandary. Here is another, forgive me. The background: we have lovely 3 bed extended semi with parking and big garden, but outside catchment for decent secondary school. Not willing to consider secondary school we will get. Need to move this autumn. Can’t afford any houses we like in the catchment area. So going back and forward about whether to proceed with sale and go into a rental if we can get one - but financially it will be the worst choice (we’ll have to use part of equity from sale to fund a year in rental as monthly cost is double mortgage - will we get back on ladder in 12-18month?) or shall we buy something smaller/worse than what we have?

A smaller house has just come up which could work as it has 3 decent sized bedrooms and no onward chain. No parking and very small garden. This is the floor plan. We have a 10 year old and a 5 year old and husband wfh (will have to have a desk in bedroom, but he is used to that). Think we’d put 10 year old in the basement for now as we still have to go to 5 year old in the night sometimes.

Do you think if it was you, you could manage quite happily in this for 5 years or no?

I wouldn't compromise on a garden and off road parking.
To downsize and have a lot of compromises for schooling sounds extreme. Obviously schooling is so important but not worth all that compromise in my opinion.

The school can't be THAT bad or else you would be in a bad area and wouldn't have bought a house in the area in the first place?? Surely you considered schools when you bought this one?

Have you visited the local school?

A lot of faffing and expense to move - and you won't be guaranteed a place at the school anyway . Then what?

That dining room is massive, you can easily bring a run of units into the dining space and use the original kitchen as a sort of massive utility room. That's a common 'shape' around here and that's what most people do.

I'd make the ground floor the reception room, you and DH sleep in the current reception room, kids upstairs. Could you extend the lower floor in time?

I would have the children in their own rooms upstairs and make the reception room as your bedroom. Have a mini living room/dining room in the dining room and use the basement as a study/playroom.

Then you aren't far away from the children, but they get their own rooms.

I wouldn't personally want to live with this set up if I didnt have too.

It looks the same as my house apart from we have an attic room rather than the basement. We're a family of 4 and it's perfect. The only downside is my husband now works from home. My boys share a room but we want them have a room each so my husband is building an office in the back garden. Is there space that you could potentially do similar? Also as others have said id put the kids upstairs and have the basement for more privacy.

I’d also make rhe dining or living room your bedroom and have both kids upstairs for a couple of years, then you can switch it. I think two floors away from a ten / eleven year old is too much.

Give Dad a Desk downstairs, make it near the staircase and put up a false wall, your almost teen gets the rest of the room for now, since Son will be in School during work hours, this should be fine. This way Daddy is away from the household. son can use headphones if he games during the holidays.
You and Hubby have big room upstairs with 5 year old in the smaller one.

Same!! This is a brilliant plan.

Incidentally our home living space is only 75sq metres. There's 4 of us and 2 cats. DC are 15 and 12.

No office space, only one bathroom.

Slightly different because we moved here form the off and didn’t downsize, but we live in a similar size house and one of the major plus points was catchment for an excellent secondary school.

no space for dishwasher or tumble dryer unless we can afford to extend which we can’t. It’s doable though we manage!

PS I think it’s worth it for a great secondary school, 100%.

I’d use the dining room as family room. The living room as a bedroom for either myself or the nearly 11 year old and the basement as the office/second living room.

Innit.

This is ridiculous.

Yes you can do it easily but do you need to move by Autumn?
Can you not give it a couple more months to make sure you’re making the right decision?
The rush is what would put me off.

A word of warning.
My niece lives with 1 mile of a decent secondary school so she obviously put that down as her first choice. But she didn’t get it and instead got in a school almost 10 miles away.

So being close to the school doesn’t guarantee a place.
And that plus the fact you’re not sure about the property would make me not want to move until I’d found somewhere I know would make me happier.

Op I must admit I don't think sharing is feasible for a 10 yo boy and 5 yo girl. I don't think I'd want to be two floors away from my kids.

Unless the high school is exceptionally good I'd give it a miss.
Would your DS want to go to a different school to his friends at this stage?

Exactly, some people are homeless, some people have no homes because of the war, and then I read this? Give your head a wobble

To make the kitchen work, you could get a run of units in the dining room. I have two undercounter freezers, a fridge and the washing machine in my back sitting room (which joins to the kitchen).

They are all built in with handless cupboards and with a big wooden worktop so it just looks like a huge sideboard. Loads of room for pictures and ornaments and a tv wall mounted above (probably less essential for dining than sitting!)

In the kitchen I just have one undercounter fridge. It works really well. All the regular use cooking stuff is where I need it and I don’t mind a few steps for the freezer once a day.

You probably don’t have plumbing for washing machine in diner but you could reduce freezer space to make room for a dishwasher or sacrifice the cupboards with none everyday items which can be stored in dining room instead.

Living in a smaller space requires things to be more multi functional to get the most out of it

That's a good sized house and plenty of people bring up two children with much less space. I'd switch around the rooms so that noone sleeps on the bottom floor.

Yeah - I'd have the basement as study/snug with a TV in there for cosy evenings and work during the day.

Then use front room as your bedroom - probs nice big window there.

Then dining area and kitchen - try to make them feel open plan - take down any unnecessary doors etc. Could you use some sort of cupboard or storage etc for tumble dryer etc in dining room? Possibly extend kitchen in the future so it's as wide as dining room and have open plan?

Two kids upstairs.

Small garden is shame but maybe there is a big park nearby?

School more important than house size.

Also - could you make money on it or is it already done up? Is it possible to find bigger house which needs a little bit of work so you can ensure you make money and climb up with next move?

I mean - and yes, of course you can make it work, it's a perfectly nicely proportioned house - but don't apologise for asking the question....perfectly reasonable. Moving house is a really stressful decision.

I don't think I'd put my 10-year-old in a windowless basement two floors away from everyone else. A 14 year-old, sure, but not a 10-year old.

I'd probably turn the basement into a family room; the ground floor rooms into a dining room/sitting room and a bedroom (for you); and then your two children upstairs. That way you're only a floor away, not two, and they're on the same floor together.

I would stay in the house that I was happy with, with the space and the garden and send my kids to the nearest school. I genuinely think uprooting from a lovely family home just for schools is ridiculous. I worked at the sort of school nobody wanted to send their kids to, it worked harder than any other school I worked in, and I had moved from a school that people would murder their gran to get their kids into.

Kids do fine. They really do.

Depends how much real difference between the schools

Results - are they better because if a different social mix, or because teachers are exam focussed or are they better because discipline and disruption rule the other school

I wouldn’t compromise on off street parking , dishwasher or tumble dryer . If you actually use your dryer now try to imagine what it will be like next winter with no dryer in a smaller house - where is the washing going ? I realise lots of people manage without in smaller spaces but if you’ve been used to it it may be difficult . What is actually wrong with the school ? I’d hang on until something better comes up .

The square footage is bigger than my current house (family of 4) so I don't think its too small. I wouldn't be keen on the layout personally, I wouldn't like to have one bedroom down 2 floors and the kitchen is quite tiny.

Turn the dining room in to a kitchen diner, split current kitchen in half for utility and study. You and DH take the lower ground bedroom and kids next door to each other, or share a room and use second as playroom/den.
Very doable.
Only issue I might have is the small, NE facing, garden might not get any sun.

Personally, I'd have both kids upstairs, use the reception room for our bedroom and sacrifice a large dining table for a few years and just have a small one in the corner on the living room which is marked on the plans as the living room, DH could then have a desk in the basement that would also double as a playroom for the kids.
We're a family of 4 plus 2 dogs (expecting 3rd baby too) in a 2 bed terrace house, so this sends massive to me 😂