A boring house in a great area or a cool house in a not so good area?

Falafels

It's a question of what you want. I used to have a lovely house in Birmingham where I was burgled three times in seven years, had the car stolen, vandalised, the shed broken into and various other bits of petty crime, anti-social behaviour and vandalism on a regular basis. It had a large plot and plenty of room. It was within easy striking distance of cultural activities and open countryside.

I moved to another lovely house with a fraction of the square yardage in a very boring area where nothing much happened. It was a very good move.

As regards the house being "boring"... if you have interesting belongings and a strong sense of interior design (including drawing your inspiration from elsewhere), it won't be "boring" for very long.

AnotherJoe

So what if it looks boring from outside? When you are in it you cant see it ! Do you intend to spend a lot of time across the street looking at the "cool house" if you buy that  ? Ask passers by how cool they think it is? Show it off to friends who visit by having them stand outside (until they get robbed, presumably)? 

I'm presuming you would be embarrassed and have to apologise when your cool friends come over because it doesn't  have "character" (whatever that is) so you'll live somewhere crappy rather than where you want so you can show off? . Is it something that looks interesting but is awkward and annoying and you pretend it's really cool? "Yeh we love the way you smack your head on that low beam every now and again, real character eh?" "Yeh the heating system has real character that's why I'm wearing this duffel coat inside" 

Sounds pretentious to me, as if all that matters is looks, rather than the actual place you live and its convenience and how functional the house is, not what it looks like.

cymruchris

I would definitely go with the house with 1 minutes walk to everything I wanted - than live in the middle of nowhere in a house that happened to look good. 

tealady

Outside is unimportant, it's what you make it inside is what counts.

RelievedSheff

Location every time. That is one thing you can not change about the house.

We did the nice house on a grotty area last time. It was a disaster. This time we got the area right first.

jackieblack

Kaz1000 said:

From experience after living in the most gorgeous bungalow in a village which is 20 mins by bus to the town. I can honestly say, having a tiny house in a town is way better than a mansion in the middle of no where. The village has really classy people but as a 40 year old couple with a kid, life does get boring with not much to do.
Hence we are moving to a Victorian mid terraced house in the heart of town. We sacrificed buying a house in the middle of a field which looks likes a Grand Designs property with a wow factor just to be in the town. We both knew exactly what we wanted for the next 20 years.

Each to their own, but I could not disagree more. I wouldn’t ever want to live in a town.

Doozergirl

I'd love to get my hands on a 1970s house!  I think it would be great fun to give it a bit of life.  

With the right imagination any house could be a very interesting house. 

pinkteapot

tealady said:

Outside is unimportant, it's what you make it inside is what counts.

This! As someone else said, you don't spend time looking at the outside of your house. You can go nuts with the interior if you want (as time and budget allow). Any house can be made interesting on the inside. 

JJR45

Doozergirl said:

I'd love to get my hands on a 1970s house!  I think it would be great fun to give it a bit of life.  

Having had two 70s houses, I would rather stick knitting needles in my eyes than own another.
Bodge the builder springs to mind.

RelievedSheff

JJR45 said:

Doozergirl said:

I'd love to get my hands on a 1970s house!  I think it would be great fun to give it a bit of life.  

Having had two 70s houses, I would rather stick knitting needles in my eyes than own another.
Bodge the builder springs to mind.

Bodge the Builder definitely built our last 1930's house!!