We are current searching for a new house, which has set me thinking – what makes a great home ed house?
Location? We want to be on a bus route that takes us to the places we want to go – friends and libraries and group, with a good local grocery shop. We also don’t want to walk as far as we do now to some wilder green space, and a handy playground would be a bonus.
On the outside we want a big enough garden for a trampoline, some space to run and do a bit of gardening too, with access fromt he outside for all the muddy bikes and things. An easy to use access from inside the house too, to encourage us all to get out there and enjoy the outdoors more.
We have been finding that many houses have only one medium sized or smallish reception room, but three bedrooms. As a family that work and play together I would much rather prefer that we spend time together downstairs than hiding upstairs in bedrooms! Bedrooms should be for sleeping, and having a little quiet or private time rather than playing or making. So more downstairs space than upstairs!
As for the living space – we want wall space for shelves and display – all those posters, maps and artwork that we produce. A place to watch TV or play with playmobil, lego or other toys. And space for two or three people to play on the computer/laptop at the same time. Would much prefer hard flooring – more fun for playing on, things stand up better and so much easier to keep clean, especially with paint. play dough etc.
Plus of course, table space for baking, making, playing, eating, chatting. We have seen a house with a lovely kitchen/diner. A big breakfast bar, as big as a table so that we can cook and make together, plus space for dining room table and chairs too.
I think a shed/summerhouse/studio/polytunnel outside or room to build one is pretty good because you can work on things and leave them out till the next time…not have to clear away for anything else and and you can do that inside/outside thing. We have a summerhouse at the top of our very long hilly garden with all we need to make tea and cook outside so that we can stay out all day and not get interrupted by telephone etc….
Also a fully equipped science experiment lab area. With loads of space and shelving.
Bi garden with outbuildings for animals. Shame money has to come into it!
Hi Katherine, we’re looking to move too. After 2 yrs of looking very hard, plus raising our upper price limit a few times, we still find that we will have to compromise where we didn’t want to (size and number of bedrooms). This is sad, as we hope that this will be our last move ever. Still, we have found a house which is probably as close to perfect for our needs as we are likely to find unless we build from scratch, which we cannot afford. Going through the buying process at the moment.
We love that it has a very large lounge. We outgrew our current house 6 yrs ago, so now that we HE, a big lounge was a must. It also has a playroom which is almost perfect as a schoolroom. A little narrow, but pretty long and with lots of light, so ticks most boxes. That will be a luxury! Tried HE’ing in the cramped kitchen and cramped lounge, neither works well. Now we’ll have space for books (lots of books!) plus we can leave a project, have a meal, go to a group and come back to it. Currently, we have only a small table and it is the only surface we have for meals and schoolwork, that’s not been very handy.
We will have lots of outdoor space. Not as much as DH would have liked, but it goes around 3 sides of the house so lots of space for play equipment and RUNNING. Speaking of running, lots of space for indoor running too as the current 7 yo who lives there rides a child’s motorbike indoors!
Not a kitchen-diner (I really really wanted one for a change) but at least the kitchen opens straight onto the over-sized dining room (currently holds a pool table with lots of space around it).
It’s in a small village, surrounded by fields. Not close to any groups and not a great bus route, but am hoping to host some things myself as we’ll have the space for it.
In catchment for a v. highly regarded secondary school, in case circumstances change and we can’t HE anymore. Only 7 mins from our current house, so still close enough to what the kids know, close enough to the many clubs they belong to.
We felt that space was vital, indoor and out. Location was slightly less important. We will have a house where the kids can expend energy and also play and learn inside for months on end if the weather is atrocious. We can invite people round whereas now there isn’t even space for us all to sit in the lounge. We’ll have a separate room for all the school stuff, with double doors opening onto the lounge, so we can keep them open or closed. We think it has the potential to be fantastic for HE : )
Hey I can almost picture your house from the description!!
One thing that jumps out at me is NEIGHBOURS! Of course neighbours can come and go and so there is a certain amount of luck involved. I just remember when I found a wonderful little house and I could tick a lot of the boxes on the wish list; I or rather my 11 and 13 year old boys were ‘welcomed’ into the area when they were crossing a neighbourhood to access the park. Unfortunately this was the only walking route to the park, shops bus stop etc.Just be aware of this. Good luck!
There’s some great ideas, I also would really like a “through” living room/dining room – as well as a kitchen big enough for a table (greedy aren’t I lol) – it would be great to have the older ones working/playing at the table out of the little ones reach while I could also keep any eye on the little ones playing in the living room! Sarah
I would say think about the next stage on from where you are now. Remote houses are great with very small children but become a bind as they get older. I like rooms that are separate but flow through each other eg lounge goes into dining room goes into kitchen rather than a hallway with separate rooms off so all the space is in constant use but you can shut yourself away from noise/mess if you have visitors.
I was fortunate to live in the States for a while and would thoroughly recommend a basement or cellar if you can get one. Depending on how damp it is its a great space for projects & handy storage for art & craft stuff or even put a TV & games system down there.
You can never have too much storage so sheds, outbuildings garages are all useful & may become part of the living space over time.
A bedroom each as they get older while not essential certainly improves life & allows everyone to live according to the level of disorder they are most comfortable with.
2 or more toilets
And like you say location… while your children rely on you for transport this takes preference over the “perfect” house. On returning to the UK & divorcing I got a house (ex RAF type) in a small village just outside little market town that has a mainline station to London, we are about a mile from the station & 1.5 miles from town which has all the second string type shops there are trains & buses to bigger towns 10 miles away with the full range of high street stores.
Our village has a butchers (that usually has nice bread as well) a petrol station with attached rainbow general store and a fixing garage, a chinese, a fish & chip shop and 2 pubs plus a high school with playing fields & a big village green, village hall with play area and soon a skatepark! Oh and a tyre fitters, a saddlery and a dressmaker. There is also a Tescos 1.5 miles from my house at the intersection with the major east/west route, our local HE group is 10/15 minutes drive west but there are others with younger children accessible by public transport in the nearby towns and I have several other families within 20 minutes of me. Some at the other end of the village which has been very useful for sharing lifts etc. My boys are older now (just 17 & almost 19) we’ve been here 5 years & its struck me repeatedly that while it wasn’t exactly my dream house it has served me very well. Its just got even better as my boyfriends a builder & has just added a 4th bedroom over the garage (so both boys have a double room & we can host visiting Americans) and enlarged the kitchen & added a downstairs loo. We could still get the giant trampoline in the back garden but won’t because it really doesn’t leave much space & it only really gets used to sunbathe on these days! My bedroom faces south down the road of the housing estate (this means its always warm in there if the sun shines which I like) the back looks out on a building plot that no one is developing and beyond the overgrowth is the green so from the back I feel very rural. I am extremely thankful for this house. Had we kept the house we sold to go to the States (4 bed ex council about 5 miles away) I’d have had a lot more maintenance and a great deal more running the boys about as it is they have been able to arrange their own activities even if I’ve been at work because for the most part its doable or I’ve run them to something & they’ve made their own way home.
Good Luck in finding your perfect HE home, it sounds like you know what you are looking for & thats half the battle, if you are clear about what you want for the money you have it will usually turn up.