What do you love the most about your family home (and what would you change if you could)?

[Strawberrycornetto]

I am stressing about our move. We are moving to a large village, but I am unsure about the house. I am interested to know what you think is your favourite thing about your home.

And, if you could change one thing about your home, what would it be?

best; laminate floors (fitted by previous owner, ideal for pukey / poo-y children), keeps us warm & dry, south facing garden, um.....near to town so we can walk most places.

worst; the rest, only one loo, too small, no storage, thin walls, can't put shelves up (walls are crappy plasterboard), open plan downstairs, can hear the neighbours turning on taps, no driveway / on site parking (have to park away from the house), over looked front and back.

Love: the view of open moorland, it changes every day and I could (and pre-child would) spend hours looking at it.

Dislike - nothing really. I'd like another bedroom... or 2 if I was greedy. I'd also like to move to a nicer area, we're on an ex council estate and all our friends live a few villages away, but we can't afford to live there.

I can see your point with the parking. We have no off street parking but only half of the surrounding neighbours have a car. In 5 years of living here there's probably been about 6 times I've not been able to park right outside the house.

A view is important to me. It's why we fell in love with this house, even though it was a dank, miserable day and we couldn't see the hill opposite. We've always said whoever valued this house did it with their eyes shut, and if we moved we'd have to find a house with as good a view.

Ok, I have analysed the comments so far. It seems to me that 7 people have said they like their views best and anoither 4 have said the best thing is location. So it does look like the location location location thing has something in it. DH thinks we wouldn't see the lovely views from 2nd house once we lived there but MN's views suggest this isn't the case.

Lots of people think lack of parking is a problem.

I think I need to tell DH I want to pull out of the house we have offered on. He will be with me but my gut feeling is telling me its wrong.

In terms of my existing house:

I love the space, the way the house flows and I love my bedroom which is big and airy and only has 1 chest of drawers and my lovely bed in it.

I don't like.... having to work such long hours to pay the mortgage. There's nothing about the house itself I don't like really. I guess that's partly why its hard to move.

Love the space and the open plan family area with open fires at both ends. Dislike the location which is why I'm moving!

like: utility room to hide my ironing mountain in
like: we have a spare room upstairs to pile up crap
like: space to park 2 cars on front
like: south facing garden

dislike: the big feck off lampost at end of drive on edge i have crashed and scraped into numerous times dh has now painted iluminous orange.
dislike: its on a massive massive huge private housing estate and often people cant find us on first visit or get lost on the way out.

What I love is the memories - it's been our family home since DS#1 was 6m old. What I want to change is everything about it - it's too small, too cramped, in the wrong place, garden too small, no parking, needs another bathroom. We need to move but it will break me heart

If you really like your house there is no need to move until you find one that is just right.

Hate to tell you this OP but the only thing I would change about my house is the parking!

Love the house itself, it is big enough for us all for the foreseeable future and we have renovated it ourselves so it is just how we want it in terms of style. Also love the location, close to town centre but with woods close by too.

We have no off-street parking and parking on the street is unrestricted which means that shoppers and commuters often park there and take all the places. I don't mind so much now that the dcs are older but wasn't always easy when they were babies/toddlers. I usually get my groceries delivered so I don't have the hassle of lugging the shopping down the street or double-parking to unload...

And it can be stressful on the days when the dcs have lots of activities and we are in and out a lot - and I have to try to find a parking space every time.

I think you do need to think very carefully about the parking issue at the house you are interested in - how safe is the car park? Will there be difficulties getting car insurance because your car is left there overnight? (this can be an issue with even parking on the street in front of the house). And how it will affect re-sale. (it's not such an issue where we live as it is the town centre so people don't necessarily expect off-street parking but they might in a more rural or suburban area.

I love the space, house is much much larger than our old house.

I love the querky features and huge windows. I love the huge tree in the garden.
I love the pretty garden. I love having a utility room for the wet dog!

I love the amazing views from my bedroom window and my walk in wardrobe.

I really love this house.

If I had to change anything I would make the garden a bit bigger.

parking but i try and walk everywhere so I don't have to find a space

need another 2 bedrooms and bathroom ideally.

I love our house as it is the first one that DH and I bought together.

Love the size and location of it and the space we have for 5 of us, and it has great garden too.

Hate the fight we had to keep it though when we moved in becuase of a major planning fuck up by the previous owners and the two year legal battle we had to go through it.

And if I had a spare £5K I would get the wall repointed and painted so you can't see the horrible join where the previous twats owners stuck the extension on.

I love everything about it. The only issue is that because of its age, every time we do anything there is a problem. And, as my decorator observes, every time a tradesman pulls on to the drive he adds 10% to his estimate.

I would change the number of drunks nearby, and add a gun turret perhaps...

Pagwatch,we have the same problem with tradesmen.I reckon that as soon as they hear our address their eyes light up and they start planning a caribbean cruise.Then when they see the house,they start thinking more like Butlins.

Thanks for all the comments. I have discussed the issue with DH and shown him the wise words on this thread. We have decided to pull out of the house without parking. I am hoping the other one is still available and that the offer comes through on ours but either way we have regretfully concluded that the house we were buying on is too much of a compromise. I need to feel safe when DH is away and walking back from a car park down an alleyway would make me feel unsafe. There is no way around it so we have to pull out. Feel terrible for the vendors but as I said to DH we cannot buy a house that isn't right because we feel guilty.