Buying bigger houses because of working from home?

[Reluctantadult]

Just wondered if anyone has bought a bigger house due to working from home? Or might?

My desk is in my living room. But this only works while I work school hours.

Thought about it but we're getting an office pod for the garden instead

Same here, have a garden office. Hate having work stuff around in the evening.

We built a garden office room through Modern Garden Rooms which has worked out brilliantly. No affiliation to them just thought they did a good job! Only two days on site to build the whole thing and means partner can WFH and we keep spare room for DD.

We had the garage converted into an office for dh.

We bought a bigger house as we wanted a second dc and decided to have the garage converted into an office and utility room. Otherwise the desk was in the livingroom in the old house and the 3rd bedroom here until I got pregnant

Our kids left home - problem solved.

We did in at end of 2020. 2 extra bedrooms and a garden office. Selling now though as prefer smaller but more central

Garden office isn't an option here unfortunately, no room.

Converted half the garage in 2021 and it's lovely.

We moved late 2020 due to this, my husband was working from the kitchen and wasn't sustainable. So much happier here even though he's gone back to the office twice a week. It allowed us to make other positive changes as well.

However I will say we were struggling in the smaller house already, the WFH was the push that made us get on with moving.

We've been wfh since 2014 and so moved to a bigger house 2018 where we've got a study and dining room/study so hubby and I have own spaces. Our house isn't open plan, unusual for one this size, because of us needing these separate spaces. I wonder if people will move away from open plan if they're working from home? I can't imagine working in a dining area with kitchen attached and kids playing/ watching TV in the same room.

I've always had a separate workspace, currently set up a spare room as an office but we also have a study and room on the landing for a big desk.

Its worth exploring spaces such as landing, cubby holes under stairs and so on first!

I think you need either an office (DH has a very small single bedroom) or a bedroom/dining room big enough for some kind of permanent setup, and to be away from kitchen and general family noise. If I didn't have a child though I could probably cope with part-time at our dining table; I did in Covid times.

No garage, spare room, landing or hall here. It does work well in the living room for now as it's on one side, behind the chairs.

We added an office as part of an extension, but we've always WFH to some extent and it was planned pre covid and postponed. It's great to have.

Moving to a bigger place would go from £600pm mortgage to £2400pm though so!

That's a lot! Loft conversion? Shared working space? Fold out desk, friend with spare room you can rent?

Re-reading you post, if its working okay in the lounge, I'd stick with it and save up for a bigger place. If you do longer than school hours in future, use after school childcare until kids are old enough to understand they can't interrupt you. Maybe try 1 day a week working with them there so you can see if it's feasible.

We are lucky that we both have an office but we will definitely need to take it into account the next time we move which will add a lot more to the mortgage.

When I wfh during covid I literally only needed my PC and was able to fit a small desk on the landing.

How much room do you need or do you have physical paperwork?

The desk fits in the living room well but I'm on multiple teams calls a day with video on so can't have kids and family about. It's more a privacy thing.

My landing is about 1m. If I put a desk there you couldn't get past.

Have you got any space under the stairs? I’ve known some people who have created a work space in a pantry or under the stairs

We ended up doing a loft conversion when we had our 2nd baby as my husband's office had taken our 3rd bedroom.
It was cheaper than moving house.