Decent house in an excellent neighborhood vs fantastic house in an ok neighborhood (+private school) (offer, bedroom)
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I find it a bit strange that you're facing this dilemma. As a designer, you are able to design an environment that suits you and wouldn't have to choose between the house and your daughter's education.
Just remember that in real estate the location is what you have to look for. And a place where your daughter can play and make friends is priceless vs a place where she has to be inside all the time. We are buying and we chose the best place for the kids even though the house is not everything we wanted.
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I once went with a gorgeous house in a marginal neighborhood. It had it all, great floor plan, gorgeous kitchen, lovely fireplaces, big beautiful bedrooms, mature gardens of amazing plants, etc. I sold that place within 3 years...crime in the area became just awful. Yes, the house was spectacular, but my safety and that of my family was far more important to me than a beautiful house.
I replaced that house with a nice but not spectacular house in a wonderful and safe neighborhood. We are much safer and happier here.
Here's my opinion....Go with the house in the best neighborhood. Think of it as a challenge. Get to work, use your talents and make it a wonderful house in a great neighborhood.....Great neighborhoods are always going to be a best seller.
And, think about starting a thread, with pics.... so all of us couch potato home rehab types can live vicariously through you LOL....
Seriously, always go for the best neighborhood when you have children....you cannot put a price on peace of mind. Good luck to you.
Option #2. As others have said I would look at the boring house as a challenge. Anyone can work with awesome character homes. It takes talent to take something boring and make it awesome. Also I think your math is faulty. If you spend an extra 30K on private school, the 30K is gone. With house #2, any extra you paid in purchase price is returned when you sell.
Private school can be better than public schools in some instances so not sure why people are insulting the OP over this. It isn't like she was going to put her kid in a poorly rated school if she chose number 1.
Personally we were in the same boat as the OP and chose the better school district as we had 2 kids. We are decorating every inch of it and we aren't even professional decorators. I would jump at a a chance to make an ordinary humdrum home and turn into a showplace to show your clients they can achieve the same thing. Heck, I would do a mini web show on the transformation.
I highly prioritized a neighborhood where my children could play outside with other kids. None of us were really happy when we lived in a place where there weren't any other kids to play with/no place to play.
When I bought my first house, 12 years ago, I could have bought a house in a good neighborhood with good schools. But, the houses were ugly to me, all built in the 60s-80s. As an unregistered architect, I could have tried to make a silk purse from a sow's ear, I suppose, but I chose to move into an old neighborhood in the city, with bad schools, instead. I still consider it a good decision, because I was very happy in my "sketchy" neighborhood. But, I don't have kids, and I am now having trouble selling the house. (I'm restoring an even older house, in an even "sketchier" neighborhood, LOL)
I can see that the general consensus is the same way I feel deep inside. I was hoping some of you said you chose #1 and you didn't regret it, but I see that's not the case... My girl's childhood is way more important to me than my design aspirations so there's no doubt I will go, but I have to say this is a VERY sad choice I have to make.
One of the doctors here recommended a private school where her kid goes. She says she pays 300-something/mo for each. As far as good neighborhoods go, the truly family ones are way in the outskirts of the city, so we're talking extra 10min vs 30-40min commute for both of us plus a long way for groceries and such. The other thing I'm kind of worried about, is the neighborhood might or might not have kids of the same age as our girl, and they might befriend or might not. So she might play outside, or spend most of her time inside the house just like anywhere else... But I have to try, I guess...
Again, I'm not looking for a crimey neighborhood, on the contrary the crime maps for those areas are all green, barely anything happens nearby, maybe a vehicle prowling once a year a few blocks away... These are mostly older neighborhoods (1940-1960s). They're just very ugly (full of those despicable ranchers that looks like livestock sheds) or generic split-levels.
Although it's not really important, just for the sake of conversation, you can't do much to a regular existing house to make it truly remarkable/dramatic without a complete teardown/rebuild. Yes I can pretty it up with some tile/wallpaper/woodwork, lighting/decor, but it won't be anything close to what a well designed house can be. You can't turn a 7'6" ceiling into a 12' one without pretty much a complete tear down (floors above + the roof). Same with windows shapes/sizes - wall-to-wall glass wall might not be a possibility. Same with already plumbing - where a toilet sits a toilet sits. I mean, hypothetically it's possible to move everything around but we simply can't afford doing that at this point. Our budget is 300k after remodel (so 200-220k house + 80-100k in remodeling+furnishings costs which only covers cosmetic updates and maybe some minor structural, but definitely not anything major).
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