Would you buy a house that does not quite wow?

[PhysicsBowlChampion]

Looking to buy detached house with at least 4 bedrooms (and garage). This house ticked all the boxes (I thought) but downsides were: on corner of busy main road (set back a bit from it), living room was long/not huge and can’t figure out how to make it work without it looking like a corridor with sofas pushed up against wall,

Kitchen was ok but had a smaller dark bit for dining which put me off. There is a separate dining room but not connected in any way to kitchen so imagine would not be used much apart from at Christmas.

House was well-maintained and wouldn’t need to do much to it but I didn’t feel “wow”!

I love my current kitchen and feel I’m holding every house up to that standard. If we bought house, no money to start ripping out kitchen, doing major renovations. Would be interested in other views from people on what you think of house. Note garden/drive at front of house is nowhere near as big as picture implies!

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/89913291#/?channel=RES_BUY

What is pic 9 and 10? That room looks bizarre with a big stuffed couch thing at an angle? Yeah it looks like there's about three dining tables/rooms and Living room looks really thin and long.

I wouldn't go for it myself but the photos might be making it look worse.

Why do you need to move? And no, I’d never buy a house I don’t love or at least like and can afford to do up and change layouts in.

I did and I regretted it until I found my patience to get the extension and remodel done that I wanted

I fell in love with the potential knowing we would do the work but it was awful waiting for it to happen as couldn’t decorate or buy furniture

The main road would put me off. I’d probably want to knock through the kitchen across the back. I’d stage the long reception room as two separate areas. It’s very long and thin for the size of house

And the kitchen floor is awful

Only had a quick look and don’t know the area. But I wouldn’t want to be on a busy corner. We are on a fairly busy road, but set well back so that’s been fine for us. Very private either side though. Living room looks long but thin, we had that in a previous house and I didn’t like it. Makes furniture weird to place. Also smaller bedrooms are tiny and ideally with that many bedrooms a third bathroom would be useful upstairs. Suppose you could convert one of the small bedrooms? Nice looking house otherwise though.

It’s a no from me. The layout downstairs is old fashioned so I’d be wanting to change that and make it more family friendly

I think it depends who will live there and where you each tend to spend time. What life stage are you at? When are you next likely to move house?

Tbh I’m also not a great fan of attic conversions. Often cold in the winter and too hot in the summer. Plus the slanting ceilings & stairs. We discounted those when we were last looking for a house. Good generous sized rooms with a flowing layout are in the minority it seems, especially in extended houses. We luckily found one this time round and it made me realise how much nicer it is after previous houses we had.

It's not a house you can put your own stamp on without knocking it down and starting again.

You either like that sort of thing or you don't.

But congratz on being able to afford a house worth more than a million! I fondly imagined that anyone in that bracket could find the house of their dreams... obviously I've been naive!

No I wouldn’t buy that house. Even in Ruislip I’m sure you can get something you love for that money

House purchases are often a compromise. Could you get a similar sized house off a main road? It's badly presented; the curtains don't so it justice, the kitchen tiles are dreadful, the two small bedrooms need knocking together and there's no bathroom on the top floor. But none of that would cost a fortune to put right.

The long living room needs to be zoned with facing sofas rather than sofas up against a wall - apart from that it's pretty well proportioned and looks in reasonable order.

If the price is good, I'd do it. The only house I bought 100% with my heart and overpaid for, I made almost no money on but but bought it in 1987. Much would depend how busy the corner is.

If your perfect house is likely to be £1,500,000 and you can't afford it, I'd offer £1,100,000 and see where it takes you. With £150,000 to spend on it you could make it what you want. Much depends on how well priced it is and what you'd get in five years when better presented.

It’s a really awkward layout (bedrooms 5 and 6 are basically walk in wardrobes/studies, but look like they would be hard to knock together). And it isn’t helped by the enormous 80s pleather sofas everywhere, and the hideous 80s curtains, or the tacky garden bar.

Some of this is easily fixable (the decor), but the awkward layout probably isn’t. If I lived there, there would be 4-5 rooms we just wouldn’t use, and the ones we did use would annoy me by being too cramped/long and thin. So it would be a no for me (I’d want a smaller more useable space).

20% of the floor area quoted is outbuildings/the garage, so it's really c200sqm.

I think I agree with what others have said- there are a lot of awkward rooms there that can't be easily resolved whoch means they feel like corridors. Bedroom 6 is a small single- fine if you need an office, as it doesn't look like it can be easily merged with bedroom 5.

It's looks fine from the front, but not sure I would go for it.

I wouldn’t spend that amount of money on that house. The living room would drive me mad and it seems very ‘bitty’.

What are you looking for OP? A house that wows you or a property to make into a home?
There is a lot that you can do to instantly make a difference to the feel just without spending much. I do agree the living room is out of proportion, 10' wide is really not much at all. I'd use the reception room as a living room, then depending on age of kids the long room as a play room. Or divide it to an office and then ultimately knock through the kitchen into the other third of that side/half of that room.
I actually think that dining area, whilst unconventional, is quite well thought out and that you will use it.

On the plus side it looks like a very well cared for house so you’ll probably not uncover a load of dodgy DIY. It’s totally liveable in. I quite like it but it would need some internal reconfiguring so depends if you can live with it until you can save up for that. I’d create a big kitchen diner out of the kitchen, the garden end of the long reception and existing dining area and nick a bit from the long reception to make the other reception a bigger. I’d also knock beds 5&6 together- would be a slightly odd shape but it would still work as a kids room.

I guess the question is if you could find that already done somewhere nearby for a similar price?

could you knock through from the kitchen to the long living room and make a big kitchen/diner with sofa area?

I would buy a house that doesn't quite wow @PhysicsBowlChampion but I wouldn't buy that house! Too many compromises which you list in your OP such as the difficult shape of the living room and the busy road.

Carry on looking, something better will come up. You have to make compromises sometimes but not on key things like that.

Thanks all for your feedback and thoughts on this. Been useful to me and my DH to hear unbiased views.

To answer a few points:

We don’t need to move. We’ve lived in our ‘first’ house for just over 20 yrs and we’d like to move up the property ladder and have a bit more privacy. Where we are is fine (and not a million miles from this house) but we’ve done as much as we can to our current house.

This would be at top of our budget and having lived through 8 mths of renovation works, no wish or money to do it again.

We’re early 50s and it might end up being our forever home. We need an office each for work hence extra bedrooms but I’d like a big kitchen and living room and not lots of small awkward rooms.

We are looking for a house that wows us and is worth the money. Houses around the million mark are not selling well at the moment in this area. We may look at other areas but a DC still has Yr13 to do and already has a 45ish min commute so don’t want to make it any harder.

We’ve looked in Ealing previously but you get little for your money there and essentially would be our current house in different location with no parking.

It's an attractive house externally, but the corner position and road would put me off before I got as far as the inside.

The layout is awful, particularly that corridor-esque living room! We're a bit older than you @PhysicsBowlChampion (mid 50s, no DC at home) and have previously owned some 'wow' houses - although in slightly cheaper locations - and that one wouldn't feature on my wow radar. Although that might be because we like old, characterful places aka money pits!

We've now downsized to a Georgian cottage where the living room was not much narrower than the one you're considering. Having got used to rambling houses with decent room sizes, I knew we'd not be happy living with such a narrow room - a pet hate of mine.

We reconfigured the layout and have our kitchen in the old living room (which was already semi open plan to the dining room), whilst we took out some walls to make a more square snug. Our main living room is now the former master bedroom (15' x 14'), which is so much better!

Not saying you should consider such major reconfiguring (we probably won't be moving again and this was the best period house for our budget in the perfect location), but just putting it out there as a possibility.

The obvious thing would be to turn the back half of that long reception room into your dining area - you don’t have to do anything structurally as there’s already a door there, although obviously it would work even better if you took the wall down at some point. Zone the rest of that long room as a sitting room with couches facing each other around the fireplace. And turn the existing dining room into a snug/TV room.

I think it’s perfectly reasonable to buy something imperfect, and is what most people end up doing. Although I’m conscious I’m speaking from Ireland where it’s an absolute seller’s market, and a house like this would be snapped up instantly…

It's dull and bland inside IMO. Sorry OP. I agree. It doesn't make me go wow.

The only thing that would put me off is the main road, which can't be changed. I always have pet cats so it would be a constant worry. Even without that, I prefer quieter streets. Everything else wouldn't be an issue for me - I would redecorate all the rooms anyway.

Why not wait until dc has finished school? Ealing and Ruislip are quite different areas. What location do you really want? Pick a location first with the right commute and the right community and then look in a year when dc has left school