property related-need advice

[karkus30]

I need a bit of reflective advice:

Currently we own a 4 bedroom, victorian terraced house with a market value of around £220K, there are a couple of houses for sale in the same terrace, but at the moment nothing is really selling. The other issue is that we are now, officially in a flood area, despite the fact that there has never actually been a flood in recorded history (we don't know if this has caused issues with potential buyers, its just a consideration).

We like where we live and have been here for eleven years, the area is close to all local amenities (easy to walk) which is very handy and its a quiet cul-de-sac. It does however, fall just outside the boundary lines for the best area to live in, so house prices are slightly lower (walk around 2 minutes from our house and add £50K).

The house is very roomy, but suffers from having a small yard and no garage.


My problem is that I play drums and every room in the house is unsuitable for this (being a terraced property). Also, we own two motorbikes and a number of pushbikes that are now in the utility room or in the front entrance porch.


Now, we have two options :

One, is to move, give up the easy access to the town and add another £50-100K onto our mortgage (it has seven years left to run) and all the hassle of moving and selling our house

Or, we build a garage in our yard and lose vitually all our back yard (the bit that remains would be pretty useless and very dark. This would probably cost around £15K. It would solve the issue of drums and bikes, but might de-value the house.

We are both mid fourties and in steady jobs with around £67K total income and no children. We dont get off on property speculation and like to enjoy holidays and lots of toys and meals out etc, so we are not looking to mortgage to the hilt to get what we want.

We have harboured thoughts of moving to the country (if we are going to move, then lets go the whole way), but property prices in the areas we are looking at begin around £400K.

Any advice please

[andyr300]

could you not buy a garage/lockup elsewhere to put all your stuff in?

[karkus30]

Originally Posted by andyr300

could you not buy a garage/lockup elsewhere to put all your stuff in?

If it was just for storage, but

1. I play drums every night, so walking to a cold lock up is not very inspiring for practise.

2.Having to pick pushbikes up, would be a pain.


3. Motorbikes are like cash to many people and a garage or lock up can be an easy target, not to mention the walk to it wearing leathers in summer ...pheww.

[andyr300]

as for £15k for a garage,i think that is way over the mark....my dad recently put up a huge shed (log cabin type) its about 4.5 metres square and it cost way under £5k, have you looked into that?

[Harj]

Can you go into the loft or cellar and sound proof it?

[karkus30]

Originally Posted by Harj

Can you go into the loft or cellar and sound proof it?

No cellar unfortunately. The loft could be used , but would require about 11K spent on it and tbh there is virtually nothing in the world that can insulate the sound of a bass drum played a la metal.

[unique]

i'd look at spending money on soundproofing, even get and expert in. you might not completely eliminate the sound, but as long as you can get within legal limits thats the main thing

you could also consider getting an electric drumkit, you can wear earphones or amp them. they start at about £300ish, but you could get a more professional set. not the same as real skins, but might be worth checking them out at a music store