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Original poster

Townhouse with children - love it or hate it?

42 replies

Wigeon · 06/10/2009 12:33

We are currently selling our house and buying a bigger one. We have seen a lovely townhouse, great location (near town centre, near railway station for commuting, near lovely big park, within our budget etc), but it's still a townhouse with two flights of stairs.

We have one DD (15 months) and plans for more at some point(although no actual bump at the moment!). All I can think is that we will be constantly charging up and down stairs. DH thinks that doesn't matter and it's a lovely house with more room than non-townhouses.

Anyone live in a townhouse? Do you love it or hate it?

OP posts:

castille · 07/10/2009 21:00

I grew up in one and lived in one of our own a few years ago and both were reat, for the main reason that they were both in an excellent central location.

Is yours well-located?

Because quite three stories generally just aren't as practical as two, partic with little children, so location is often to be the compensating factor.

Hulababy · 07/10/2009 21:05

lol AcademicMum. We don't have any townhouses with seperate garages here, so don't think it is really the same estate.

MrsBadger · 07/10/2009 21:13

[whistles nonchalantly]
I try not to do specific geographical details online but we are in an isolated terrace of townhouses not an estate...

TwoManyFallsAndYouGetABadScore · 07/10/2009 21:17

ahhhh, I see....

I promise I am not a stalker.

jemart · 07/10/2009 21:25

We lived in one when I was 6 years old - I loved that house and still have not really forgiven my parents for moving!

pinknosedevereux · 07/10/2009 21:33

Our house is on 4 floors-was a bit of a shock to the system to start with( we moved from a 1 bed flat)But now wouldn't live anywhere else have been here 10 years+. It's so great to be able to walk everywhere; shops, cinema,pub,train. dcs love it too.

Original poster

Wigeon · 07/10/2009 22:35

Castille - yes, both the townhouses I linked to are in a great location (on adjacent roads to each other) - v close to train station for my commute, 5 mins from the central library, swimming pool, children's centre, short walk to big shopping centre, but still in a nice residential area. Seems that you are in a similar position, pinknosedevereux.

Toomanyfalls - you shoudln't have mentioned the garage being used for guitar lessons - that is just encouraging DH (who is a guitar / flute / piano -playing and singing school music teacher and has already marked out the garage for his "studio" and "guitar rocking out with the amp turned up load room"!

Am getting a bit more reassured about the stairs issue.

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susie100 · 08/10/2009 14:02

Rollmops - I am totally with you on that one.

I read somewhere that having stairs in your house keeps off a kilo a year.

We keep kis mess in lower ground and ground floor living floor as posh adult only entertainment area (well that is the plan anyway!)

Original poster

Wigeon · 10/10/2009 15:16

Well, we went to see 7 houses this morning, including the townhouses - really thinking seriously about the townhouses now, partly as a result of all the fabulous advice / views on this thread!

Next question - did anyone convert a downstairs garage / non-area into a proper kitchen / diner and if so, would you mind saying how much it cost?!

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HouseHunting · 10/10/2009 17:54

My friend converted her integral garage into a playroom with a bay window at the front. It cost £4,000 all in, but that was from a mate builder so she got an incredibly good deal. Is the townhouse you viewed this morning the front runner? Are you feeling excited? Good luck

Original poster

Wigeon · 18/10/2009 22:01

Just wanted to update all you helpful people - we have had an offer accepted on one of the townhouses! .

Did anyone see that thread a while ago about "things mumsnet has made me do" (with people saying things like mooncup, reusable nappies, ditch the frootshoots etc). Well, now I can add "buy a townhouse" !

Thanks again for the advice.

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HouseHunting · 19/10/2009 20:56

Concordia · 19/10/2009 21:04

OOh that's great wigeon we love ours - as much more space than the other houses we could afford - although when we went on holiday and stayed in a bungalow it was great not to have to carry DD 12 months around everywhere

Concordia · 19/10/2009 21:04

OOh that's great wigeon we love ours - as much more space than the other houses we could afford

Concordia · 19/10/2009 21:05

sorry don't know what happened there

onemoretimetoday · 29/10/2009 20:35

Coming into this late but HATED HATED HATED everything about living in a townhouse, biggest mistake we ever made.

The house was absolutely gorgeous with a huge kitchen opening onto the garden, we added a conservatory to the back of it as a playroom and converted the garage to a dining room but it just didn't work.

The house was huge but was just so antisocial having the living room and kitchen on separate floors. It was almost impossible to entertain, and we like to have people over, We had to eat in the kitchen, it was a hassle to bring food up and down stairs and we felt that we were living separate lives with me in the kitchen and DH upstairs.

We had 2 bedrooms on the top floor and one on the middle floor and it got to the point where my eldest refused to sleep in his room on the middle floor because we and his sister were upstairs. Us being on the middle floor wasn't really an option as the ensuite was upstairs.

I also found the garden much too small and hated being in a terrace albeit end of terrace.

We moved to a bog standard house nearly 3 years ago and it's much more family friendly.

Original poster

Wigeon · 01/11/2009 18:36

Thanks Onemoretimetoday. Funny you should post that - maybe it wasn't meant to be, because our purchase has now fallen through - vendor said he would move out into rented promptly, then 5 days after accepting our offer suddenly started negotiating on buying a house . And basically started messing us about. So after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing we pulled out. Eek!

So we are now on a mission to find somewhere else pronto - our buyers need to move by the end of the year, so either we find another (chain-free) purchase, or move into rented (minimum 6 months round here), which would be a pain and more expensive than our mortgage, never mind the storage costs.

I am now holding onto the minority of negative voices about townhouses on this thread and trying to assure myself that we would have hated it too!

Thanks again to everyone for sharing their thoughts.

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