Sloping gardens

Great advice from Veggie in this thread!
In particular, she's right when she says there's no such thing as a perfect house. We've been looking since November, which is one reason I haven't been on here much. We finally took the plunge and got an offer accepted last week. It's in a great location, has a lovely feeling when you walk in, and a south-facing garden that hasn't been covered in decking or astroturf.

Have you noticed that what estate agents call a "large garden" is often what I would think of as quite a small one? And how everyone seems to be covering their gardens with artificial grass these days?

On the downside, rear access is via the garage, there are privet hedges down both sides of the back garden (yuck) and the interior needs rather more work than I was hoping to make it nice. Still, I can live with the former and can fix the latter over time.

We were really tempted by another, completely different house close by. This one was pristine, historic but beautifully modernised, but the downsides of a not-really-big-enough garden and a grade II listing finally put us off.

I'm sure you will find the right place for you soon, just need to keep looking!