House dilemma

[freckledlegs]

Lone mum here. First time buyer. I've been looking for a long time, and haven't found many in my range that excite me. I'm in a posh city with astronomical prices anyway, so extra hard to get all the variables right.

I've finally seen one I like. It's by the kids' secondary school, on a pretty/friendly road, garden etc. I like the feel of it. It's one of those houses that has been lived in since the 70s with very little upkeep, but has good bones and would be fun to refurbish. It also says it has three bedrooms, but two are in a 'captured room' set up, with one leading to another. While it'd be nicest for the kids to each have their own normal room, at the moment they share (2 girls) and would probably be ok using these two rooms...

Part of me feels I would have done amazingly well to get this house as a lone parent, and that the funny room setup and slow refurb would be an ok price for the kids to pay to be near all their friends and school, but part of me worries this is irresponsible.

Any insight gratefully received.

Do you have any DIY experience? How much free time do you have during the month now to take on any projects or work?

You need somewhere to live and this sounds like a good option, but I am one of these people who has a vision of how practical and useful I am and it really doesn’t match up to real life.

Thank you for replying. I am quite practical yes, in good shape for exertion etc and enjoy this kind of work. Also when you're a lone parent you have all the time (in the evening etc). I just feel anxious that it'll be irresponsible to land the children in a 'granny house'. I think it'd be an adventure but just wanted to check.

I'd also check whether having a bedroom off a bedroom complies with building/fire regulations. Was the house built like this or did the previous owner do it? The council environmental health or building control dept should be able to advise. (I worked for an environmental health dept in London years ago and we didn't allow them.)

It was built like that.

Sounds good. I would go for it. You can always ask on here if you need some advice and a lot of DIY is not all that tricky to pick up.

The way you write about it sounds really positive! What would be irresponsible or granny house about it?

The two rooms thing could work well if both rooms are set up and clearly defined, one as a sleeping area for both girls , the second as a shared study/storage/relaxing space.

Or you could have the two rooms, one as a dressing / clothes storage the other as your bedroom, and the girls share the larger room.