Downsizing

seven-day-weekend

Errata wrote: »

Is that a multi storey block of council flats looming over the back garden?

It is a multi-story block, but it is further away than it looks. The shops,the road and a small park are in between. I know where the bungalow and the flats are, I can visualise it. It's a decent enough council estate.

pollypenny

That second one looks better, not pokey like the first.

seven-day-weekend

It does. But we are not going to bother looking at it. We're not ready to move yet.

Thanks all for your comments

missbiggles1

Couldn't you move a few miles west to Shropshire where prices are lower and many areas much nicer?

seven-day-weekend

Not really. We want to stay within the area as that is where our son, our church and our social life are. We don't want to move out too far out of our community.

Like visiting Shropshire though and many of our dogsits take us there,sometimes for several weeks at a time . Best of both worlds .

moneyistooshorttomention

pollypenny wrote: »

I've just looked at your link, SDW. The place looks very small to me.

Just what I am thinking and there's just myself to consider. The house I recently bought isn't a bungalow deliberately (ie in case of "need", as I just don't think like that personally). It's a bungalow because that's what was available in the location.

Its got a reasonable size sitting room (about 20' long), a fair-size kitchen (bigger than my starter house), 2 very reasonable size bedrooms, one bathroom and not too bad an amount of storage space (a lot of which I had to add, as it didn't have enough originally). Its 1000 square feet in size and that's as small as I could go and not be too small.

I would like a 3rd bedroom and a garage, but those were compromises I had to make within my budget.

The garden is a fairly reasonable size (my starter house only had a tiny back yard and one of the reasons I had to move was because I had been waiting to be able to get on with my gardening for years, but was being restricted by that house to only growing things in pots).

If I had a husband/partner, then I would definitely require at least one extra room (ie a "personal" room each, eg a study each).

Just my thoughts on necessary size.

Since you like the house you have and it feels like your basic reason for leaving it is fears the area is deteriorating, then you will have times of resentment for being "forced" to move (ask me how I know), so its even more important to ensure the house itself is big enough/good enough.

missbiggles1

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Just what I am thinking and there's just myself to consider. The house I recently bought isn't a bungalow deliberately (ie in case of "need", as I just don't think like that personally). It's a bungalow because that's what was available in the location.

Its got a reasonable size sitting room (about 20' long), a fair-size kitchen (bigger than my starter house), 2 very reasonable size bedrooms, one bathroom and not too bad an amount of storage space (a lot of which I had to add, as it didn't have enough originally). Its 1000 square feet in size and that's as small as I could go and not be too small.

I would like a 3rd bedroom and a garage, but those were compromises I had to make within my budget.

The garden is a fairly reasonable size (my starter house only had a tiny back yard and one of the reasons I had to move was because I had been waiting to be able to get on with my gardening for years, but was being restricted by that house to only growing things in pots).

If I had a husband/partner, then I would definitely require at least one extra room (ie a "personal" room each, eg a study each).

Just my thoughts on necessary size.

Since you like the house you have and it feels like your basic reason for leaving it is fears the area is deteriorating, then you will have times of resentment for being "forced" to move (ask me how I know), so its even more important to ensure the house itself is big enough/good enough.

For me, that sounds enormous for one person, although I agree that lots of storage is vital. We've lived in houses with 4 and 5 bedrooms in the past but, thinking back, we've always lived as if we had just 1 bedroom, living room, kitchen and bathroom, except when I worked from home when I had an office in one of the bedrooms.

I never understand why some people seem to need extra space to get away from their spouse/partner when retired - we're just happy to spend as much time as possible together while we still can.

Errata

missbiggles1 wrote: »

For me, that sounds enormous for one person, although I agree that lots of storage is vital. We've lived in houses with 4 and 5 bedrooms in the past but, thinking back, we've always lived as if we had just 1 bedroom, living room, kitchen and bathroom, except when I worked from home when I had an office in one of the bedrooms.

I never understand why some people seem to need extra space to get away from their spouse/partner when retired - we're just happy to spend as much time as possible together while we still can.

Possibly because on retirement they discover they don't actually like each other very much.:)

seven-day-weekend

We're spending some money ( a few grand) on a summerhouse instead. My husband is putting the concrete base in as we speak.

He has hobbies (music, painting, photography, motorbike) which require a lot of space and he never is going to be a pipe and slippers guy, sitting quietly by the fire with his cocoa, whilst he has any choice about it. We would need at least one more room than that first bungalow had.

We will stay for the forseeable future, unless the area deteriorates too much, and then if we can't afford what we want where we want, we'll let our house and rent ourselves.

Decision made.

Thanks all for your comments.

seven-day-weekend

Errata wrote: »

Possibly because on retirement they discover they don't actually like each other very much.:)

This does happen sometimes and I think it's such a shame when it does. Everyone needs their own space though.