Move to a house that’s SMALLER than current flat but it’s a house?

[HomeLibraryLady]

Would love to hear people’s thoughts and experiences with choices you’ve made with where your family lives.

We have two young kids and currently live in a flat which is really spacious and beautifully done up. Some negatives too.

We are really keen to move to be in a house as we’re desperate to have direct access to a garden and have our own drive way for charging the car.

However, because we want to be close enough to the kids’ school (don’t need to be within catchment but want there to be a bus route from where we live to the school), we’re looking to stay within the city as opposed to the outskirts or just out of town in the commuter area.

This location preference means we get so little house for our money. The houses within our budget would all be in crude terms “worse” than our flat now, they’d have less m2 though the number of rooms would be the same - just really small rooms, especially the bedroom tend to be tiny for the houses we’ve seen. They are also in fairly diabolical states, places which haven’t had anything done for decades or just interiors all falling apart. We’re very handy and love doing a place up but I don’t know how much we can afford to do if we throw everything we have at securing the house.

I know in my heart it’s the right thing to do to move as we do want to be in a house and some of the negatives here are now outweighing the positives - guess I’m just trying to make sense of this situation of moving somewhere that in some ways feels a “step back”. Our flat at the moment was our first flat and maybe as we’ve poured our heart and soul into it it seems tough to leave. Maybe I’m a little scared of starting again and we have no time anymore as we have kids.

What trade offs have you made to move to a house, what was your thinking with it all, did you manage to do a “derelict” property up (unfortunately I don’t mean s project where you have 1/2 budget of what you paid for your house left to renovate and maybe even live somewhere else meanwhile - more of the “on the go” type of tinkering a house up!) and what were some quick wins to make the place feel your own? Has anyone moved that little bit further and commutes to school in town daily - how’s that for you?

thanks!

How much smaller are we talking ? Obv your flat is large

but even the smallest 3 bed houses are usually 2 doubles and a single an sound an average size

do you have a link /floor plan?

to me a garden and parking /drive when have kids is a must

I went from a flat to a slightly smaller new build house. For us (it’s only dd and I) it was definitely worth it but moving also meant being in a nicer area, being closer to a good secondary school for dd and having much better neighbours. I also love having a garden and it’s bought me a lot of happiness.

In your circumstance it doesn’t sound like the pros outweigh the cons though.

I live in a huge Edwardian purpose built flat with my DD. 4 bedrooms, large kitchen / diner, living room, utility room, 3 stair cases… but I do have own front garden and own back yard.
I’ve considered moving to a house for years but can’t find one with anywhere near the space we currently have (and I can’t afford the 500K I would need to buy one that has the equivalent space) so we’re staying put.

This is one of the weirdest things I’ve read on here, and that’s saying something! Here is a flat currently for sale near me…

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/87239193#/?channel=RES_BUY

Youve never seen a house smaller than 1862 sqft?

We recently sold our old flat, it was around 1650 square feet.

There's often less wasted space on flats (no stairs, landing, etc)

It’s hard to advise really OP but my questions would be 1) what do you want the garden for? Are you both green fingered and want to have a space to maintain? Is it for the kids to have outside space? If it’s the latter then a small city garden isn’t going to cut it anyway. If it’s the former are you sure you will want to maintain it? You’d be effectively swapping your inside space for outside space which is not usable all year round in the UK.

2. are you in your “forever” location? If you have an option to stay put for now then move further out in a few more years then that would probably ensure you get the house you want and you won’t have to pay moving costs twice.

@housethatbuiltme you must come to Glasgow some time
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/167156180

Indeed, or Edinburgh where housing is also very dense and were more like French ideas of building back in the day, so lots of tenements with purpose-built flats.

Direct access to a garden seems a little thing trade for less space

have you talked to the council about car charging options ?

I was in a similar position. Our flat was bigger than most houses we could afford. I was scared of selling.

In the end we bought an ex council mid terrace with a decent garden. It was in full 1970s condition and a strange layout.

We sacrificed bathroom space. It had one tiny downstairs bathroom but because of this, more even bedrooms upstairs. We've crammed a toilet and sink in a cupboard on the landing which avoids the need to go downstairs in the night.
Just saying this in case there:s anything similar you could consider.

What we did find over and above the flat is that we have room for sheds, wood stores, an old brick coal shed.

The garden is much longer than the height of the house so even though it's north east facing, I can dry washing outside all year round. I also have a tumble dryer in an out building for occasional use.

These things make life much easier than it was in the flat.

We redid the kitchen area and managed to make much better use of the space.

Given your skills your decision should probably focus on the long term potential of the house and not current condition.

We haven't regretted it but I understand your predicament.

We moved from a flat to a house that had the same amount of rooms but smaller. However it is our dream home- period property, our own driveway when we had to use terrible on-street parking for years, a lovely big garden that we’ve wanted for so long, and more features that are hugely important to us. You’re not painting the house in a very positive light. We are utterly in love with our home and wouldn’t want to move somewhere I didn’t absolutely adore.

What? How can you not know that there are flats bigger than houses. I’ve lived in huge flats (Glasgow) far bigger than most of the shitty new builds that are forever being built these days. Give me a Glasgow tenement over one of those any day

Do you have any outdoor space at the moment? If not then don’t underestimate it is to have that. It’s hugely valuable to sit outside - even in the winter - for any amounts of time. It sounds so basic but it’s one reason of many why I decided to stretch to a house rather than buy a flat. Then you’ve got the advantages of living in a freehold house rather than the problems that come with having a leasehold flat.

But in your case the cons don’t outweigh the benefits, so I would stay where you are for now and save for the bigger house - hopefully the market will improve because this is a terrible time for selling flats in England.

You also asked about quick wins. Initially (and I mean the first two weeks) we painted over wallpaper just to freshen it all up. I had a baby and as soon as he was down for a nap then roller was out.

Yes it's repeat work in some ways but it makes such a difference it was well worth it because you can't do everything properly at once while living there and doing it yourself. And once you start removing the paper you find the surface of the plaster comes off, or you want to replace skirting boards and it all becomes a bigger job. Clean and fresh was worth the effort even if temporary and not a perfect finish.

Stuck up bargain bucket wallpaper in a couple of rooms. The temporary choice in our bedroom is still here 12 years later because I came to like it!

One room had suffered a leak which led to the lining paper on ceiling dropping in a corner and left a damp patch. Leak had been repaired and it was dry. I stuck it back up and used damp seal paint over it. It made it livable and wasn't immediately noticeable if you didn't know.

Kitchen had the plastic wood effect panelling. I painted it all cream during a power cut in the snow while it was still light enough to see. It looked surprisingly okay and transformed the drap brown.

Colours were selected largely on what was cheap and if too dark I mixed it into white emulsion. Just made sure I had plenty to finish the job..

Could you find a garden flat? Or one opposite a park?

I think flats are underrated in this country - they do often feel more spacious than houses (pokey modern boxes and cramped terrace houses I mean) and everything on one floor can be handy.

It's totally normal to live in a flat with kids in much of Europe, so don't think family needs to equal house if it doesn't suit you.

@housethatbuiltme

Where on earth do you live?! Flats in the UK can be anything from studios to 6 beds - the latter usually arranged across two floors, but it's not unusual to have 3 to 4 bedrooms in a single floor flat.

I would stay where you are for now rather than go for a small house, you will find it difficult and cramped from what you are used to. With young children space is important. I also wouldn't want to be doing a renovation with young children living in or out of the property.

I understand how important a good school is, but yours won't be the only one? Your children sound young so moving them now won't cause a problem. Why not look further out at a small town/large village?

My advice would be to stay where you are until you find a house that doesn't feel like a backward step in terms of your living space.

You might not find one as large as your flat within your budget, but it's all about prioritising what's important to you. Where do you spend most of your time in the flat - living room, kitchen, bedrooms? Look for a house that''s equal or a gain in your most used living area, and compromise on less important areas. Make sure a house could accommodate any furniture that you definitely want to keep.

For your outside area, consider how much you'd realistically be using it. Would maintaining a large garden be a joy or a chore? Are you outdoors in all weather types or will it be a summer use only garden? Check which way the garden faces in potential purchases - if it's east, your sunlight will disappear at midday and if it's north you'll get less sunlight overall.

A good tip is to create a spreadsheet in which you can score potential houses on their features, and add weighting (multipliers) to reflect importance, so you can quickly pop the scores in to rank houses objectively. That's not to say you shouldn't be led by your heart, but it can stop you choosing a completely impractical house just because you've fallen wildly in love with its character.