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£20,000 needed to make it half repsectable to live in
Funny how tastes vary. If we're judging purely on aesthetics I'd take that 50's gaff in Staunton over those new builds linked above, 11 times out of 10. I might spend £100 on white paint to cover up some of that wallpaper, mind.
And the kitchen ? and the flat roof extension ? The wood panneling ? the flooring isn't to my taste in the slightest. Kitchen is cramped and not a nice shape. Bathroom is dated. Garden is mostly pointless shrubbery....
I'm not seeing anything i like at all in it.
The location is awesome, the decor is awful. No en-suite either, who wants to share a bathroom with a teenager???
This for example is kitchen on house that's #2 on my list
this is the kitchen for #1 on my list.
As doomanic says, an en-suite is a must for Mrs Weeksy. A utility room is a 50-50 which could sway between 2 houses. We understand that decor is open to changing, but the Staunton one isn't a buy-move-in and then be happy for a while before starting work. The others are.
So many other nice places available within 3 miles of PABA that I wouldn't even look at that tiny cramped box on a 9/10ths scale housing estate - the roads will be too narrow and everyone will be parking on the pavements as there's not enough parking space for the 3-4 cars that inevitably come with a modern family.
Yes it'll be warm and you won't have to worry about the plumbing but it's white goods.
So many other nice places available within 3 miles of PABA that I wouldn't even look at that tiny cramped box on a 9/10ths scale housing estate - the roads will be too narrow and everyone will be parking on the pavements as there's not enough parking space for the 3-4 cars that inevitably come with a modern family.
Yes it'll be warm and you won't have to worry about the plumbing but it's white goods.
Doesn't need to be 3 miles, we'd be OK with 9-10 even. Anything within 15-20 mins away is OK really. Ideally there'll be trails within a sensible mile or so riding away. But it's not 100% important. But yeah a sensible commute for the boy in car would be fine. In his world i think we'd live in the houses opposite the entrance 😀
There's Berry Hill which is on the list as is Coleford, then even up as far as this side of Ross on Wye and as far west as Monmouth.
Obviously this thread has taken a slighty side-track, but we'll still look at the new build on Sunday, but it's 6/6 on the current viewing list in terms of preference.
this is the kitchen for #1 on my list.
This directly opposite the entrance to that estate makes me question how long you would have your view for if that land is also acquired for building? And then there's the years of construction work...
And sorry!! I get a bit obsessed by property - even though I've no plans at all to move from where I am now, much to the wife's annoyance, I always check what up for sale nearby! 😬
this is the kitchen for #1 on my list.
That's the kitchen/diner, and interestingly to me at least, it has barely any more work space than my teeny tiny kitchen. (We have a separate dining room.) Once you've got the normal kitchen junk in there you'll find there's not much room to chop veg, plate out Sunday dinner etc..
Wheres the garden? It might not be the case with these but I don't understand 'large' houses with small gardens. I'd much rather have a smaller house and a massive garden.
Might just be me though...
As long as the garden can fit a table and chairs i'm happy. The rest is not really my thing.
However, for example, this is the garden on another place we're viewing, the rear garden is bigger than that as well.
On a nice summers day, where would you rather be sat ? In that garden, with that view, or in a non descript housing estate, surrounded by soul less boxes ?
I've got the new build and the view.... 😎
And the kitchen ? and the flat roof extension ? The wood panneling ? the flooring isn't to my taste in the slightest. Kitchen is cramped and not a nice shape.
I agree the kitchen is a bad layout, and it seems there's not much you could really do about it, what with the door, the window and the hatch through to the living room. I quite like the hatch though and the overall style of the kitchen.
I guess mid-century is a style you just like or don't. I also like the wood pannelling, and the flooring, but I'd chuck a couple of rugs down.
Neutral on the flat roofed extension. My victorian terrace has one, and it seems ...fine? It has certainly required far less maintenance (ie none) than the main tiled roof in the 10 years we've been here!
This reminds me of a previous newbuilds thread on here. At first I reeled from the stories of money needing spent to put things right. Then I totted up how much I've had to spend on this 125 year old terrace and realised it's probably a lot more! But that's partly why it was cheap(ish), I guess....
On a nice summers day, where would you rather be sat ? In that garden, with that view, or in a non descript housing estate, surrounded by soul less boxes ?
Don't be a snob. Some of us can only afford the boxes on housing estates, new build or otherwise. Round here, houses with fancy views are not cheap.
Don't be a snob.
I don't think they are being a snob – (I assume the two houses are similar prices as the OP is considering them both) – they are just pointing out what they think is a big selling point of the latter house.
this is the kitchen for #1 on my list.
This directly opposite the entrance to that estate makes me question how long you would have your view for if that land is also acquired for building? And then there's the years of construction work...
And sorry!! I get a bit obsessed by property - even though I've no plans at all to move from where I am now, much to the wife's annoyance, I always check what up for sale nearby! 😬
Don't apologise, we welcome all input. Especially useful ones. We'd have probably spotted this on Sunday, but we can now do a little more research. That's not the view though, i expect you could see it out of one of the bedrooms though. But interesting spot, thanks.
On a nice summers day, where would you rather be sat ? In that garden, with that view, or in a non descript housing estate, surrounded by soul less boxes ?
Don't be a snob. Some of us can only afford the boxes on housing estates, new build or otherwise. Round here, houses with fancy views are not cheap.
I've been looking locally at some new builds on "smallish estates" ( for now) that they are asking £600k+ for. They are right next to each other and it looks like they have crammed in as many as they could. For the same money, I can get something older , larger, nicer garden and views. So, no , nothing about being snobby at all.
Waiting for the budget to see what their plans for wealth taxes and stamp duty are going to be.
@weeksy Another sad spot for you!!!...
If you look on streetview you'll see that house was also for sale in March according to Googles time-stamp (signboard up). So if you do like it I'd make them a low-ball offer! 😀💰
I don't think they are being a snob
I think he called my house a soulless box? Being as it is a small new build on a big development overlooked by other small new builds? Anyway.. off topic.
yup, it's been on for a while according to Zoopla. It won't be an asking price offer that's for sure. The husband and wife are splitting up, so it'll either be a "want a quick sale" or will be a "i want the best i can get for my half of the money" .... we'll find out on Sunday arvo.
https://www.lagan-homes.com/developments/roman_gate/
It seems Lagan Homes have permission for 44 new properties... Not an insane figure..
Another sad spot!...
If you look at your #1 choice on streetview you'll see it was also for sale in March as well (sale board up), so if you do like it I'd make a low-ball offer as they may be very keen to sell. 👍
4 years in our new build. 4 bedroom detached with integral garage. It's a small development with only 50-ish houses. Definitely wouldn't want to live in one of the huge sprawling estates that take ten+ minutes to get from the entrance to your house
Build quality wise ours has been absolutely brilliant. Snagging was very minimal and just small cosmetic things. The house is fantastically well insulated. 8 solar panels on the roof mean out electric bills are tiny. Huge rear garden which is rare on new builds.
Key reason for choosing a new build was the daft Scottish offers over system. I simply didn't want to put tens of thousands of pounds into the place over and above the actual valuation and whatever normal deposit I'd have put down. And that would've been on an older house that would have likely needed some kind of major renovation. We were looking near where we are now and based on our budget I could've got an older semi that needed a new kitchen/ bathroom/ rewire/ boiler and id have to go 20% over valuation to get it. I got this detached new build for considerably less than those types of houses
First rule of planning is if you want to keep a view, buy it. Assume any field will be built on at some point.
Check which Part L it's built under. Persimmon are masters at building out under older Building Regulations. Later Regs will have pv and/or ASHP.
(Ex Persimmon technical manager).
It seems Lagan Homes have permission for 44 new properties... Not an insane figure..
We spent the week before last looking at dozens of houses in a different part of the country to where you are but...lots of new estates. We only actually followed up with a viewing of 1 of those dozens....for many of the reasons people have cited on here but especially further extentions of the currently built/being built estate. What initially appeared to be an edge of estate 'countryside view' house will very quickly be surrounded by a sea of other houses. It's an interesting/infuriating process (especially as we are doing it from SW France with a planned return to Blighty)
Never having met you, but having read posts by you, I'm sure you'll suss out the wheat from the chaff of houses. Bon chance
New build?
MrsRNP and I live in what was originally a Victorian foundry which later became an RAC garage followed by a HGV transport company workshop. Its massive with open plan habitation on the upper two floors. The ground floor is workshop/studio/creative space (I have a Volvo XC90 in bits and still loads of room) there is also an office/spare 4th bedroom that looks out on to the river alongside where MrsRNP has her sewing/kiln stuff.
It might cost more than a modern home to heat but when I can look out onto Kingfishers and Herons out of the window it's worth every penny.
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We do have form though - we owned this building and the white one at the end of the street.
I can look out onto Kingfishers and Herons out of the window it's worth every penny
My new build has woods over my back fence. My morning coffee view is regularly roe deer, squirrels, foxes, stoats, kingfishers, bullfinches, buzzards, salamanders etc
New build?
MrsRNP and I live in what was originally a Victorian foundry which later became an RAC garage followed by a HGV transport company workshop. Its massive with open plan habitation on the upper two floors. The ground floor is workshop/studio/creative space (I have a Volvo XC90 in bits and still loads of room) there is also an office/spare 4th bedroom that looks out on to the river alongside where MrsRNP has her sewing/kiln stuff.
It might cost more than a modern home to heat but when I can look out onto Kingfishers and Herons out of the window it's worth every penny.
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We do have form though - we owned this building and the white one at the end of the street.
I think yours is something of an outlier here and not something your average person is going find or buy.
FWIW the new build isn’t even part of the 6 properties we’re now viewing on Sunday. We dropped that for a reasonably modern build but not new as such. It’s not impossible that we’ll end up new build, but it’s looking unlikely currently
I think yours is something of an outlier here and not something your average person is going find or buy.
These buildings are out there though - we nearly bought an engineering company's Victorian workshop to convert to our house but the guy ****ed us about.
We then bought that street in Waterfoot with mill and large workshop/garage as we were going to originally convert the mill to our house but when we emptied it and measured it it was massive so we flipped both properties for a decent profit and bought this 3rd building from a friend.
Previously to all that we gutted a Victorian cottage. I like old solid stuff!
we had a lovely 1850s terrace in west London
moved to a 1990s 'new' build in Milton Keynes
apart from being 5x the size with a double garage, huge drive and actual garden , obviously being 30 years old the snags were ironed out and things like the glazing needing redoing and a lot of redecorating
looks wise our house is red brick monstrosity compared to our Victorian terraced cottage
but theres no way id go back to a all of the issues of the old place, damp, dodgy wiring, , years of bodge upon bodge, a shifting chimney stack, strange things uber the floorboards , i had to dismantle the outhouse brick by brick, because the vine growing through the roof of it had ruined it, the render on the back wall had failed and needed redoing, the heating made the weirdest noises ...
If garage is internal, make sure you can get access to house and ideally into a utility room. It was brilliant being able to arrive home after a manky ride and get into the garage, strip the filthy clothes off, get into utility room and get kit in the wash and not trail all the mank through the house.
If garage is internal, make sure you can get access to house and ideally into a utility room. It was brilliant being able to arrive home after a manky ride and get into the garage, strip the filthy clothes off, get into utility room and get kit in the wash and not trail all the mank through the house.
that is one of Mrs Weeksy’s biggest requirements
My Lib Dem leaflets patch has changed and I now do a nearby new build estate.
It feels crammed in.
Tiny front gardens , it’s a real maze I got lost and I reckon a third have them already have broken letter box flaps.
The thing is I agree with many saying that they don't like the lack of space, size of housing our even the quality of the build.
But it's not binary. Some are very good. Some are not.
And we have been here before with crammed in, small houses staring at each other. Yet somehow this has character and it's ok according to some on here. But I'm struggling to see much difference between my old house(s) on a wee terraced road and many of the new builds.
But I'm struggling to see much difference between my old house(s) on a wee terraced road and many of the new builds.
one of the issues we had with new builds was lack of storage space, we looked at quite a few, our Victorian terrace was 2 up 2 down with kitchen sticking out the back, but it had a decent sized loft and an understairs cupboard where we could stash buggies etc
some of the new builds we looked at had a tiny crawl space for a loft and the understairs area was already incorporated into a room to up the floorspace, the carport or garage ate into the footprint of the house, low ceilings meant that cupboard spaces weren't that as useable as they could be
the 'older' new build estates in MK (80s to 10s) had houses with much more useable storage, decent sized lofts , cubbies etc.
Seeing as we’re having a bit of a humblebrag about views and not being overlooked, this is from my new build lounge. The closest overlooking property to the rear is on Ardnamurchan about 9km away. We have a small herd of red deer that live opposite, buzzards, sparrowhawk, kestrels, owls, herons, woodpeckers, and hen harriers plus the occasional white tailed eagle overhead. Countless other wee fluffy bird varieties, at least three hedgehogs plus the occasional otter and pine marten.
We lived in a 90's newbuild for 7 years and without the extension it was so small that even with fitted wardrobes there was only room for a small chest of drawers (I bought the tallboy type) in each room. The conservatory which had been added later was in a bad state. But the estate was tiny and homes built by a reputable family firm (on a brownfield site).
My brother lives near Lydney and says that there is going to be continuous new house building for the foreseeable.
I personally wouldn't buy a new build. They seem to be squished together on tiny estates, overlooked, with very small rooms and very expensive.
Good luck with your search, I love visiting my brother in the Forest of Dean, such a lovely area.
New build - nope from me.
First house we bough together in 2002 was a new build and TBF it was OK - Redrow build, all-brick construction (not a wooden frame etc). Small 2.5 bed detached with integral garage, ideal for first home, one of the smallest house types in middle of a development of 100 mostly 4-5-bed houses. Was utterly solid. Huge list of snagging that took months to resolve and everyone was shafted with being tied to a mega expensive factor for the common ground, etc which was forced out and a new, cheaper factor installed eventually.
House #2 was totally different. Another new build, much (much!) bigger, small development of 10 houses with the developer/builder staying in house #1 onsite. What a douchebag he turned out to be. Top class materials and finishing inside the houses, but as time went on we realised he'd cut corners everywhere and used his mates to build the houses and they were shite. Badly creaking floors, leaky plumbing (resulting in supply pipe to bath above kitchen popping off and flooding the kitchen inc bringing the ceiling down (new ceiling, new floor, new tiling etc). Worst was every single house losing 1/4-1/3 of their roof tiles in the Hogmanay storm of 2006-07. Water damage throughout the house. Developer paid for new roofs with heavier tiles for all 10 houses but took months and had to rely on our insurance for internal and contents damage. Couldn't be happier to have moved out of there.
Current house is the entire opposite. 150ish year old detached villa on a massive plot with an insane-size, south-facing rear garden. Yes, no walls are straight and some floors are a bit wonky, but bloody love it. Big enough without being OTT. Plenty of options to expand if we need to. Big garage complete with meat hooks from when it was used as an abattoir/meat storage for the bigger estate house nearby. Solid walls although not that well insulated but still costing us 2/3 of the energy use/cost in our preceding new build (which I suspect now was very poorly insulated despite being a 2006 build). It's been here for 150 years so no reason it won't last at least my lifetime and beyond. No intentions to ever move again - I'm late-40s but we joke we'll be here for retirement. Small supermarket, pharmacy, barbers, post office, (dodgy) pub, and numerous takeaways all within shuffling distance. On direct bus route to the hospital and doctors surgery. Will be easy to be car-free here in future.
So no, definitely not another new build for us. I know not all are as shit as our experience but I've not seen any new development since where the layout/spacing/plots make me want to live there.
a tiny crawl space for a loft and the understairs area was already incorporated into a room to up the floorspace, the carport or garage ate into the footprint of the house, low ceilings meant that cupboard spaces weren't that as useable as they could be
For balance, other than the garage (which is about 100m away up a maze of passages) you've just described our 1780s hovel 😀
A bit of an undercurrent of unpleasant snobbiness in this thread. Not everyone can afford a massive country pile, and not everyone wants one.
Yeah.
Between the snobbery, inverse snobbery, willy waving and modesty there's all you need to know above. So all Ii'll add is yeah.
A bit of an undercurrent of unpleasant snobbiness in this thread. Not everyone can afford a massive country pile, and not everyone wants one.
Indeed.
I would love to stay in Dunblane and buy a better house, with a view, and a double garage, and no issues what so ever....but I don't have £750k...
Excluding the actual houses (quite a bit of the area near Naas lane is extended flood plain, and the train runs close to it & the whole area floods quite regularly.
The only reasons I go to Lydney are Lidl, Hips Social & the Forest Brewery. It’s not a town you would want to wander into, for any real reason.
A massive thing for us was riding from the door, in Lydney you are still having to load up a vehicle to go to ride anywhere locally, even to get into the dullness of Pillowell woods - just go another 10/15 mins into the forest and get the full experience.
Cant be a building regs thing as just bought a brand new house and we move in a few weeks and it has the usual up and over garage door onto the driveway and also a side door into the hallway. Reputable local builder who specialises in smallish developments in West Yorkshire.Also, garage door opens to the outside and not into the house, ie no direct access from the house,
I believe that's a building regs thing and has been for several years now. You won't find any new builds with a door into the house from the garage. Security risk or some such.
I think building regs now cover both security and fire requirements. So unless the main garage door meets the security requirements, then the internal door has to cover both issues (hence expensive and an easy ££ saving for scrimping developers).
Here you go mate. Build your own... and some Air B&B cabins.
Amazing trails (820m vert). Easy commute for the lad. Bound to be coaching jobs. He could ride with Darcy Coutts, Dan Booker and Luke Meier-Smith.
You could ride all day, work at night to match your colleagues time zone.
Only snag maybe is 45 mins to the nearest supermarket.
So in the interest of fun and boredom
Here’s what we viewed today
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/159219986#/?channel=RES_BUY
House is huge, garage even bigger than huge. But kitchen is tired, layout is pretty quirky/weird, en suite is only half a bathroom. We liked it, but not in love. Won’t be making an offer
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/166579778#/?channel=RES_BUY
Stunning house, great layout, impressive kitchen. But no utility room and parking not ideal. 50-50 but maybe 70-30
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/166521221#/?channel=RES_BUY
Absolute shit show of a place
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/87269283#/?channel=RES_BUY
Loved it in every way. No issues my side. Mrs Weeksy feels it’s too middle of nowhere, in truth that’s half its appeal to me
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/167550026#/?channel=RES_BUY
Really nice, but the road just outside killed it off for us. Not a huge noise but enough it’d be an irritation
House 6 was/is in Ruspidge which i thought was closer to Pedalabikeaway. But between the distance/location and the parking i've scrubbed it off my list.
I'm a bit frustrated and moody today as i was pretty taken with Weston under Penyard and don't really understand why Mrs Weeksy isn't jumping up and down about it.
Having worked on building sites where new build homes are being constructed, and seen the absolute lack of care that goes into building these things in the cheapest possible way with enormous time pressure applied to the site staff to get things done quickly rather than well, absolutely no way would I consider one unless it was a small, discerning builder that had a good track record of building high quality houses.
I'm a bit frustrated and moody today as i was pretty taken with Weston under Penyard and don't really understand why Mrs Weeksy isn't jumping up and down about it.
IME house buying is pretty much always based on feel - and you've both got to feel it. I don't understand people who buy just on a checklist of options.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/167550026#/?channel=RES_BUY
Really nice, but the road just outside killed it off for us. Not a huge noise but enough it’d be an irritation
Weird there's no roadside screening - just a nice view of a bus-stop and busy road!
How did the older house feel?
Having worked on building sites where new build homes are being constructed, and seen the absolute lack of care that goes into building these things in the cheapest possible way with enormous time pressure applied to the site staff to get things done quickly rather than well, absolutely no way would I consider one unless it was a small, discerning builder that had a good track record of building high quality houses.
All of that could be applied to multiple phases of work carried out on my old house. 150 years+ of bodges, sometimes using dangerous materials, layered on top of each other - wonderful. But at least it has character.
I'm a bit frustrated and moody today as i was pretty taken with Weston under Penyard and don't really understand why Mrs Weeksy isn't jumping up and down about it.
IME house buying is pretty much always based on feel - and you've both got to feel it. I don't understand people who buy just on a checklist of options.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/167550026#/?channel=RES_BUY
Really nice, but the road just outside killed it off for us. Not a huge noise but enough it’d be an irritation
Weird there's no roadside screening - just a nice view of a bus-stop and busy road!
How did the older house feel?
I get you, i just thought based upon our history that that particular house would have been perfect for her/us.... I was quite surprised.
I don't know who owns that part of the land but i doubt you could get the noise down by that much... because of the lights/incline it's the sort of road where cars/motorbikes are throwing down a bit of GO which arguably makes it a little worse than if it was a flat stretch without lights etc.
because of the lights/incline it's the sort of road where cars/motorbikes are throwing down a bit of GO which arguably makes it a little worse than if it was a flat stretch without lights etc.
Yeah – if you don't want road noise, then don't do it. We had friends who thought they would get used to it after a while (bought a house on a hill and with a roundabout). About two years later they were beside themselves with the constant noise and moved to somewhere well away from any significant road noise.
I'm a bit frustrated and moody today as i was pretty taken with Weston under Penyard and don't really understand why Mrs Weeksy isn't jumping up and down about it.
You arn't walking into Ross from Weston, so for me its a bit of a no mans land. Closest trails are up on the hill at the end of Fernbank road.
When I looked at moving to FOD in 2022, it fell into two sides. Either Ross (as it has amenities and there was a good riding group and a bit of a social side). Or go full hermit and live in the forest. Ross came about as a friend was looking after a property and we stayed there a fair bit.
Lydney feels very much a special place, full of odd people. Ross on the other hand feels a lot more normal. Also the benefit of being at the end of the M50, so easy to get to proper civilisation.
4 bedroom detached house for sale in Wye Close, Wilton, Ross-on-Wye, HR9
Ive lived in new builds pretty much my entire life. Apart from 6 months in Africa we moved into our first new build 49 years ago.
A few points. All houses are new builds at some point and its a myth that all older houses are better built than newer houses. The one my family had in 1975 is nowhere near the build quality of the house we moved to in 5 years ago. Not even close. Of course going back even further brings character and different build techniques but with that age brings other issues too.
Yes there are different characters, different build techniques and different architectural influences over the decades but i would argue the building practices in the last 50 years have hardly changed for general housebuilding. My PIL live in a lovely 1980's house worth a lot more than my own (Size etc). But its no better built.
The real debate is people turning their noses up, rightly or wrongly at estate living. Most new builds are on estates because, thats how to make it pay and thats where the greatest need is. Everyone has their own ticklist of prioroties and compromises within their budget. If you like something great. If you dont, no worries.
We wanted a new build because of our priorities
1) Reduced maintenance (I can happily maintain a new build house with my level of DIY)
2) Reduced ground care - It takes me about 2-3 hours once per year to get my entire garden ready for the forthcoming year. I paid £6k when we moved in to have it how i wanted it. We use it most of the year and can use it within 5 minutes of a downpour and it is 100% secure for the dogs. We did compromise on the size of the garden as we got the house at a bargain price which is why i got the garden done immediately. We didnt need a huge garden, we needed a garden we would use.
3) Size was important. We have 3 double (Proper doubles with built in warddrobes, queen size beds and furniture) plus a full office with other built in wardrobe. We are basically 4 adults living together (Plus childrens partners stay over)
4) Built in garage - I wanted a full gym. I have a Primal equipped gym now which between me and my daughter gets used 7 days a week.
We got our boiler serviced last week. Our engineer asked if there had been any issues with the heating recently (Before he checked). We replied the heating hadnt been turned on yet. He was shocked but the house is amazingly well insulated. I work out in the gym in shorts and vest and its warm from the get go. Heating has gone on this week but everyone keeps saying its too hot so we keep knocking it down half a degree.
As with anything, there are good and bad.
I'm a bit frustrated and moody today as i was pretty taken with Weston under Penyard and don't really understand why Mrs Weeksy isn't jumping up and down about it.
You arn't walking into Ross from Weston,
I wasn't planning on 🙂
Loved it in every way. No issues my side. Mrs Weeksy feels it’s too middle of nowhere, in truth that’s half its appeal to me
My opinion is literally pointless as I'm not buying it, you are. But there's something about new builds, rooms just look cramped/crammed with furniture/weird layouts.
The bedroom with the TV on the wall and thinnest drawers they could find to fit under it. The lounge with the outside door and then the sofa across it because there's an odd sized bay which casts loads if light onto the TV!
It's probably fine for most people but it's not for me.
The good news is, I bought a house once, I'm too lazy/spend my money elsewhere to do all the renovation it needs (needs a new kitchen and lots of bits and pieces doing). I'm too lazy/not willing to invest the £200k I'd need to find the house I'd want to buy as a replacement. My house is an ex-MOD house, so it's on a bit of an 'estate'. But it's a semi where the rooms are big enough for furniture and it looks out onto a nice green/grass area. I'd like to be in a detached out in the country more, but it's not looking likely it'll ever happen.
We moved into a new house in 1998, moved from a terraced house built in 1860’s. It suited us, our son was a year old, there was a play park near the house, loads of people around our age and loads of kids for our son to play out with.
house was a 4 bedroom, bathroom, 1 en-suite. Had a dining room that was completely impractical as a dining space. Spent loads on it, kitchen, all bathrooms done, wood burner. But it was bloody freezing.
we’d grown tired of it and wanted to move. Bought a new house last year, 5 bedrooms, large garage, large garden, 3 car drive, 2 en-suite, large kitchen, dining space, living space at the back and another living room at the front. There’s only the 2 of us as the 1 year old has moved out 😀
we absolutely over it, the standard of building is a massive improvement over our old house, which was by a decent builder. Spec is far better, checks on the work at each stage of the build are very tightly controlled
it’s so warm in winter, put the heating on for an hour in the evening and the house is still warm in the morning.
one of the best decisions we’ve made