Square Footage or Garden?

[1stTimeMummy2021]

Hi Guys,
I have had terrible trouble buying a house, I am not joking when I say that I am currently on attempt number 4 at buying a property, the saga has been ongoing for a year and it's been hell. I have just sold for the 2nd time and am not sure what the right next purchase is for me. I seem to pick old houses that look nice and then spend money on a survey that says it is falling down. The currently 2 contenders are location wise pretty close. House 1 is okay size wise, has what I need, no wow factor but has a big garden. House 2 has the wow and is huge, I am taking 1200sq ft bigger than the other house, but it has a much smaller garden. My husband likes house 1, he wants a big garden and doesn't care what the house is like. I love house 2 for our family but worry he wouldn't be happy there.

For context I am Australian but have lived here half my life so I know what the weather is like. To me a big garden was great growing up, but so was the weather so I was outside a lot. With the weather here I feel that inside space is more important as the weather means we will be inside a lot more.

What do you guys think? Garden or inside space? Price wise they're about the same and house 1 is heavily extended already so I don't think you could make it as big as house 2 even if I had several hundreds of thousands to do it.

TLDR: Is it better to have a big garden or a big house?

I would want the bigger house. Garden will only be of use for a few months of the year.

Sorry to hear- I’m only at the start of my house buying journey and it’s so hard to find the “one”!

it’s a tough one but I would sway more on the garden side of things . I saw a house today and although the house was not huge the garden was - this gives potential scope to extend further down the line if you were granted permission so I think you could benefit long term with that view perhaps …

if you could see yourself making house 1 your wow house further down the line then I would consider but if not maybe go for 2 !!

I think it's relative. It's hard to comment without knowing the exact sizes of each, as people's interpretations of large gardens will differ.

Are there nice parks and green spaces quite close to the larger house? If so I’d go for that. Some outside space is nice but you don’t need loads if you have a big house

I enjoy gardening, I’m outside in both my garden and allotment at least some of the time for 11 months a year, so garden always.

Garden for me as long as the house is sufficient to fit my needs.

Thank you @FunPinkSwan I hope you have much more luck with your house search.

@OrsolaRosso House number 1 is 1700 sq ft with a 6800 sq ft garden, House number 2 is 2900 sq ft with a 2800 sq ft.

@Mumlaplomb There are nice parks quite close to the bigger house. I agree about not needing that much garden, I feel like a massive garden is a lot of responsibility and neither my husband or I have very green thumbs. In fact my husband has awful hay-fever, that has gotten worse as he ages so he can't mow the lawn without feeling like he can't breath for a couple of days afterwards and I'm not relishing mowing a massive garden.

it sounds like the bigger house still has a good sized garden then? In which case I’d go for the bigger house, as the big garden will likely be hard work maintaining if you aren’t into gardening x

The council tend to get a bit pissed off if you start putting raised vegetable beds, sheds, green houses in the local park.

@1stTimeMummy2021

can you link to the houses on Rightmove??

If you were going to be a gardener, you would know by now. At this point in life, I would be arranging my life to what I know I do and how I live rather than a life that looks really good when other people live it.

Yes fair point but it sounds like they don’t really want to do too much actual gardening? Also it sounds like the bigger house garden is still quite big, but my spatial awareness isn’t the best

Bigger house for sure. 1700 sq ft is small for a family.

The only plus side of a big garden is that you can extend into it (however much a house has been extended it can always be extended further).

Edit: missed your later post. Bananas to take on a large garden if your DH has hay fever and no gardening skills. You will end up paying a gardener a shit ton to keep it under control.

House number 1 is 1700 sq ft with a 6800 sq ft garden, House number 2 is 2900 sq ft with a 2800 sq ft.

house 2 all. day. long.

1,700 is small for a family of 4.
ours is 2,200sq ft and about right

ours is IMO a “small” garden and approx the same size as the house 2 garden… it’s 90/100ft long and despite having 3 patio areas it’s a bloody part time job is summer - i just couldn’t handle 6800 with 2 kids you’d be there all weekend

I'd always go for a house with a bigger garden, but then I like gardening and the outdoors / wildlife etc.