Help choosing between two houses – space vs location

[StillWatching]

We’re a family of 4 with two children aged 8 and 12 and stuck between two houses.

House 1: townhouse in a great location, walking distance to school and near a park. Upstairs works well, but the ground floor is one long rectangular open-plan space (we’d open the kitchen) and feels tight – I’ve added the floorplan. Garden is ok but no garage, so we’d need sheds for storage and a small workshop for our 12yo (a must-have), which reduces garden space. No driveway, but two off-street parking spaces. The walk home includes a brief stretch with no traffic or houses, which makes me think about darker evenings, although it’s a very residential area and I’m sure it’s well used; the alternative route is through the park, which I’m also not keen on.

House 2: 4-bed semi with bigger downstairs space, its own driveway, a big garden and a garage. Downsides are a 15-minute drive for school/work (plus parking), our 12yo would go to school by bus, and it’s on a busy A road which you can hear.

Basically location and convenience vs space and comfort.

I'd usually echo kirsty, location, location, location but that downstairs is quite small and not clear whether you can get to the back without traipsing through the house🤔 if you can for bikes, bins etc and it has a 4th bedroom suitable for extra sitting room then it could work. I hate longer commutes and teenagers will appreciate an extra 15 minutes in bed in the mornings, mine were always glad of only 5 mins to get home when some of their schoolmates were an hour commuting.

I think I'd go for space over location in this scenario

Why does it have to be between these 2? Can you see if anything else comes up? Lots of house go on the market at the time of year/coming into spring. I wouldn't want to compromise so much

Neither. I’d keep looking.

15 mins is not much , no worth living in a cage for the sake of saving 15 mins

If you have to choose, house 2. But neither seem right.

Between those I'd go with walking distance because the second isn't exactly a rural idyll if it's on a main road, so the extra space wouldn't make it worth having to take the car/bus every day.

If the second was in a quiet cul de sac I might think differently.

I’d never live on a busy A road. I can’t stand noise, want to be able to entertain people with small kids and pets and would worry about pollution.

On the townhouse, could you turn one of the upstairs rooms into a second sitting room/ office/ spare room? Even if it meant splitting one of the other bedrooms for the kids?

I definitely wouldn’t open up the kitchen either in that townhouse- it will make the place feel even smaller and you’ll
lose storage. I might get rid of the cupboard at the back and take a bit of the lounge to be in the front kitchen to create a dining space/ second space to watch TV in the kitchen, and maybe have a sun room on the back if possible (I wouldn’t worry about a small garden if there are parks nearby).

House 1 doesnt sound like it will really be enough space for you all. House 2 sounds too noisy being on an A road. Can you keep looking?

I'd say neither. It sounds like the location of the first one isn't that convenient. I'd want that kitchen wall about 11' further to the right to improve the downstairs layout, if you did settle for it, though.

Thank you all for the replies so far, they’ve been really helpful.

We do often end up thinking “neither” as well. The problem is there really isn’t much coming onto the market at the moment, and in the area we want to stay it’s very unlikely we’d find a semi with 3 double rooms within budget. We’ve also got an offer on our flat, which adds a bit of pressure to keep things moving, even though we don’t want to rush into the wrong decision.

On the townhouse, it’s actually an end of terrace, with about 8ft down the side. In theory that gives some scope to extend in the future, but realistically that space would probably be used for bikes and a small workshop shed for our 12yo, so it’s not completely spare space.

Upstairs is one of the big positives – three double bedrooms plus another reception room, two en-suites and a family bathroom. That’s why it’s still in the mix despite the tighter downstairs.

If there is a little snicket down the side I would go with house 1. Having done it once I would positively avoid a busy A road and walking distance to school is worth something. If you have another reception room upstairs as well as 3 double bedrooms then that would be very useful. I can see why you might think wait. And I can understand that. When I bought my current house though , I had ( having moved into rented ) been waiting for a year. The house I bought is a compromise on space and storage , but I love the location. It's small and I had DC living here , but we managed and actually as DC get older having living spaces on more than one floor helps make the house feel bigger ( ie not all on top of one another)

Whatever you decide , I wish you well. 💐

This actually sounds pretty good then- you can have a kitchen diner and family lounge downstairs (great), then an adult lounge/ study/ spare room (sofa bed) on the first floor. And/ or you could have one of your kids rooms with a double bed, one with bunk beds so they can share if guests need more space.

If it’s an end terrace with a good space down the side, you could probably also extend to the side to create a smaller snug/
office, a utility/ loo (maybe off the
kitchen), or a much wider lounge/ kitchen, as well as a workshop in due course.

What do you think is missing downstairs?

Together with the convenience and the other location benefits, this seems like a bit of a no-brainer to me?

I’d go for location, not having to drive is a huge bonus and I wouldn’t want to live on a busy A road. However are you in a rush to buy as the first house doesn’t seem well suited. If anything else comes up in that area I’d be looking.

Reading this, I’d go for the first house. The outside space for bikes and a shed makes it worth the compromise of the smaller downstairs. If you had to walk through the house to get to the garden, it would be a no go.

With the separate upstairs lounge and room to the side, I think I’d do something like this with the downstairs.

House 1! No contest

If it's got another reception room upstairs then I think it would be fine.

Your kids are at the age where you'll be glad of them having a room to have their friends round etc. and a bit of separation is good. Plus they'll benefit from bigger bedrooms.

It has scope to change the ground floor layout but it's not essential yet.

You could get a long shed down the side with power. We have our tumble dryer out there and it works fine.

A town house would be a no from me. The second house on a busy main road also a no. Keep looking OP.

Thanks so much everyone, I really appreciate all the replies – they’ve been very helpful.

If I’m honest, I’m currently leaning slightly towards the townhouse. The upstairs works really well for us, with good-sized bedrooms, plenty of bathrooms and the extra reception room, so there’s space for everyone as the kids get older.

That said, part of me is still tempted to wait a bit longer and see if anything else comes up. At the same time, I wouldn’t want to lose the townhouse, as I don’t think we’d find another end of terrace like this again anytime soon.

In this area, anything with a bigger garden often seems to mean compromising on bedroom space – usually just three bedrooms, with one quite small – which would likely mean sacrificing one of the kids’ rooms.

So we’re a bit torn really: not wanting to rush, but also not wanting to miss out on a house that ticks a lot of boxes.

That's a nice idea! Thank you :)

This.

Location always. Especially as your kids are approaching teen years.

There's always a compromise (or two 🙄) @StillWatching.

Of those two options, I think the townhouse works best for your requirements, especially if you do something along the lines of @Heronwatcher's suggestion.

If you'd feel sad if you lost that house, it sounds like it might be the one...although we are approaching the time of year when - theoretically at least - more should be coming onto the market.......

I would do most of the add ons but would flip the existing kitchen and ground floor lounge - so new kitchen would be in the big room at the back, don’t knock thru so that you have that wall for units and put dining table over looking garden / probs room for a peninsula / island.

Then the existing kitchen is a TV / snug / informal family room - as kids will want to be near access to food.

Sounds like upstairs would be fab with a bathroom each and a fancy adults entertaining lounge. Great lay out for teenagers.

Ground floor needs to be functional for shoes / coats / school bags storage / drop zone - don’t need that littered around 3 stories.

I would be tempted to find a space for washing/drying upstairs if you don’t line dry outside as otherwise it’s just humping dirty clothes from where they are taken off to down stairs to wash and then humping up again to put away.

probs easy enough to get the new loo in existing hallway where storage is and plumbing already close due to old kitchen - saves you doing a side extension for loo and utility.

I also agree location - make life easier with less traffic and travel to coordinate and more independence. An extra 30 mins a day is a lot of extra relaxation time back over a week to do something more fun especially if the stress of driving, parking, traffic etc is removed.