HELL! To buy our forever home or stay put comfortably?

[terracottacountryfarm]

Hi everyone, I’d love some advice as we’re at a real crossroads and can’t decide what to do.

We’ve come across a 5-bed detached house up the road from where we currently live. It’s in a small cul-de-sac, has been fully renovated by a builder, and is brand new and ready to move into. While it’s not decorated to my taste, it’s a fantastic space with everything we’d need in a “forever home.”

Currently, we live in a 3-bed semi-detached townhouse. We’ve spent quite a lot doing it up and even added an extension, so it’s very much to our taste. We love our home, and it’s big enough for two children if we decide to start a family soon. The only issue is that it doesn’t have the open-plan kitchen/diner and separate study space I dream of.

Here’s the situation:

My dad has kindly gifted us £300k, which has given us two clear options:

Option A: Stay in our current house

Use the £300k to pay off our mortgage entirely and be mortgage-free.
Use the remaining £150k to renovate the house (e.g., create an open-plan kitchen/diner).
Live comfortably with no financial pressures, but possibly outgrow the house eventually and need to move in the future.

Option B: Move to the 5-bed detached house

Use the £300k towards the £675k house, leaving us with a £100k mortgage.
Take out another £100k mortgage to redecorate and furnish it to our taste, leaving us with a £200k mortgage in total.
This would likely be our “forever home” and give us the space we want, but it’s a much bigger financial commitment, especially with children potentially on the horizon.

I’m worried we might regret not making the move before having children, but we also love the idea of being mortgage-free and having financial freedom, but equally, we will be pushing our limits financially...

What would you do in our position?

Attached floor plan of new home

We took a decision to be mortgage free early on. Not once have we had to worry about money in 30 years. On the other hand, had we kept trading up houses we would have made a lot more money. It's all about the journey and what you want.

If you do decide to trade up then £100K for decoration does sound a lot. A kitchen fitter once told me with a smile that all the £40k kitchens he installs end up in the skip after a few years and they don't add to the value of the property in line with their cost. If you decide to trade up, I would go easy on your choices.

I'd stay put, but then an open plan kitchen-diner is my idea of hell.

Age, income, children and point in careers would impact my answer, but tbh, £200,000 mortgage on a house of that value doesn't scare me unless you're very close to retirement not earning very much.

Mortgage free is what I'd go with. The security of knowing you will always have a roof over your head is worth its weight in gold. A couple do not need a 5 bed house with all of the upkeep and costs of heating etc. You don't need as much room as you think, even with kids (teens hide in their rooms BTW, all the downstairs space is a waste 😂).

I'd stay where you are, a house that you know and love. The 'newly renovated' house may very well spring unknowable and expensive surprises after purchase.

And going mortgage free gives you an incredible sense of freedom and lightness of being.

I love that floor plan! I would go with option two but massively scale down my spending on making it 'to your taste' - I get what you're saying about the carpets (they sound grim 😅) but initially at least you'd only need to redo the rooms you actually use? Pink velvet is fine if it's just a guest bedroom... and same with the redecorating. A lot can be done with art etc on the walls and nice furniture which presumably you already have - there's no way you'd need to spend 100k surely?!

I would move but only spend say 10k ish for new carpets and painting.

The rest can be done over time and if it's new then it's not urgent. You really don't need to have everything to your taste straight away!

We went for the option B house (without the financial help!), which is a similar layout but without the four?! baths 😂. I bloody love our house and I’m so glad we were able to do it before starting our family as it really does feel like our forever home and we’ve been able to make it our own and add our own enhancements to get it just how we like it.

I disagree with others re the need to spend, we have spent over £50k getting ours (which was also in move in condition) up to how we want it, you need a lot more furniture when you live in a bigger house and we didn’t want to put crappy furniture in our home with expensive quality flooring etc.

The only thing that makes me hesitate is you say a £200k mortgage (ours is more than double) would be pushing your limits. If that’s the case then I don’t think you can afford it as the bills and maintenance on our new home are three times that of our old one. It would be a shame to live in a lovely house but have to take a short maternity leave, scrimp on days out etc. and I think it would suck the joy out of it.

Move!
£200k mortgage on a house like that is nothing, and considering your history with your previous mortgage, you presumably earn enough/are good enough with money to pay it off without too much pain. Also fairly young I presume as you are waiting for children.

Go for it!!!

100k to redecorate and furnish?!
Won't you take furniture with you?
I would move to the bigger house, just have the 100k mortgage and then save what you would have spent on those extra mortgage payments and replace the carpets when they start to look rubbish, and just do cosmetic things bit by bit.

I'd spend the £100K to move, but I wouldn't spend £100K doing it up if it's in good condition just not to your taste. I'd do that over time as and when you can afford it.

It depends on your earnings surely? Also factor in the cost of maternity leave / child care / potentially reducing hours at work as a later stage.

Absolutely don't want to be a Debbie downer here but have you thought about how you'd feel in the 5 bed if children don't happen/don't happen easily? A 5 bed house for two people is going to feel awfully empty.

Buying a house for a possible future instead of your current t situation is a huge gamble.

Plus, mortgage free is the dream. I would follow that route 100%. Always the option to move down the line and being a cash buyer afforss you many more options.
Good luck whatever you chose!

That’s rubbish. We live in a 5 bed (our baby isn’t born yet) and it’s fine for two adults, lots of space for guests and parties, plus dressing rooms! Even when we were struggling to conceive we loved living here. Just because you don’t have kids doesn’t mean you need to live in a small house.

Like you said, everyone's different, OP was asking for thoughts and that was my personal take on it!

Well, on a positive note, after viewing it, we've spoken to the estate agent and the vendors have decided they no longer want to give us the option as our house isn't up for sale yet. They will only take offers from people who have had an offer on their house, so we are out of the picture, guess what's meant to be will be!

Thats very, very normal. Nobody in their right mind would accept an offer from a buyer who wasn’t proceedable, that’s not how it works!

B

you only live once

It's not really fair to call someones' opinion rubbish just because you don't agree when it comes to something that isn't facutal. It's their experience, even if it doesn't match yours.

I have also lived in a house with multiple spare rooms and for me too it felt too big and kind of lonely. I prefer perfectly sized houses rather than a massive house just for the sake of it.

You don't generally buy furniture with a mortgage, you can usually get interest free credit for that, Usually mortgages are for renovations

There is no such thing as a forever home. I have no idea how that concept arose, but it is ridiculous. We all get older and our needs change (eg I am looking at my huge unkempt garden that we can no longer cope with properly).

I second this. Also if you’re going to spend that kind of money on doing it up, live in it first for a while to get a feel for it first and think of what you want/ need in the future. If you’re planning to have children don’t put expensive cream carpets everywhere etc

A 5 bed house for two people is going to feel awfully empty.

Thats what PP said, so yes I think it’s rubbish to say it’s going to feel awfully empty. It might do, it might not (it didn’t for us), it depends on the OP! PP was stating it as fact that a large house without kids will feel empty, I take issue with that as I don’t think large homes should be reserved for those with children. Childfree people are able to enjoy large, nice homes too!

I can't believe the number of people saying option 2. I'd definitely go for one.

You don't have children, you don't know if you can, you may want Ivf, you may want to support future xhildren through university, you may want to change careers.