Which of these 3-bedroom houses would you purchase? Edit to include option C?

BungalowBel

I personally wouldn't buy either of those houses.

a) I wouldn't want all those stairs
b) I wouldn't want open plan gardens
c) I would want to be able to get from the front garden to the back without going through the house

But in the end it is up to the individual what they prefer.  The OP obviously has different preferences to me!

SarahB16

GDB2222 said:

elsien said:

Open plan gardens. That’s me out then. I want to be in my back garden without  neighbours annoying kids sticking their heads over to ask what you’re doing.

Open plan gardens. That’s me in, actually. Depending on the size of the garden- where there’s a tiny garden surrounded by a 6ft fence for privacy, the fence cuts out much of the light, and it feels claustrophobic. I’d rather put up with the annoying neighbours.

I'm genuinely not sure if I have described the back gardens correctly by calling them open plan gardens.  They will all be private gardens and for the sole use of the homeowner and marked so and neighbours would be unable to walk from one back garden into another so, for example, the next door neighbour's five year old won't be kicking a football against the wall of your house, etc. 

The houses are open market for private sale.  I know some housing associations tend to have one large garden for all residents to use but that isn't proposed here.

The back gardens will be separated but not with six foot high wooden fences.  Far more likely to be something say maybe four foot high and that can be seen through to give that feeling of not feeling closed in.   

On a separate point made of having to walk through the front of the house to get to the back of the house it would also be extremely easy to just use the footpath if you wanted to as well.     

born_again

SarahB16 said:

My question was if you were me would you purchase house A or house B and then I later edited it to include house C too.

 My question wasn't whether the house was suitable for me.  Some posters are posting replies to questions that I haven't asked. 

If you want to see the question I asked just read my first post.       

This is the joy of public forums.
People think outside the box & add answers to questions you have never thought about, from their experience.

For me you mentioned about the speed limit on the road. Do not expect people to keep to 10 MPH. From my experience on a cul-de-sac people living on it are the worst offenders for speeding.
For me as well stairs, but this is personal as 4 years ago Mrs was diagnosed with MS. She can now only just manage the 3 steps that we have to get into our bungalow (ramp incoming). Any more & she can spend a couple of days not being able to do anything other than move round the house. we used to walk miles.
You also mentioned sitting on the top floor on a nice summer day. Remember 2022 & the 40c HEAT spell. Think what it would be like up there 😶‍🌫️

Which ever you choose I hope you have a long happy & healthy life enjoying your new home 😍

EssexHebridean

I was going to say to ignore the speed limit on the road too - the majority of people simply ignore anything below a 20mph at least. 

One thing which does stand out in (some of) the replies here is the amount of snobbery there is around terraced housing - not everyone has the budget to buy detached or semi-detached, as much as they might want to. Whilst living in a particular type of house might not be to someone’s own choice, sneering at that property type isn’t really necessary IMO. In some cases the general attitude also perhaps provides some information on why they may have encountered problems in certain scenarios - people don’t generally appreciate being looking down on or judged, and sometimes that attitude in itself encourages a negative response/reaction from those being looked down on! 

Assuming from the OP’s general manner in their posting that they are intending to be pretty “live and let live” with their neighbours and those in the general area, they may well find that they have relatively few issues from people passing on the footpath. In any location it’s always possible to get a “bad apple” determined to cause issues, but in our experience at least those folk tend to get bored after a while with being generally disliked and move on to terrorise neighbours elsewhere for a while before most likely repeating the same pattern! 

BungalowBel

I would just like to say that I lived in a mid-terraced house for decades, so I am not one of the ones being snobby about them.  But even that one had its own private alleyway (i.e.not to be used by anyone else) where I could get from the street to the garden without going through the house.  It's just something that is important to me.

diystarter7

EssexHebridean said:

I was going to say to ignore the speed limit on the road too - the majority of people simply ignore anything below a 20mph at least. 

! 

Hiya

Any evidence to back up your comments about the "majority" ? 

Thnaks

SarahB16

BungalowBel said:

I would just like to say that I lived in a mid-terraced house for decades, so I am not one of the ones being snobby about them.  But even that one had its own private alleyway (i.e.not to be used by anyone else) where I could get from the street to the garden without going through the house.  It's just something that is important to me.

Thank you for sharing your opinion however the road and the larger garden (of the two private gardens) are fairly near to each other and there would be no need to go through the house.  You can see this on the plan I posted in my first post.   

If you wished to walk from the front garden directly into the back garden yes you would walk through the house or go via the footpath.       

powerful_Rogue

diystarter7 said:

EssexHebridean said:

I was going to say to ignore the speed limit on the road too - the majority of people simply ignore anything below a 20mph at least. 

! 

Hiya

Any evidence to back up your comments about the "majority" ? 

Thnaks

90% of people break the speed limit in 20mph zones.

https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/motoring-news/drivers-break-20mph-school-zone-limits/

EssexHebridean

diystarter7 said:

EssexHebridean said:

I was going to say to ignore the speed limit on the road too - the majority of people simply ignore anything below a 20mph at least. 

! 

Hiya

Any evidence to back up your comments about the "majority" ? 

Thnaks

As a starting point the HSE don’t suggest anything lower than 10mph for industrial estate settings which is often where limits below 20mph are to be found. 

I’m not aware of whether there is any up to date evidence relating to 20mph limits specifically as these are still relatively speaking unusual in the U.K. although becoming less so - however as at 2020 it was reported that 56% of cars, 58% of light commercials, and 67% of motorbikes were exceeding 30mph limits. It’s generally understood that the lower the limit, the more drivers are likely to exceed them - in part I believe because 30kWh is still seen by many as the lowest ‘standard’ limit for the U.K. and so often drivers simply don’t notice a  lower limit, while others consider the lower limit to be “unnecessary” or even optional! Once you get below 10mph is also becomes a little more difficult to maintain the required speed, so that can have an effect. 

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/vehicle-speed-compliance-statistics-for-great-britain-2020/vehicle-speed-compliance-statistics-for-great-britain-2020

diystarter7

EssexHebridean said:

diystarter7 said:

EssexHebridean said:

I was going to say to ignore the speed limit on the road too - the majority of people simply ignore anything below a 20mph at least. 

! 

Hiya

Any evidence to back up your comments about the "majority" ? 

Thnaks

As a starting point the HSE don’t suggest anything lower than 10mph for industrial estate settings which is often where limits below 20mph are to be found. 

I’m not aware of whether there is any up to date evidence relating to 20mph limits specifically as these are still relatively speaking unusual in the U.K. although becoming less so - however as at 2020 it was reported that 56% of cars, 58% of light commercials, and 67% of motorbikes were exceeding 30mph limits. It’s generally understood that the lower the limit, the more drivers are likely to exceed them - in part I believe because 30kWh is still seen by many as the lowest ‘standard’ limit for the U.K. and so often drivers simply don’t notice a  lower limit, while others consider the lower limit to be “unnecessary” or even optional! Once you get below 10mph is also becomes a little more difficult to maintain the required speed, so that can have an effect. 

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/vehicle-speed-compliance-statistics-for-great-britain-2020/vehicle-speed-compliance-statistics-for-great-britain-2020

Hiya

So you there is no evidence to qualify your comments and I'm not sure why you posted that link that does not suppoert the "majority ignoring" the 20mph speed limit

I don't want to derail the thread so  I will leave it at that

Thanks for trying.