How do you know it is the right house???

[Helpmetounderstand]

We have had an offer accepted on a house. I was desperate for the offer to be accepted. We are moving because I hate the area we moved to (for schools). But the current house (we moved in not so long ago) has a fantastic view out of the front garden, it is detached and doesn’t feel overlooked (London zone 6). Downstairs living space is bigger than we had before and my DH loves not being overlooked. The house we are buying is more central, (zone 3). Location is amazing for my commute, but the house is semi detached with a small garden. It is back to an overlooked London terrace. But the house is bigger than our old house and our current house, although the ground floor is smaller than our zone 6 house. The house we are buying has bigger bedrooms. It has no space to extend much. Because we made a mistake with the house (or rather area, but the detached house with a big garden is because of the area) we are in now, I am really worried about making a mistake again. So how do you know you have found the right house and what do you do when you are in a hurry to find somewhere?

Location. There will always be a compromise. But get the location right.

Detached to semi?

I wouldn't personally.

Detached to semi is exactly one of my worries. But I hate modern houses. I love period features. We could afford a modern detached but not period (although not in the area we are buying, but zone 4 yes). But for me i would rather do period in a semi than detached modern. My DH would lean more to detached. We were terraced until we moved to zone 6. The semi is detached on the right side for us (stairs/hallway attached but living room and bedrooms almost all detached). But sound clearly still carries more. And the garden is really small.

For the location, that is hard too because we have opinionated early teens. Their priorities are slightly different. And my priorities, because I commute, are not the same as my husband, who works from home. We have a pretty broad area, but it is also about what comes up in those areas. I may be trying too hard to please my children. But I think early teens, when they are old enough to have strong opinions, and too young to totally appreciate some of the compromises, is the worst!

Because we made such a mistake with the current house (although circumstances as they were, there wasn’t anything we could do about it!!), I am scared we will make the wrong compromises!!!

I should add, it is a fabulous house (it is perhaps unreasonable to be so in love with the hallway cornice and the ludicrously high Victorian ceilings) in a great area.

Is it likely that your early teens won't be at home for that much longer though? If they go off to Uni etc..

That's a bit reductive. You need to consider the house in the round. There are detached houses and there are detached houses, just as there are semis and semis. I would absolutely consider moving from some detached houses to some semis to be a massive upgrade. I think these pics of semis and detached houses illustrate the point.

To address the original question, when we were looking to buy, we worried about how we'd know when we found the right place and whether we'd agree. But as soon as we found the right house, we knew. Not the most helpful answer, I admit!