Would you buy a house with land? (Not a smallholding)

[BunnyWilliams]

While we wait to get an offer on our house, I'm daydreaming about where we want to move to.

We've seen a property that we both love (it has been on the market since last Feb, probably due to the fact that the pictures don't do it justice). DH is keener than I am, mainly because I think of all the practicalities and he just focuses on the fun stuff 😄

It's a reasonably sized 4-bed cottage (not massive but not small) with tons of character in a beautiful country park location about 20 mins away from where we are now. Private lane. Next to a little stream. Really idyllic.

It has approximately 2/2.5 acres of land with it. One 'paddock', a little woodland area, a bit that's currently all just pebbled (I've got dreams of creating a potager there) and then a top field which is pretty large and would potentially make a good business spin-off in the future (dog walking field, glamping/camping for walkers etc.). The current owners allow the neighbouring farmer to keep his sheep on the field for free so the grass is kept down. The house is off-grid for gas (oil) and water (private spring).

We wouldn't do the whole smallholding thing. We've got three young children and a dog and that's enough! I would like to explore growing our own food (hence the potager) but I'd do it slowly and as a learning opportunity.

I work freelance from home with pretty flexible hours. We both earn well, although this is at the top end of our budget.

Does it seem like too much to take on? I keep thinking about all the unknowns of fence repairing, dealing with fallen trees etc. but I don't know how often that occurs in reality. The house is lovely but the bedrooms are smaller than we have now - it's a payoff of the land and location vs the house size.
I had an absolutely amazing childhood growing up surrounded by nature and the freedom to go off and explore, and I'd love to give that to our three. My eldest has ADHD and being outside does him the world of good. He loves adventuring.

I'd love it. Until winter probably!

One thing to consider is what happens when you have teenagers. You'll be doing a lot of taxiing.

Yes, I agree the winter probably wouldn't be great. Spend a fair bit of time outside in the cold with the dog as it is though.

Good point about the teens and driving them around, although it's a good few years away (eldest is 7). We live rurally at the moment but it is on a bus route at least.

You don't say what kind of land/garden you have now and how you use it. Also this kind of thing really depends on your lifestyle - land does need looking after, even if it's quite "wild" and potagers are definitely a pretty high-maintenance activity. For some people they love that and every bit of hacking back brambles or potager pottering is a joy to them - for others it's a chore. Land can be a real tie unless you either pay someone else to do the work or you don't mind letting it go to rack and ruin a bit and you can live amongst overgrown grass and weeds without crying inside. If you're someone who likes long holidays, spending weekends going out and about, staying indoors when it's raining etc, then a lot of land will probably make you miserable (unless you pay for gardeners/maintenance). If you love being outside in all weathers, staying at home, getting mucky and get a kick from hard work, then it will probably bring you joy.

When you said land I thought you meant 20 acres or more. Our garden is 3.5 acres, oil tank and our own bore hole (water supply). It’s absolutely fine, not a big deal, you get into a routine of when septic tank needs emptying, oil tanks refilled, water tank cleaned and uv filter replaced. It’s lovely having so much privacy.

Thanks. We'd pay a gardener to help with the bi-annual (or however often) maintenence like trimming, pruning etc. I'd do the day-to-day gardening myself with perhaps someone to come in every few weeks over spring and summer.

We have a small garden at the moment but that's one of the reasons we want to move. I love gardening and keeping pots and small beds and I want more of a challenge and something bigger to look after. The kids and dog love being out there in all weathers but it's just too small to be practical.

2/2.5 acres is not a smallholding.

If you are not on the water mains, you will need to not be extravagant with water but it shouldn't be an issue.

Regarding the stream, check if it floods, you don’t want anything to do with flooding. We are on a hill thankfully.

2 / 2.5 acres is nothing , it's a large garden .
If you have young children it will fabulous for them to have space to play and grow .
I have 7 acres and it's the best thing I've bought . I do accept though that when I'm infirm I'll either have to move or bankrupt myself having people in to do it .

I'd buy it if everything else suits .

It sounds like heaven - my complete dream life. So I'd go for it in a heartbeat. Our house is also quite rural with character and the only thing I'd change is having more land.

How's the internet connection?

That's good to know! Yes, definitely not a big bit of land but much more than the average big garden, certainly around here anyway. I think it feels bigger because it's divided up into different types of land and because there's a lower and upper part divided by the stream and accessed through the woodland.

Have you ever had any problems with having a private water supply? I've been doing some research but it's not something I've ever had to consider before.

All you'd need to maintain there is having the paddock cut once or twice a year to do it going mad. If it's fenced you'll easily find a farmer happy to stick enough sheep on it to keep it grazed.

The wooded bit can be left and appreciated by wildlife.

I wouldn't think twice, it's just a big garden.

So about a hectare? That’s not particularly difficult as long as you invest in the right tools.

How near is the stream to the house though? I would look carefully at a contour map.

Thanks to you all for giving me a reality check that 2 acres is nothing. It seems absolutely huge to me! 😆

The advantage for teens is what you can offer them and their friends though. You can definitely make it the hang out house and the sleep over one

before you drive them all into town and pick them up

I would hate it. But I am a city person

I think the question to ask yourself is not so much whether you enjoy being outside as a family but how much you would enjoy maintaining that outside space (or could afford for someone else to) Do you actively enjoy gardening and dealing with trees and weeding and fencing etc?

We moved from a tiny garden to half an acre with young kids and it felt huge! Kids love it. There is a lot more maintenance than a small garden but it all feels manageable, especially once you've broken the back of the work.

It sort of wraps around the house and land. It's about 10 metres away from the front of the house but a LOT lower with a high stone wall on the side near to the house. It's more of a beck on the land itself.

Living anywhere near a city or town is my nightmare 😂

Good job we're all different hey!

You need a water engineer to maintain your tank, pump and bore hole. Our tank is an outdoor tank but the pump is in a big shed right next to it. We use MJ Abbott (we are in SW England). You need to make sure the water supply is safe to use, tank is cleaned annually (or twice annually) uv filter is replaced. Before buying it would be worth checking the bore hole is ok (big expense if there is a problem with it). We have lived with a private water supply for 15 years and it’s not given us problems other than maintenance. I remember the estate agent saying at the time that it did put off some buyers.

We recently pulled out of a similar property because the little stream turns into a torrent in the rain, and it had high flood risk all over it. I knocked on the neighbours houses as the owners weren't giving me straight answers and they told me not to buy it, as it floods, and the whole road accessing it turns into a river, and the bridge regularly gets swept away requiring rebuilding (which would be our cost as an unadopted road, again something the owners had brushed under the carpet). So unfortunately this kind of property has firmly been categorised as 'in our dreams' now.

My in laws have 4 acres. Their biggest issue it mowing and garden maintenance. They've gone through so many ride on lawn mowers since I've known them. If the paddock has sheep, then that won't need mowing, but how much other grassed areas are there?

We recently renovated and had a 5,000 litre water tank buried in the garden. It collects the rain water off the house. I have a large (22ft x 10ft) green house along with multiple raised beds and grow veg. I wish we'd bought a tank twice the size, because most summers now, it is emptied dry by July/August.

Is the water from the private spring drinkable? What would you do it it became contaminated somehow? That would be a concern of mine.

Agreeing with everyone expressing concerns about the stream. Do look into this carefully op.

Definitely going to look into the stream further. I will take MJDecember's advice and try to speak to the neighbours. It's very snowy here at the moment (North Yorks) so when it has all melted, I'll drive over and look at what the stream is doing with all the extra water.

Do double check the stream although lots of people have them without any flooding issues. We’ve got one which does get fuller but we’ve never come close to flooding.

2.5 acres is just a big garden really, it shouldn’t be much bother. We’ve for a bit more than that as a garden. We have a ride on mower for the lawn and a chainsaw for any fallen trees and branches. Fencing sometimes needs a bit of upkeep after the big storms but it’s really no bother. Flowerbeds, veg patch and bushes take more time than the land.

Sounds like a lovely property