house advice please

[weewdy]

Currently i live in a small village in a 2 bed end terraced bungalow in a good location. It is not ex local authority and i have lived here for 10 years. It has ok sized rooms with livingroom, dining room, kitchen and bathroom. We have considered extending into the loft.

We manage comfortably with money and we are never short at the end of the month, can have family days when we want and can buy what we want within reason.

The problem is a house is coming up for sale, which me and my oh have always liked. It is a 5 bedroom detached property which needs extensive work done. The work itself doesnt bother us as we would do it bit by bit. However it would mean we would need to double our mortgage payment per month, which is doable but we would have no spare cash and wouldnt be able to have days out extra with our dd. It would make it tight money wise.

We have been talking about ttc number 2 in the last few weeks and even though this house is a 2 bed we were considering converting the loft. If we go for the other house we would need to wait a good few years before ttc number 2.

My family all think we should go for the bigger house. My feelings are i would rather enjoy life ( i make sure i save money every month) take my daughter places, do things with her i never got a chance to do as a child and generally be able to treat my parents aswell (my childcare). The bigger house would be our forever home but at what cost, we would still have a mortgage at 70 whereas this house will be paid off by 50.

Ladies can you give me some advice.

 

[MrsMandy]

I personally wouldn't want to stretch myself to the limit financially, if anything were to ever happen and your already stretched would you be able to manage or would you have to forfiet the house?
Plus I agree, I'd rather enjoy life than potentially begin to resent the 'dream' house because I couldn't afford to do things with the family or buy what I wanted!

 

[missk1989]

I wouldnt do it either. You would be suprised at how much it costs to rennovate the house as well. We spent hundreds doing our old house up but in the end too many things went wrong. We part exchanged for a brand new one with absolutley nothing to do!

 

[smileyfaces]

I would rather have extra money to spend on days out/holidays/buying things for lo and making memories than having a big house but no money to do anything

 

[Mummy May]

I would stick where you are and extend if you need to. I think the little things like being able to go on days out really matter and I remember doing those things when I was little. Your bungalow sounds lovely plus mortgage gone by 50 sounds fab! Xx

 

[stephx]

I wouldn't move x

 

[catty]

Is there nothing in between? A 3 bed at not such a high cost, best of both. I wouldn't be comfortable to have a mortgage until I'm 70 when I don't plan to work that long, id say no

 

[Pearls18]

I wouldnt go for the big house, my parents did that and although we grew up in a lovely big 5 bed Victorian house my parents never had the spare cash to actually do what they wanted to the house and a lot of problems developed over the years, they sold it when I was 16. Due to this I will only buy new/ish. I think lifestyle is much more important too.

 

[Rachel_C]

I would stay where you are. If you have money left over at the end of the month, save it and put it towards the cost of a bigger house in future. If you're happy where you are now, that'd be more sensible I think and you won't have any fixed increase in outgoings so you can still treat yourselves.

 

[emyandpotato]

No way would I do it. I agree that it's more important to enjoy life and not have as many worries. What is the point in a big house if you can't enjoy anything else? Plus a big house means expensive bills, especially in winter, and more cleaning. If you feel like you'd need more space maybe go for a small but comfortable three bed that is still affordable. My parents moved from the bogstandard 3 bed suburban house to a big detached house about ten years ago. They've never been able to finish doing it up due to funds and the heating bill is insane, and my mum has always regretted it.

 

[embo216]

I wouldn't move either.x x

 

[JumpingIn]

It depends how badly this house needs work. If it was at least in part habitable for a while, I personally would consider doing it, for a number of reasons.

Firstly, I'd be playing the long game. Sure, for now life feels fine where you are and you could convert your loft etc, but once number 2 is racing around you may begin to feel cramped and you'll be wanting something bigger, like your dream house. That may be a problem because in that time the house prices will have risen dramatically, and that house will be gone. You may well be priced out of the dream house after having spent up on raising number 2 and converting your loft, not to mention all those days out etc. This in part depends on which area you're living in...It's easy for me to think this way because we're in Berkshire, where everything's crazy competitive, expensive and snapped up immediately, so you're better off moving with things than hanging back.

Also, because of the rising house prices, this is just a good time to buy generally. Even if you got this place and only managed to do up a few of the rooms in a few years, you'll probably be in a good position to move on if you wanted to, maybe to something smaller but of better quality.

Thirdly, you may be left wondering forever what your life would have been like if only you'd stretched.

Having said all that, if life in that house isn't your dream, and your dream involved potentially being a bit squished but having a great time along the way doing other things like holidays, days out etc, then don't do it. Do it as an investment or to fulfil your dreams, but don't do it because of pressure that isn't relevant to you. If you can look at your house now (with converted loft) and believe you'll all be really happy in it in years to come then don't change it. Simple as that. I've talked a lot about property and money but the truth is you're a homeowner now and if you convert your loft you'll be adding value to your property too! You can only win. It also sounds like you have a great family setup and you guys will be happy whatever you decide.