Bad house vs good schools

[Elllie]

Hi - I had posted this dilemma on a different board before seeing the property forum!
I would love to hear your opinions - especially if you have been doing work to your homes.
We are returning to the UK and are struggling to find a good family home in a decent catchment area. I've seen a couple of properties that need work - one of which is a bungalow. My DH, ahem, lacks 'vision' on seeing a bungalow as a cool and trendy transitional type of open plan home, once redeveloped. All he sees is the type of house his gran would choose.
I see lots of garden, scope to extend, a home we could live in for a long time.
What are your opinions?
ps. I think it is quite overpriced BTW - clearly needs a lot of updating.
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-30021962.html

I think it could be amazing. Bungalows are really easy to convert into something cool when they are detached - you could gussy up the outside quite easily with a paint job or some cedar or chestnut cladding. The layout is a bit cluttered but not too bad. Put bigger windows in living room and it would be fabulous.

I have looked through hundreds of properties and for some reason I keep coming back to this one. My DH thinks I am insane. There is just something about it.
We are moving back from Texas and we are used to 4500sqft of luxury - I think we need something that is as spacious as possible so we don't go into shock. I can hear DS now....'mummy, where has my playroom gone?'

agree with lll. needs work to layout and garages but could be amazing - i would buget min 60k to get it to a great home. its an expensive area though, farnham is lovely.

I would knock out walls between kitchen and dining room and block up kitchen door into hall, rearrange units accordingly, put extra bath or shower room upstairs (from look of floorplan it would be right over current bathroom so plumbing would be very straightforward) and the study could be your son's playroom. Bingo.

See.....I knew it. VISION!!!!!! That's all it needs, ha ha!!!! I agree with DH, the exterior is not our thing, but I think once there are decent windows etc... and a small extension - voila. A perfect family home. I need some internals though. Not holding out for much as it looks dated. So, will have to factor in windows, floors, bathrooms. Still - not a lot of actual building work needed straight away.

Another option is this. It is much smaller and the bedrooms seem particularly small, but it is smack bang in the middle of good catchments.....again....VISION!!!!
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-30188003.html

Well, it's much more conventional but I don't like layouts that you have to pass through rooms to get to other rooms and you would need to pass through the sitting room to get anywhere and through the dining room to get to the stairs. I would be tempted to put the entrance hall in the study so that you could get to the stairs more easily and the living room was less of a corridor. Prefer the bungalow though.

If you could get planning permission to add second floor you'd double your space. For outside, climbing roses, ivy etc. can hide multitude of sins.

I love that Have redesigned a bungalow in the past and they are stunning when done properly.

I don't think the bungalow is a bad house but it's shockingly overpriced compared to the other one.

I would move the kitchen to teh rear conservatory type room and that way you would gain a bedroom where the kitchen is and turn the utility into an ensuite.

dont like the second house. decidedly average and small. also walk through living room is a minus point.

loving the bungalow...

Haven't looked at your link, but I think bungalows can be fantastic when they are extended upwards. The footprint and the plot is usually very generous, so you end up with a massive house but don't lose any garden, unlike a normal extension. One thing to bear in mind before you buy, though, is that you would not usually get planning permission to raise the roofline if it was in a road surrounded by other similar bungalows, because it will be deemed top-heavy and out of place. Then you have to go for a dormer-window attic conversion instead, which gives you a much smaller finished square footage.

If it is in a road of mixed housing styles though, it is not usually a problem.