There are few decisions as important as choosing somewhere to live. A house is more than just four brick walls; it’s somewhere to make memories, to keep you safe at night and to store all of your worldly possessions. Your house should be somewhere you look forward to going after a long day at work or a tiring day out. It should feel like home for every member of the house, and that means you need to consider multiple things in conjunction with your list of wants when choosing a family home.
Here are some of the things to look out for.
Accessible space
If you’ve got a young family and little ones in pushchairs or with bikes and scooters they like to take out, you’re going to be on the lookout for a nice, wide hallway. The last thing you want is to try and squeeze everyone into a narrow space, or to be wrangling with a pushchair and countless shopping bags on a rainy day when all you want to do is get in and get dry.
Depending on where you live, you might find narrow hallways are simply a part of life, especially if your options are largely limited to terraced houses or apartments. In this case, think about other accessible space options. Are there 20 concrete steps leading up to your front door? If so, this won’t be practical with small children or pushchairs, so such a home might not be great for young families.
You may be able to make the house more pushchair accessible, but you will need to think about how much it will take to do that.
Room to grow
Moving house is a hassle to say the least, so once you’ve found somewhere that has accessible space, make sure it has room to grow. Children grow at a rapid rate and before you know it, what was once a sizeable box room is now far too small for all their possessions and growing body. Ideally, you’ll pick a house that has potential for expansion if necessary, or that might be a little too large at the moment, but that you can comfortably grow into and make use of as the years go by.
Ready to move into
It’s important that you put your stamp on the house you choose to move into. You likely won’t find a home that is decorated exactly to your tastes immediately, but there’s a difference between coating the walls with a lick of paint and having to pull everything out to deal with an extensive damp issue that is making the house unliveable.
If you’re in a position where you have another house to live in whilst renovations are taking place, then by all means go for a project house. The majority of families don’t have this option, so it’s about seeing the potential in a house, finding something that is bearable and functional for now, and then completing the work over a period of time.
The local area
A big thing that influences where many people choose to buy a family home is what the schools in the area are like. Every parent wants the very best for their child, especially in the way of an education. Before committing to a house, scope out the schools the house falls under the catchment area for.
Another thing to consider is the crime rate. A family home should be safe and quiet, not loud and at risk from hooligans and opportunist criminals. There will be levels of crime everywhere, but make sure you ask in-depth questions about the stats in that area and what the nature of crimes are.
Summary
Buying a family home is not easy and it might even take months to choose the right one, but hopefully when you do find the best option for you, it ticks all the boxes listed above.
This is a collaborative post. Photo by Ibrahim Rifath on Unsplash