Which house? Bathroom overload!

[Potaytoe5]

Ok, so looking at 2 houses. Very similar prices and area, so it boils down to

House A)

• HUGE open plan living / dining room / kitchen. Personally I am worried about messy kitchen / heating costs / sounds. Separate utility so washing machine won't interrupt the TV.
• Medium sized garden but with slopes, so not a large area for children's swings / climbing frame etc. Would be just about enough. East facing.
• Backing onto council owned path and land, so no neighbours to the back. Stunning views at nature reserve, rolling hills etc.
• Combi boiler system.
• Lots of bathrooms! 2 ensuites, 1 family bathroom, downstairs loo. I think it's an overkill and more cleaning, but one room could be a guest room? Not that anyone ever stays over much!

House B)

• All separate rooms, non open plan
• Slightly smaller garden but completely flat, enough space for all we need. South facing. Normal setup with neighbour's garden's around. I think it might be safer as people won't be able to just get straight from a path into our back garden?
• Boiler system with a tank but decent make, no problems.
• 1 family bathroom, 1 ensuite to master bedroom, 1 downstairs loo. I think that's just right.
• Master bedroom is over the garage, so not sure if it wouldn't make it colder?
• NO CHAIN which would be great as our buyers have started rushing us (after 2 months! they said they are not in a rush before...sigh)

House A looks very snazzy and modern and DH prefers it. House B is also not dated and I think more practical, I like it more. Plus it's no chain! Are there any other factors to consider? I'm especially put off by a huge amount of bathrooms and open plan of house A. Thanks!

House B because I don't like open plan. That's the hardest bit to change. The insulation for the garage is not too hard to fix. We have a bedroom over the garage and it's not cold. But it's a recent extension and there is very good insulation between the garage and the bedroom, and all the walls have cavity insulation. Also, the garage door is roller and is insulated.

For house A, two ensuites, one family bathroom and one downstairs are not too many. It's just one more than house B. It's very nice to have more bathrooms when you have teens. Garden and swings are not useful, unless you like gardening.

By the way, we are a family of 4 with two ensuites, one bathroom and one downsstairs loo. All are used. DC1 has second ensuite, DC2 has the family bathroom. They do not share bathrooms and they have all their make up and skin care all over the bathroom.

Teens have a lot of toiletries.

House B for me. South facing garden, just enough bathrooms, NOT open plan. Also I’d be concerned a combi boiler would struggle with up to three showers going at once…

@WolfFoxHare good point about running all showers at once!

Sorry I didn't realise 2 months was a long time to look for a house. We've been at it every weekend. Unfortunately we can't do a lot of viewings in the week because of work! Realistically that was only about 8 days to do viewings...? Am I missing something? I hope we find a house very soon, but didn't think 2 months was long at all!

I would be put off house A for the exact reasons you say.

Also I don't like combi boilers. For 3 simultaneous showers you'd need a traditional heat-only or system boiler with (large!) loft header tanks and HW cylinder for water storage. A combi just won't cut it in that type of property.

Two months is getting to the point of too long. It will depend how tolerant your buyers and the chain under them are. I would have waited 2 months, but that would've been the maximum.

We bought 2 weeks after selling. Our sellers bought 3 weeks later. Their sellers bought within a few days. In our chain of 7 (us 4th), completion was 5 months from sale.

I think that kind if time frame is usual. Imagine if every buyer took 2 months (plus?) to buy. In a chain of five, it would take 8 months to get chain complete, before you even start conveyancing at the top if the chain, which could add another month or two. That's madness, lower down would be reasonable to consider pulling out.

I'd say, if you've waited so long to buy, I would priories chain free purchaes, to reassure lower in the chain that they eont be waiting much more.

We sold to first time buyers. One of the reasons we sold so cheap to them was because they said they were not in a rush! Oh well, seems I assumed wrong. Fingers crossed one of those houses will be 'it', unless something new pops up before the weekend. Which is doubtful, as very few new properties are coming on the market right now.

Just read that house A has a combi boiler ... worst thing ever for a family. I would avoid at all costs.

I personally can’t stand en-suites. I never see the point of losing bedroom space to a loo you can’t use at night without risking waking your partner.

B sounds better. Maybe extra insulation for the above the garage room. It will be quiet and may not be that cold.

I’ve been investigating new boiler options and have come to conclusion neither combo nor heat pump will serve our needs.

Is there much of a price difference between them?

Same price!
House A has been on the market for a while though, so I wonder if other people felt similarly to me.

It would be house B for me,no question. The other one has too many bathrooms and not enough house, I don't like that open plan living malarkey , I had it in one house and felt like I was always in my kitchen, it was lovely kitchen but I didn't want to see it all the time , that's not relaxing for me. The garden sounds unsuitable the way you describe it & backing onto a council owned path, is it heavily used by kids /dogwalkers / teenage hangout ?

I bloody love a utility room. It's one of my favourite rooms in the house.

We have 2 ensuites, a family bathroom and a downstairs loo. On a day to day basis we use 1 ensuite, the family bathroom and the downstairs loo.

We have an open plan kitchen, however we do have other rooms. I would feel uneasy with entirely open plan. I need other places to escape to.

I know I would be on team House A! I would probably fall in love with the view, and the peace and calmness that would bring, and wouldn’t really care about seeing ‘mess’, it’s just life isn’t it?

Agree that 2 months is long to wait, how long were you expecting them to wait..? The conveyancing itself will take several months…