House not selling - what can we do to make it work better for us?

[TinyHousemouse]

I am donning my hard hat a bit because I’m posting a Rightmove link but hoping that by doing so we can get some inspiration and help.

We have lived in our terraced cottage for 12 years and have loved it. We love the setting, we love our neighbours to bits, we are close to friends and work - all great. It’s a really special community where everyone looks out for each other and gets together in summer and at Christmas. We have done various improvements over the years, garden, new roof, new windows, loft conversion being the main ones. When we bought it, we thought we wouldn’t have any children and would be here forever. We now have one 3 year old DD (who loves it here, loves all the outdoor space and is often in and out of neighbour’s houses 😂) we can’t have any more children so it will stay the three of us plus two (in the next year likely one as our boy is old 😢) Labradors.

Made the painful decision to put the house on the market for the following reasons:

• all open plan downstairs, so no separate living area
• No spare room for elderly parents to stay
• Can’t walk to school when DD goes next year
• No rear access without going through other people’s gardens, and no hallway so coming in with bikes/wet dogs/wet child is a PITA
• More storage would be great

We have had a steady stream of viewings but no offers. Nearly every single one has said bedrooms too small, bar one who said kitchen too small. I know that suggests price is wrong. We went with what agents recommended and it seemed reasonable based on what a smaller cottage in our row went for in 2023, and prices in the area in general. It also reflects what we would need to be able to move to something bigger. I would rather stay put and find a way to make a house we have loved so much work better for us, than drop the price by loads just to sell it and end up regretting it forever because we couldn’t get something much bigger round here anyway and the grass isn’t greener.

I do not want to do an extension to the rear under permitted development. We were dicked over by cowboys in the past and it took forever to sort, plus the extortionate cost of it for the negligible amount of extra space doesn’t seem worth it.

What else could we do?! Our minds just don’t work this way and we could be missing some clever things that would help.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/164260733

puts on hard hat please be nice to me!

Couldnt you put a small sofa bed in the room with the desk so you could accommodate guests/grandparents ?
Sorry I think it is lovely but if there is no way to access the rear other than going through other gardens I'm really not sure that can be overcome. Where do you store your bins ?

Why is there no spare room? You have three bedrooms and one child? Put a Murphy bed in the study.

With that length of garden and extensions to the boundary on both sides already, I would say the rear extension is a no brainer, if you can afford it. I know it will be painful but if you really do your homework it should be possible to find a decent builder. And the existing neighbours’ side walls will make it quicker. Bear in mind any new place might need building work anyway.

Lack of rear access not fixable but at least you have access via other gardens, which is more than most terraces have

Hallway - ok a fully divided off hallway is not really possible. But if you add a rear extension, you might feel able to allocate an area of the front room as “hallway” (albeit not divided off) with shoe and coat storage etc.

@Stillreadingalot thank you ☺️ the lack of rear access is the thing that annoys me the least really. I have a Brompton in the cupboard under the stairs, it’s DH with his bikes that are coming through the house 😆 Bins are in my neighbour’s field at the end of the road.

I have thought about a sofa bed, but then I think that if we stay here DD will need the bigger room as we have so separate living space downstairs, and there would be no room for one in her little room (which was my office before she came along!)

Well at a very quick glance, it’s too expensive! Saying that you don’t have a spare bedroom for your parents acknowledges that the room shown as a third bedroom on the plans is too small to work as bedroom. By contrast, for the same price there seem to be a number of detached/semi detached houses with three or four actual bedrooms for sale in the area which would give people with that budget more living space, larger kitchens and an actual entrance hallway. I expect your house probably has character or perhaps a location that theirs don’t have but people with families who need proximity to schools or extra bedrooms will very often have to prioritise practicality over style. Also, a property is worth what someone will pay and what the market will bear, and doesn’t take into account what you would like to achieve for it in order to fund your next move.

Could you extend your kitchen into the living space to make a kitchen diner and then split the living room? But yeah rear extension seems like the next steps, it’s beautiful and in a stunning location,

I think it’s lovely. And with all the community etc you describe why would you move, especially when you know your family won’t be growing. I think I would throw money on making the property work for you (adding built in storage/murphy bed/even an extension? You have loads of space. Be smart and you can keep your beautiful happy home but make it work for you

On Mumsnet, every house is always too expensive.

It somehow likes cramped on the photos, but I'm sure it's not.

Cluttered spaces = not enough storage in the house.

@AlohaRose it must be price, you’re right - it just feels unfair when I see what others have gone for, but that was then and this is now. The box room is fine as a single room, not a double - hence not being suitable as a spare for visitors.
It was my office before we had DD, and where I’ve plonked my desk now was the spare.

ETA - I'm talking about how to stay not sell 😂

I'd chuck up a wall in the living room tbh, even just one made of wooden and glass folding doors so you can open it all up again as required. Create the separate space you want.

We only have a similar hallway but manage wet dogs etc in the hall itself - soak up rug, lots of dog towels that are stored there.

Perhaps a large storage box for the bike out front? Like a Keter box - some have doors that open to the front rather than the top.

It's three bedroom - do you not have a spare room now? Or is it the stairs that's the issue? We have that problem (stairs for elderly parents), so they pay to stay in a local place which has disability friendly apartments. I'm not spending ££££ to accommodate them a few nights per year.

Is access available via those fields / the rear of the garden? Or do you have ROW across the neighbours gardens? That's unclear to me.

Ooh see I’m so unimaginative I hadn’t thought of that! Thank you!

@JurassicPark4Eva it’s also the stairs, you’re spot on. They are quite steep. My dad has limited mobility and in laws are in their 80s.

Access is in the middle of the gardens - gate just before the lawn starts. The field at the back is my neighbour’s. We had our wedding in it 🥰

Can you put a bike shed in the front garden and a home office in the back?

also extend the kitchen into the living room as a precious poster has said

Could you put a cabin in the back garden which would act as your study and be able to accommodate guests ? Agree with bike storage out front.

Why would you do so this just to sell? It would take time, make a mess and cost a lot.

If we stayed, I think DD would need the bigger room which is why I say we don’t have a spare - as we wouldn’t, if we swapped her. My mum argues that she won’t need the bigger room based on the fact that my childhood bedroom was the box room yet I stayed until my 20s so it can’t have been that traumatic 😂😂😂

I don’t think she’s selling. She’s asking for ideas to make it easier to stay.

The OP is asking how to make the house work for her to stay not to sell

I would rather stay put and find a way to make a house we have loved so much work better for us

Two neighbours have these. One has an actual bathroom in 🤯 they built them themselves though. We can’t even put up a shelf without damaging the wall 🤣 I think we should seriously consider one though if we are staying put.

I wouldnt move, given the cost of moving and what you would have to pay extra to get what you want

I would definitely put that experience behind me about your previous builders and get an extension, that is the answer.

Also, dare I say it, there is a lot of room taken up with the ensuite in the loft, do you really need that? That could be a study/dressing room/spare space.

I would put a stud wall in the living room, but you need to open out the back so the dining area itsnt pitch black

I would consider a rear extension way ahead of considering either a garden cabin or knocking kitchen into living room.

This rear extension, which I’d turn into a kitchen/diner/family room, would add a lot of value. It would also enable you to split up the front room into different uses.

Personally I would probably turn the very front bit of the front room into a TV snug plus hallway area, and the middle bit into a playroom.

This then also sorts your bedroom issue as DD would have a playroom so doesn’t need a bigger bedroom. (IME they don’t play in their bedrooms till age 7+ anyway, and even then they tend to gravitate downstairs and bring everything with!)

Edited to split into paragraphs!

It's gorgeous.
Agree ref making the kitchen bigger.

Then, do you need a shower and a bath in the upstairs bathroom? If the wall between the two bedrooms isn't a supporting wall and you don't need a bath and a shower can you make the two bedrooms the same size as each other, move the door to the current larger of the two (but taking some of the bathroom space for the new door?)

That would make the two second bedrooms more equally sized (not sure of they would then be big enough?)

A rear extension also sounds like an ideal down the line fix but if not, the kitchen into the dining room and the above bedroom fix could work?

There are some really great ideas on here thank you all so much. Something to discuss up at the pub later (we have a lovely pub almost opposite…another thing we would lose by moving!) DH was more into moving than I ever was, but I came round to the idea after panicking about schools and getting her there. I cycle to nursery with DD on a child seat but wouldn’t be confident cycling with her to the nearest school given the way people drive on those roads!

Ask one of your neighbours if they can recommend their builder! If you build a 2 storey extension you'll be able to create an extra (or larger) bedroom upstairs, have a dining kitchen downstairs and reinstate a wall between it and the lounge. Put a bike store in your front garden to save traipsing bikes through the house.

Re bike store - there’s not really enough room out the front. I could ask my neighbour if he would mind us putting one in the field.