Bungalow on an awkward plot - to buy or not?

We have recently moved and looked at something similar. The difficulties would only get more difficult for us so we carried on looking until we found a much better property, and it was cheaper. If it's proved difficult to sell and you really want to buy it then perhaps you should make a much lower offer. However, if you have doubts now you will probably regret buying very soon. Good luck with the house hunt.

Don’t you think it’s the spellchecker on your device which is causing you problems? GN know nothing about your post until it’s posted.

For RusBun - some odd comments on here. One said "The bathroom toilet so close to the dining room would put me off", well, it's a bungalow, not Buck House, so it's not going to be a country ramble between them, is it?! And as folk get older, you'll find you don't want too much distance when you need to go!

Another thing was the garden, "far too small . . .noisy neighbours". This again is utter twaddle -- if you have occasionally noisy neighbours, you'll hear them even with a large garden. We have quite a big garden, by suburban standards, a neighbour each side, and 3 over the back, which back onto ours and each neighbour. One neighbour has a barking dog, as does one over the back, clearly audible. The diagonal left neighbour has a squawking kid at times, which I think can be heard across all the gardens in the block, about 30 houses. Sadly the ones with a dog haven't yet trained their beast to drown out the kid, on command?!

Another point re gardens is that with age, and a large garden, comes increasing inability to be able to cope with all the work? You can sometimes find a gardener, but many of them can only do mowing, they tend not to like weeding, and pruning the right plant at the right time for some is a challenge too far.

What else, oh yes, that road. Well, the supposed 'dangers' would depend how busy the road really is? You'd have to check, but unless it's really busy, you'd be OK?

NB as a general note for Gransnet admins -- just WHY does my correct spelling of "neighbour" get objected to? Has some nitwit in their IT support unwisely applied an American 'spell-checker' software?!! How do they do it, 'neybor' perhaps?

RusBun

MadeInYorkshire

*Rusbun - some of my courtyard garden for you .... I can't seem to find the ones from when I opened the garden up, may be on a different computer!

I think the 2nd and 3rd are from the winter, so it was colourful all year round ... the summer ones had more flowers.

How beautiful! Exactly the style I like.

Thank you!

Yes cheeky offer, it sounds as though it would actually be very good now you've got to know the neighbours! Do the renovations in time .... find a good builder with some creative ideas, and keep us posted!

'When in doubt, do nowt' springs to mind RusBun. The major concern for me would be finding a buyer if and when I wanted to sell.

I may have missed a reply, but if you decide to buy this bungalow, I think it would be very helpful (essential!) to get the garage somehow joined to the bungalow, by a conservatory or as you suggested, an office. This would help not only moving shopping from the car and garage to your bungalow, but also improve security, and give you more options should you need to use a wheelchair in the future.

A friend moved into a bungalow, with a separate garage and she uses a wheelchair. Unfortunately, she can’t go out if it’s rainy or windy because she can’t manage the outside path, or getting into the car in the rain, she needs a hoist to get the wheelchair into her car, and it can’t get wet!

Since seeing her predicament, I’ve decided that if we move (we don’t have a garage or a space for a garage presently) an integral garage is a must.

Hope all goes well, whatever you decide 🌷🌷🌷

PS please come back one day to let us know if you do purchase the bungalow.

So pleased to hear that knocking on doors revealed the reason for the house previously not selling. I'm very glad you had such a positive experience with the neighbours.
Wishing you well in what may now become your new home.

I see a lot of people buying affordable houses and demolishing them then building their ideal home on the plot.
If that was possible then you would get the exact layout you desire.
I wouldn't buy it if I was only looking to redecorate and move in.

The programme I referred to is named:

'Your Home Made Perfect' and is on BBC2.

There is an episode at 7.00 p.m. today (Tuesday 12 September) should you be interested.

The programme is also available on the iPlayer, too. I think there are several series - I only found this programme a few weeks ago and although there is the usual bit of drivel, how the architects think and just what can be achieved is astounding. There was a particularly good episode regarding a flat in Edinburgh. I could not believe the changes that were made.

I digress! Of course, some sums involved are huge but quite a lot could be achieved with simpler finishes etc.

Good luck with whatever you choose to do.

I think the floor plan is misleading regarding the location of the garage. Plans often do that. If you look at the aerial view, you will see that the garage and parking is on the right of the house, where the red car is parked in front of the garage doors. And by the way the space between the house and the garden was used for parking a caravan, so it is mostly concrete and gravel and is being used as a dumping ground.

Looking at the plan, it appears that there is a door from the garage more or less opposite the kitchen. So if you drive your car into the garage, it would not be a trek carrying your shopping.
Also, you could do what we did when we purchased our bungalow - we firstly took out the fire, chimney and boiler which were back to back in the lounge and kitchen, thus giving us tremendous more space in both rooms. We then took the wall in the bedroom next to the kitchen down and created a large kitchen diner leaving the lounge for chilling out.

honeyrose

Rusbun, there is another tv programme you may be interested in - Love it or List It (Kirstie Alsop & Phil Spencer), whereby house owners find out what changes could be made to their property or whether it’s best to move, although obviously in your case it might be helpful to see examples of what is possible in the way of alterations to a property you’re CONSIDERING buying. It sounds as if you may feel a little less doubtful about the property now that you have spoken to the neighbours. As others have suggested, make a list of pros and cons of the property. I can appreciate your dilemma - it’s in an area that you want to buy, but there are negatives to the property. There’ll be positives too. Good luck!

Thank you livelylady and honeyrose, we watch many different property programs, including these. We love properties!

Rusbun, there is another tv programme you may be interested in - Love it or List It (Kirstie Alsop & Phil Spencer), whereby house owners find out what changes could be made to their property or whether it’s best to move, although obviously in your case it might be helpful to see examples of what is possible in the way of alterations to a property you’re CONSIDERING buying. It sounds as if you may feel a little less doubtful about the property now that you have spoken to the neighbours. As others have suggested, make a list of pros and cons of the property. I can appreciate your dilemma - it’s in an area that you want to buy, but there are negatives to the property. There’ll be positives too. Good luck!

Think the renovation programme is "Your home made Perfect'. LOVE IT! is it on BBC2?

nadateturbe

We thought too much about a purchase and someone else bought. We were so disappointed. Would you be disappointed if you didn't get it?

True. It happened to us last week and we were gutted. But the other buyer offered the asking price, so we could not have afforded it anyway.

It sounds like you know it’s not what you really want so I’d say pass this time.

Hi
I think You already know the answer 🙂

Candelle

I agree a little with the view 'if doubts, don't buy' but perhaps you are similar to me: I think of every detail with a major purchase and the fact that you are flagging up the minuses is just (in my view) good practice.

You have constraints as to location and finance so in many respects this house fits your bill.

I would go as others have said and find (difficult, I know) a builder with a good reputation who could walk around with you and see if there is indeed scope to alter layout/extend etc. A local man would know what the local authority is likely to permit, etc.

You could make a list of the pros and cons that you have already flagged up and see which is the largest/most troublesome.

There is a programme currently on television where two architects are given the task of completely re-organising houses and what they can achieve with just a little 'thinking outside the box' is staggering.

I was wondering if you could extend into the space on the righthand side facing and on into the garage, perhaps making that a new kitchen/diner? This new area would still back on to your garden. You would lose the garage but there may be space for the car parallel to the front of the house.

Although this would be a walk away, you could then knock through (I am sure that a builder could advise) the current sitting room into the current kitchen, giving you a sitting room with perhaps doors into a new dining room (currently the kitchen). You would still have three bedrooms, one of which could be your husband's office.

Or go mad and make the smallest bedroom a bathroom and the bathroom space knocked through to the largest bedroom to make a new kitchen diner.

You could perhaps have a small extension in the land right-hand side facing of the bungalow or, make the garage a new larger en suite bedroom.

I wouldn't just view the layout as fixed, there are probably several ways of changing it that have not been thought of.

I would also visit the local planning office and ask what might be permitted. They would not charge you for this service and are sometimes very helpful.

As to your garden, if your health is declining, why not make a courtyard garden? No lawn to mow! Raised beds/pots can make a very colourful display without too much weeding or other backbreaking tasks.

Finally, if the bungalow has been on the market for some considerable time, why not make a lower offer, explaining that you have a buyer for your property and can act quickly (if you can).

I feel there is scope here and you may be fixating on the minuses rather than the pluses.

I wish you good luck with your decision but please do let us know whatever it is whenever it is!

Candelle, we think similarly, and if we had more money, we could re-build the house how we want it, but then we would just buy a more expensive house that already has what we want. With this layout we only need to improve kitchen/diner, bedrooms and bathrooms are fine and actually not a bad size.

What is the name of a programme currently on television where two architects are given the task of completely re-organising houses? Would be interesting to watch it.

I think you have answered your own question.

MadeInYorkshire

*Rusbun - some of my courtyard garden for you .... I can't seem to find the ones from when I opened the garden up, may be on a different computer!

I think the 2nd and 3rd are from the winter, so it was colourful all year round ... the summer ones had more flowers.

How beautiful! Exactly the style I like.

Your description and photo do nothing for me. You sound quite negative and the only pro seems to be the price. As for selling it on at a later date, with it's track record I think you'll have a long wait until the sold sign goes up, (If it does) and I suspect at some point after signing on the dotted line you'll wish you hadn't.
To me, your heart really isn't in this property and putting your mark on it won't be totally how you'd want it to be.
I personally wouldn't give it another thought and I'd be looking for something else.
Whatever you decide, good luck!

We thought too much about a purchase and someone else bought. We were so disappointed. Would you be disappointed if you didn't get it?

I agree a little with the view 'if doubts, don't buy' but perhaps you are similar to me: I think of every detail with a major purchase and the fact that you are flagging up the minuses is just (in my view) good practice.

You have constraints as to location and finance so in many respects this house fits your bill.

I would go as others have said and find (difficult, I know) a builder with a good reputation who could walk around with you and see if there is indeed scope to alter layout/extend etc. A local man would know what the local authority is likely to permit, etc.

You could make a list of the pros and cons that you have already flagged up and see which is the largest/most troublesome.

There is a programme currently on television where two architects are given the task of completely re-organising houses and what they can achieve with just a little 'thinking outside the box' is staggering.

I was wondering if you could extend into the space on the righthand side facing and on into the garage, perhaps making that a new kitchen/diner? This new area would still back on to your garden. You would lose the garage but there may be space for the car parallel to the front of the house.

Although this would be a walk away, you could then knock through (I am sure that a builder could advise) the current sitting room into the current kitchen, giving you a sitting room with perhaps doors into a new dining room (currently the kitchen). You would still have three bedrooms, one of which could be your husband's office.

Or go mad and make the smallest bedroom a bathroom and the bathroom space knocked through to the largest bedroom to make a new kitchen diner.

You could perhaps have a small extension in the land right-hand side facing of the bungalow or, make the garage a new larger en suite bedroom.

I wouldn't just view the layout as fixed, there are probably several ways of changing it that have not been thought of.

I would also visit the local planning office and ask what might be permitted. They would not charge you for this service and are sometimes very helpful.

As to your garden, if your health is declining, why not make a courtyard garden? No lawn to mow! Raised beds/pots can make a very colourful display without too much weeding or other backbreaking tasks.

Finally, if the bungalow has been on the market for some considerable time, why not make a lower offer, explaining that you have a buyer for your property and can act quickly (if you can).

I feel there is scope here and you may be fixating on the minuses rather than the pluses.

I wish you good luck with your decision but please do let us know whatever it is whenever it is!

Put in a really silly offer, really low. It maybe they want desperately to sell. To pay old folks home fees. All depends on price. Try a silly price. Good luck.