Sloping gardens

I went to see this house earlier this week. 

Lovely house, great size garden with lots of potential (and stuffed full of rhubarb, as well as a variety of non-edible plants/shrubs!) but the house needs a lot of work. Obviously, from the pictures, you can see it needs a new kitchen and bathroom! However, the front room faces onto a fairly busy street so would make the better kitchen, with the current rear reception room as the living room. The current kitchen would then become a utility room, with a downstairs loo into the current pantry. Moving a kitchen from one side of the house to the other (rather than making it bigger by knocking a wall down) is going to be hugely expensive. It also has floors that all slope towards the back of the house which is slightly concerning! I reckon I could easily spend £30 - 50k getting it fixed up, which is rather more work than I'm comfortable with for anything but a potential forever house. It's been well looked after - the roof looked in great shape (apart from a few missing tiles over the garage) and there was no evidence of any damp and only one crack that looked like it could be more than just the plaster - but the electrics and the boiler were very old. 

The area is not great. Very urban (there's a factory at the end of the road, and a bus depot just round the corner) and the roads are much busier than I expected (and likely to be worse at peak times of day). This is by far the nicest house on the street, and there was nothing comparable in the wider area that I've seen on Streetview or walking around on the day. I've looked at sales in the last year for that entire postcode area, and there have only been two sales in a similar price bracket and both houses were already fully done up and bigger (this house looks big in the photos, but was a lot smaller in person - it's the size of a typical 30s semi-detached despite being detached). I could easily see buying this house at asking price (when most houses locally are going for a lot more than that) and throwing £30k or more at it to do it up, then losing a huge amount of money when I want to sell it and move to a nicer area in a few years time. 

So, another no from me  However, it was the first house that I've seen in a while that I really liked the feel of. Gorgeous wood panelling in the hallway that you would have to try and preserve and tone down by putting in pale flooring/walls rather than doing the easy thing of just painting it all white. Lovely windows, fireplaces, and high ceilings. Nice bright rooms (apart from the hallway). And the garden! Such a good size and the growing area could easily be expanded by lifting paved areas. There was also a fantastic workshop at the back of the garage that could become a gardening room. So much potential, but not the one for me...

I have finally seen one I am actually contemplating making an offer on.

It's a 1950s semi, so the rooms are bigger than the predominantly 1930s houses I've seen so far. Huge windows with great views from the front. The front room is really nice and raised up from the street (there's a good size front garden, albeit north-facing) so it doesn't feel overlooked. But then there's an even nicer back room, with french doors onto the garden! The kitchen is tiny and I'm having a hard time picturing how to make it work as there are three doors out of it and two windows, making it difficult to get a full range of modern kitchen units in. (I'm trying to get a second viewing to think about this, but it's very hard to get second viewings in the current market as houses are selling too fast). There are three double bedrooms (though one is in a long and skinny extension) and a tiny box-room upstairs. The bathroom was probably fitted early 90s, so it's definitely not needing replacing as a matter of urgency unlike many of the properties I've seen (I mean, I'll want a new bathroom, but it can wait until I'm ready). It's dated (I suspect last redecorated in the early 90s) but seems in great shape - no evidence of any damp anywhere. Hasn't been rewired since it was built, but the boiler isn't ancient - I would guess around 15 years old - and a good brand.

Then the most important bit, the garden! It's south facing, but with a slight northerly slope - looks like it will still be very sunny. It's been tiered so there are flat sections. I can also see that it might be possible to exploit the tiers to add in some shadier sections so it isn't too oppressive on sunny days. It's not huge (about 22 metres) but probably more than big enough to keep me going for a few years! The vendor is planning to leave the greenhouse and shed. There's also a huge detached garage with the potential to become an amazing outdoor gardening room/potting shed, though if you stand inside and look up, you can see the sky, so it definitely needs some work!

There are some negatives. I'm really having a hard time picturing how to make a great kitchen without adding a side extension (which would block car access to the garage, though there is plenty of driveway for off-road parking), blocking off a doorway, or knocking it through to the back room that I love as it is. I wish I'd taken some photos of the kitchen from different angles, or there was a floorplan available, but there isn't. I sketched my own from memory, but I'm not entirely sure it's accurate for the position of things and certainly isn't to scale! I don't mind a modest kitchen, but I do want to be able to fit a sink, washing machine, fridge-freezer, dishwasher, cooker, decent bit of work surface, and a few cupboards! I've never had a dishwasher before (apart from a few months in a rented house) but I think it would massively improve my quality of life and I really want one!

The vendor appears to be part-exchanging it to move into a new build assisted living flat, so I would probably be buying from the developer rather than the vendor. I gather there can be some issues with this, such as affecting which mortgage lenders you can use (and I am already a bit restricted, as not all of them understand how doctor salaries work and may refuse to lend on the basis of my full salary). I also have some ethical concerns about the developers and the way they take advantage of older people and then leave them or their families with properties that they can't resell for anything remotely close to what they were bought for. If the developer already owns the property, then it's too late to change it and somebody has to buy the house, but I would hate for it to leave a bad taste in my mouth because I knew the original owner hadn't got a fair deal.

So, I am conflicted. But I probably don't have much time to make a decision, given the current market.

First thoughts are about the kitchen doors and windows - does it need 3 doors? My kitchen had been extended before we bought it and had 2 back doors and 2 windows. We turned both back doors into windows, above units and turned the biggest window into patio doors for access to the garden.

First thoughts are about the kitchen doors and windows - does it need 3 doors? My kitchen had been extended before we bought it and had 2 back doors and 2 windows. We turned both back doors into windows, above units and turned the biggest window into patio doors for access to the garden.

The doors are a bit odd. One is the door from the entrance hallway - can't remove that one or you could only enter the kitchen from the back of the house! One is a door into the back room, which is the only way into the back room from the front of the house. The third door is the original back door with a window next to it, but it now leads into a small rear porch. You could remove the door into the back room and try and knock the front and back rooms together (or put a door between them) but that would involve moving radiators. Could block off the back door (and just use the french doors in the back room as rear access) and put units along that wall, but then there would be a random outside porch that doesn't lead into the house! Could remove the back door and window so the kitchen extends into the porch, but the porch is just PVC and I'm not sure you could easily put units in there - it would probably need rebuilding.

There is a pantry in the kitchen that I'm sure could come out, so that would allow one more unit (and a cupboard above). I'm sure there are other ways to make it work, but without photos from multiple angles and an accurate floor plan, I'm struggling a bit to imagine it!

Here's a link. I may remove it later, especially if I do make an offer!

[Removed because it's gone my way!]

NB: The photo of the kitchen from the hallway makes it look more spacious than it actually is!

That’s lovely, all of it.

Looks lovely - one of the best you've looked at. Like the garden - ready to plant your veg.
Looks like the neighbours have put a conservatory across the back of the house - can't see much of what's at the back of yours.
Its easy to get carried away with kitchens - I have a dishwasher that I use as a cupboard - same with the Aga (another cupboard). My freezer's in the garage and I've had washing machine's in the garage too.
You usually have to compromise when buying a house - they rarely tick every box - but the thing you can't change is the location and the plot size. Anything inside can be adjusted over time - and often its best to live with it to find out what you really need.

We bought a house with a small kitchen with a two windows, a back door, an entrance hall door and a door into the backroom/dining room. We blocked up the hall door but widened the door into the back room and put double glass doors in that let in light so we could also block up one of the windows. We did have to walk from the dining room into the kitchen, but in reality it was only another 2-3m, but it gave a lot more room for units & worktops.
Or how about making the back room a kitchen/diner and the current kitchen as a utility so the kitchen doesn't have to have the washing machine clutter, etc?
Very annoying not having a floorplan to work to - this is the first thing we'd look at when house hunting!
The garden looks great and as if there might be gardening neighbours, too!
As an aside, check the upstairs extension really carefully for damp - I know you said it was fine - and also for insulation levels. We had a room like that, with a garage, rather than a space underneath, and it was bitterly cold in the winter having so mny external walls. It was pretty unusable without spending a fortune on additional heating.

The biggest compromise with this house is the location - it's miles from where I wanted to be! However, I'll probably get more for my money there than I would in my first choice location.

Good thoughts about how I could use the garage, Veggie. And the extra room being freezing isn't something I'd considered, PP, so good that you raised that! It is quite high up and exposed, so it certainly could get quite chilly, especially with just one radiator at the end.

I've just about convinced myself that I'll make an offer. It's very hard to predict what it will go for in the current market - most houses are going £30 - 50k over asking, but I don't think this is worth that much. I've requested some quotes from solicitors and surveyors so that I'm all set to get things going if I manage to make a successful offer. However, with the competitiveness of the current market, I really don't want to get too invested. That way heartache lies!

What is public transport like from there to your work, Pros, as I don't think you're a car driver yet?
If you don't need the room over the driveway as a bedroom, it would make a great library for books and seeds - maybe a growing room if it has a couple of windows.