Can a house be too big?

[wombleflump]

I am single parent . I’m planing to relocate Edinburgh outskirts or east Lothian. I am debating between a couple of new builds. One in Edinburgh outskirts is pretty big. Will stretch my budget to a mortgage. The other is smaller could buy in cash. Can a house be too big. They are new builds so low maintenance and garden just smaller.
Is five bedrooms and office too big for one adult with two kids? Is it better to buy a smaller place?

Big house, big mess. That's all!

No links don’t want anyone else to buy them have to keep it a bit vague!

Can you say the areas at least - as someone has said location location location...

I thought you were going to talk about 25 bedroom Scottish castle. Instead the house sounds fine. i have 5000 sq ft and live there with my 2 student sons and it is fine. I don't think I would want anything smaller.

Your would be 'smaller' home is double the size of my current home. I could only dream of 1754sqft.

I guess you need to factor:
Your monthly mortgage payments
How many years until you will be mortgage free

Xenia 5000 sqft (excuse me while I pass-out)

@wombleflump

Bigger one is Overall Size - 2,684 sq.ft. smaller one 163m2 I don’t really know what that means though

So I have a spacious 3 bedroom house with 2 large bedrooms and one regular size double, a large family bathroom, shower room and downstairs there is a good size living room and a large open plan kitchen diner (we can easily host 8-10 people for dinner) and a cloakroom. The hallways are also spacious. Our house is 145m2. So neither of these are small houses!! The larger one is 240m2 so I’d say it’s very large.

I do think a house can be too big because even with rooms you don’t use you still have to clean/decorate and maintain the whole house. Though with a new build hopefully your maintenance costs will be low. That doesn’t mean to say you shouldn’t buy the larger one though if you like and can afford it. I imagine the communal living space is very generous.

I’m in aberdeen and the local property site is ASPC and the floor space of all properties is listed and you can search for properties by the floor space. Maybe having a look on there would give you an idea of what sort of scale you are looking at?

What are the 2 areas? That would make a big difference for me. There a lot Of variety in Edinburgh outskirts and East Lothian

I've just bought a 5 bed + study, it's 2000 sq ft so in the middle of your options and I only have 1 dd! Go for the one you love the most. I'm in a new build and the bedrooms are small, the master only has room for the bed, built in wardrobes and a bedside table, it's crap. So bigger bedrooms would swing it for me.

single, 2 kids, in a 4 bed (plus office, plus a couple more good size rooms of indeterminate usage.

Mine are young, and currently share a bedroom and use another as a games room. When they don't want to share I have the space that this isn't an issue, and still have room for guest/babysitter/aupair or whatever life throws at me next.

right now those rooms have bits and pieces in, doors shut, heating off.

Personally, having spent my whole life in pokey houses and flats I appreciate the space.

Interestingly I just checked where I live now is 112 square meters and this is only a 2/3 bed flat

The smaller one is walking
Distance to both local schools so that is a
Plus. I think I need life
Coaching for my inability to make decisions. I can’t stop oscillating between pros and cons for both !

walking distance to schools is not to be sniffed at - I'm in the middle of bloody nowhere for my space (well kinda - short drive to a large city, but nothing within walking distance)

We moved from a small 3 bed new build style house to a large 4 bed plus study. What mattered were the room sizes, not how many bedrooms it had. We could have bought a 5 bedroom but what would we do with another bedroom and ensuite? (We already have 3 bathrooms and a toilet).
Our previous house was the epitome of all that's bad about new builds; lots of tiny rooms crammed into a small space. The one we live in now is the complete opposite.

I would look at room size and potential use (open plan is fine if the rooms are huge), and location to see what suits your and your children's lifestyles now and in the future. Number of bedrooms is a red herring because you only actually need 3, unfortunately you'll never find a big 3 bed new build.

P.S. whenever I hear/read any new build hate I just think I bet my heating bills are half what yours are!

I should have said there are 3 of us

@wombleflump

So a extra 1000square feet but smaller one has integral garage and bigger one free standing garage

The rooms in the smaller house must be quite small if the 163 sq m includes an internal garage. If you're looking for a house to live long term I'd be inclined to go for the bigger house.

I would consider the volume and what you need and how you will use the space. Of course heating these spaces will be a question for the future with fuel costs consistently rising.
A smaller house with well designed storage would be my preference.

Of course not

I know you don't want to out the areas, but maybe if you could say the catchment secondary schools? Primaries here are much of a muchness but secondaries are very different.

1600 square feet including the garage isn’t very big. With the garage it’s a decent size for 3. I’ve just gone from 2100 5 beds to 1700 4 beds and it’s absolutely fine as I have older kids but I wouldn’t want it with little ones. 2600 is a big house but why not if you can afford it.

Are your kids in school yet? Do you have friends & family in either area?

I’m single and live in a big(ish) new build with one dc and it’s not too big!

Quite different to a big old house. It’s comfy, warm and easy to clean.

@Bushkin

What are the 2 areas? That would make a big difference for me. There a lot Of variety in Edinburgh outskirts and East Lothian

This!! Some of the "outskirts of Edinburgh" new developments are really quite isolated even though they're within the city bypass. They're filling in green belt land with houses but not adding amenities so i think you'd end up driving to almost everywhere, which for me defeats the point of paying a premium to live in the "city". I found one recently that didn't even have a pavement to it along the main road it's located off! Whereas East Lothian could be quite rural or close to a small town/village and walking distance to most things you need on a daily basis.

A few other things to compare/contrast.

Tricky to ascertain at this time of year, but what are the neighbours like? Does it look like the sort of area where a neighbour might do building work for a year? Are the roads quiet at night?

Is parking straightforward? Which direction do the houses face? Will you get sunlight in the gardens of an evening? Is the garden flat?

Can the kids walk to somewhere to play (park/sports centre etc) when they are older?
Is there a corner shop nearby?

simple answer is yes.
More complicated is how big is too big for you?

For me dream house
bedroom each
spare room for visitors
study/workroom for me (would prefer downstairs) with space for sofa bed
2 receptions
kitchen diner with space for large table
decent sized utility

garden
garage /large shed decent enough for bikes.

Beyond that is too much!

(I don;t have all of that by the way, dream house)