Do you have to love a house to buy it?

telfordwhite

Location, location, Location.

The house we're (hopefully) moving to is uglier and smaller than our current one but I have no doubts whatsoever.

It is reasonably practical with a decent but not brilliant garden, it has smaller bedrooms, kitchen and living room but will improve the quality of our lives considerably.

It is in a quiet, safe cul-de-sac but is within easy walking distance of Schools/shops/pubs. It is close to friends and family and there are plenty of playmates for the kids. The back gate also opens onto a big field.

A house for me is a base from which to live your life so no you don't need to love the bricks and mortar...unless you're a silly sentimental woman of course..:p

ailuro2

We bought our house in the perfect area, next door to a great school,nice size etc. but definitely didn't love it.
I still don't love the house, but all the wonderful things that have happened while we have been here makes it our 'home'.
And adding our own taste in decoration etc. helps a great deal too.

Would still swop it in a heartbeat for a stone cottage with a real fire though, as long as same cottage was in the right area.:D

Nenen

Redbedhead... I've just re-read your thread (Wow Just realised I'm a poet :rotfl: ... as i remembered reading it a while ago and am now in a similar situation) and wondered whether or not you ever found another house you loved or what happened to you?

Our landlord has just offered to sell us his house (we've been renting while looking for somewhere to buy in this area) and, whilst it would be the sensible thing to do, I don't *love* it.. it's just OK. We've been looking for months now... the first one we absolutely loved got sold before we had buyers for ours and the 2nd one is out of our price range and vendor refuses to budge on price despite it having been on the market for 5+ months now *sigh*.

There are lots of things I'm sure we could do to improve the one we're renting if it was ours (including put an extension on) but one of the main drawbacks for me is being very overlooked at the back. There are two houses that back onto ours whereby they can look from their back bedroom windows directly into our bedroom windows and/or sitting room as well as our garden obviously. As I hate net curtains that's not an option. We've thought about planting fast growing conifers along the back fence but as the garden is quite shallow (about 30ft) I'm worried they would overshadow the whole garden once they get to required height.

Anyone have any suggestions?

bs0u0128

for fast screening, we went to argos and got these:

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/0423333/Trail/C%24cip%3D1500006333.Garden%2C%2BDIY%2Band%2Bleisure%3EC%24cip%3D1500006440.Garden%2Btools%2Band%2Bdecoration%3EC%24cip%3D1500006446.Garden%2Bdesign%2Baccessories.htm

the darker ones are better, but more expensive, and we put these up with a few conifers, and the fence is great, the root balls for the trees was small but then we do have an acre for the back garden, so not sure if it would suit you, on the plus side u can cut them to the required height and width easily

BrandNewDay

I don't think I love the house we're buying. I'm excited about the location - finally we'll be able to walk to everything - but the house, itself, is smaller than what we're currently renting. It is in perfect condition, and the price is great, but I'm not all a-twitter about the house.