Which house to go for?

Fly_Baby

Hi, would really appreciate your opinion on two houses in the same area, with the almost identical layout and in the similar condition, both ex-council.

House 1: no private parking, you leave the car on the road (free but it's the hill) and walk along the path to the house. The path is exposed to the neighbours' gardens which are unfenced and only have a low metal net to separate them from the path (unsightly) so everything in the garden is out in the open (to compare with - the identical row of houses off the other side of the road has neat bushes along the path). But good extension potential.
Asking price 275K.

House 2: private parking, garage, large conservatory (love it!), downstairs toilet, pretty garden but with a big slope (the house is on the hill, i.e ball games out of the question, not sure if you can even put a table and chair there so looks like the whole lawn area is purely for decoration but then there is a patio). On the road so you can hear a bus. Asking price 295K.

Which one? Or neither?
For the House 1: can I plant bushes along the path so as not to see the metal net and the neighbours' gardens? Is the lack of a driveway a no-no (have children)? Most houses in the area have either a driveway or at least can see the car from the house.
For House 2: can I even out the slope?

The last sold prices in the same street are from May 2010, three houses at 250K and 1 at 275K.

Hippychick

That's a lot of money for ex council, are these in London?

Sounds like you prefer house 2, the last house we lived in was rented and was on a hill, we had fabulous views but it was a right pita when trying to mow the grass, our neighbours had put decked levels out the back which worked well for the kids. Perhaps see how much that could cost? We never used our garden because of the hill and vowed never to buy a house with a sloping garden.

Fly_Baby

Hippychick wrote: »

That's a lot of money for ex council, are these in London?

Sounds like you prefer house 2, the last house we lived in was rented and was on a hill, we had fabulous views but it was a right pita when trying to mow the grass, our neighbours had put decked levels out the back which worked well for the kids. Perhaps see how much that could cost? We never used our garden because of the hill and vowed never to buy a house with a sloping garden.

Thank for replying Hippychick.

Yes, I prefer number 2 but the sloping garden is a big put-off. EAs say that it can be excavated - I don't mind the cost as long as it's doable. But then I went to the Planning Dept at our council and they said that excavating the graden could cause substinence.

I wouldn't want to deck the lawn and a garden without the grass.

Fly_Baby

The houses are not in London but in commuter belt. Expensive they are!

Alias_Omega

Could always create a patio area in rear of house No 2.

The parking issue would worry me, as every house now has 2+ cars, and wont be getting any better in the near future.

dizziblonde

We lived in a house on a very very steep hill all the way through my childhood. It didn't stop ball games at all - you just had to anticipate the downward curve of the ball while playing football and got very fast at running to catch it before it made it to the bottom of the hill. Also was cracking fun during wintertime with sledges (I'm also stonkingly good at hill starts in cars as a consequence!)

The one thing I'd say if you're living on a mega hill - see if you can check the council gritting routes for the winter, or go have a look see if they've got those plastic yellow grit boxes around as a sign that they don't grit them. The number of times my mother ended up gritting our entire bank, with every man in the street watching at the windows waiting for her to finish so they could get out for work was ridiculous!

Could you make the garden tiered into steps with intermediate retaining walls (or whatever the proper name is for 'em) as a long term solution? Our back one was like that.

House 1 would annoy me - we also didn't have parking next to the house when I was growing up, and having to troop up and down the street with supermarket carrier bags really really did my head in as a kid (because muggins was the one who got landed with that job)!

Catbells

I think off street parking is fairly crucial and it sounds as though you prefer the house on the hill with the parking and conservatory. I would go for that one. My sister had a steep hill at the back of her house and they cut a lovely zig zag pathway down it with a bench at the half way mark. You've got a patio for eating out so can still appreciate the garden in this way too. Good luck.

mudshark

My parents' back garden is sloping up hill quite steeply. Ball games would be impossible but it's mostly set up for growing stuff anyway. They have retaining walls lower down to create flat areas for sitting on. Anyway, parks are for ball games!

Fly_Baby

Thanks for all the views. Anybody else?

Has anyone ever had their garden excavated?

Horasio

What is important to you

Private parking, ability to extend or a flat garden?

We have an uphill garden that is tiered but we get limited amounts of sun.

Fly_Baby

CCStar wrote: »

What is important to you

Private parking, ability to extend or a flat garden?

We have an uphill garden that is tiered but we get limited amounts of sun.

Parking is important, a flat garden is less so. I am not bothered by the ability to extend.