Which house, if any?

[Anxioussearcher]

DP and I are moving to a new area with our pre-school age child and another on the way. We are looking to buy our first family home, but Rightmove has melted my brain and I have house search fatigue. Which, if any, of these would you buy? Obviously, I appreciate that we are very lucky and that this is a nice “problem” to have.

House 1.
Victorian terrace
Nice area, quite nice road
Grand, big windows, high ceilings
4 decent sized bedrooms over 2 floors
Small-ish kitchen, potential to extend
Average, narrow garden
Paved area at front - just about room for car
10-15 mins walk to schools
10 mins to shops
25 mins to work and family

House 2.
1920’s semi-detached
Nicer part of area, very nice road
Cosy rather than grand
3 smaller bedrooms plus loft conversion
Better lateral living space with potential to extend and reconfigure
Large, lovely garden
Driveway and garage
2 mins walk to schools
5 mins to shops
10-15 mins to work and family

Or neither!

We could rent and keep waiting - but unsure if the perfect property would ever come up within our budget?

We could move to a nice, but less “naice” and less convenient area and afford the big house with the big garden?

I'd always be willing to go a bit further for a bigger garden, but here you have the option of closer and a bigger garden, so it's a no brainer to me! If you lack space you can always extend, but you can't make a garden bigger or a house closer in the future.

I live in house 1 and it's lovely but I would choose house 2 for closeness to dc school and big garden.

However the real deal breaker would be which house has more than 1 toilet??

2 every time!

House 2. I am cosy over grand every time. My DD has a Victorian terraces house and it is my idea of a nightmare. It looks fabulous but it is very cold and not at all practical. You will love a big garden and easy parking with two children.

House 2. Larger bedrooms are good for teenagers, but you're a long way away from that yet.

Always the one nearest schools, shops and family.

Kids don’t need big bedrooms. If the rooms can fit a double bed then they can fit a single in with floor space.

And all bedrooms on the same floor is wonderful when kids are little and still waking up in the middle of the night.

Plus as a final vote for house 2, little kids spend more time downstairs in the same space as you, so better lateral flow downstairs is a huge plus for me.

yes, this

House 2 sounds better from what you've written, especially if the victorian has the original windows and insulation. Would never go back to victorian terrace now pretty as they can be from the curb

House 2. Better location, garden plus nearer to stuff.
I like 4ft doubles for older kids.

(checking there is a loo on each floor of house 2 though?).

Definitely house 2. House 1 sounds like it would take a lot of heating.

House 2.

Is the loft conversion legally done?
often they aren’t

Yes! Three loos in each house - one per floor!