House choice

[Fargoer]

Hi
Which house would you choose?
Same price and age roughly, and both need a lot of extending/ improving.

1. 3 bed house on corner between two streets, fair size plot, will be able to extend as needed, but will end up slightly smaller/narrower than house 2. Round the corner (4 mins walk) from a good school. Slightly further away from train station and town centre than house 2. Quiet street.
2. 4 bed house the other side of the road to the playground section of a large park (no houses on the park side of the road so the front windows look directly out on the playground). Also (my biggest concern) is that a 1 form entry primary school is being built spitting distance away. This house is slightly closer to station and town. The road is naturally a bit busier but near a LTN so this mitigates that a bit. Wider house. It’s the end house in a road and so although there is a very long garden, since it shares a fence with roughly 10 houses in the perpendicular road, it’s currently very overlooked. This could be improved somewhat but probably not eliminated. we could definitely have all the space we need and probably more than we need.

which would you choose?

Good question!

We recently brought a 3 bed house, slightly smaller than we wanted, but the location (and having quiet - which is really important to me) were the deciding factor. So I would go for 1. BUT it depends on your tolerance for noise (I'm very sensitive).

Regarding the playground/school - consider that the noise would only be at certain times of the day, drop off pick up/ after school weekends etc. So it depends on how the benefits weigh up against the negatives for you.

What is your gut telling you?!

House 1 . Sharing a fence with 10 houses would turn me right off.

My instinct tells me house 1.

But it's your instinct that matters!! I hope you get the house you want!!

Number 1

Number 1

Having calm would outweigh size

plus you can extend number 1 and you’ve said yourself it would still be smaller than number 2 but you think number 2 may even be too large

no Brainer for me

I guess it depends on the age of your children and how long you plan to stay whether having a direct view of the playpark is a great thing or an awful thing. But the amount of houses overlooking house 2 would make it a definitely no for me.

It sounds like you obviously prefer house 1 but don't sound totally sold on either tbh. But go with your heart, not the number of bedrooms.

Thanks all. It’s true I am not 100% sold on either. That’s mainly as my ideal would be to move into a perfectly finished house that is entirely to my taste and the right size and flow, and the perfect location. But as none of this is possible, we are looking at a significant building project and therefore a lot of upheaval.

My feeling is that house 2 definitely gives us everything we need but the fact of the unknown school (will it be the best school for miles or the school no one wants to be sent to? Will the parents park inappropriately all over the place etc) plus a concern about teens in the park late at night in the summer makes me worry about house 2.

My only worries about house 1 are the slightly less convenient location (wrt town, it’s actually closer for our schools) and a possibility it will feel small when we have a house full of young adults. ie might need to be creative about giving them separate living space like an outdoor den.

my gut has let me down before, so I can’t trust it!

Can you post links for each of the houses?

Toss a coin and see if the result disappoints you, which it may well not, because you say you’re not really sold on either.