Changes and House No.3

This last week has seen some quite positive changes:
We now think we can go up to 250K house price, which makes quite a difference.
On the other hand that involves a very large monthly payment so if we can find something under 210K that would be good.
Having investigated a cheaper area of Lewes with a reputation of being 'rough' we've realized it's no rougher than most bits of Brighton that we've happily lived/worked/socialized in, it's just 'rough' in Lewes terms, which would be 'lah-de-effing-da' in some places.
So we can look for bargains in that area, there are some fairly spacious houses there. It also has a bus route and rumours of a corner shop, which are things I would like to have, but it's close enough to the central shops and to the other little run of shops near where J works. I quite fancy that area - it was built before people became car-dependent so it has more of a sociable feel to it, whereas the newer estate out Malling way has some of those features of an area where people were never expected to want to walk from their houses to anywhere, especially with a buggy or a toddler (not that I'm in that position now - just that that's how people used to bump into their neighbours). So you don't get much in the way of pavement or road safety features or local shops.
Blah blah oops, kicks soapbox back under sofa.
So I'm kind of favouring that area at the moment. The area we are in now is also good but there aren't many houses coming up in our price bracket and you get a bit less for your money. Still would be worth considering though, as would a few other areas in between which are less likely/favourable.
We looked at a house out to the East in a long road between the main out-road and an estate - always thought this road was a bit industrial but actually there are some really nice parts.
This house had some good features. It had a widened garage with loads of storage, power and light, accessible from kitchen, which would have made a good studio space for J. Kitchen was OK, good features, funny shape but nice. Bedrooms and living rooms OK. Garden a bit un-family with all pepples and raised beds and such.
We were seriously considering making an offer when the woman living there suddenly told us that a house was going to be built next door and that 'when the floods came' (a phrase you hear a lot here, bit biblical I always think), it was under 8 feet of water. Could see the estate agent thinking 'never book viewings when she's here'. Putting some other evidence together it turned out she was renting from ex-husband who was now selling and off to Spain for a new life - a fraught situation bound to generate some sabotaging behaviour I guess! Overall there weren't enough positives to outweigh the negatives.
So we continue our search, now including the 'rough' area, hoping to find somewhere with some of the features we've liked in houses so far: potential studio space (garage or other extra room), at least one of the bedrooms to be large, adequate downstairs space for dining area, rear garden with lawn, view.

House no.2

Was the perfect house for me to lock myself away for 6 months and write a novel.
OMG the views over wooded hills from the roof balcony...
And some other really nice things about it like decent sized bedrooms and a dining room conservatory also with views.
Kitchen was L-shaped and good size with breakfast bar too.
BUT
road noise, location too close to busy main road, suspected old plumbing/electrics and generally run-down feel
and not big enough for proper family home
We're now considering locations, finance and priorities again and will continue to do so, whilst looking and saving.
One person we know says 'it's all going to crash, wait, wait!'
Another person says 'they're going to go up 15% this year so get moving before they run away from your deposit'
And we need the hard financial advice too.

So it begins...

Started house-hunting today, viewing this property.
Downstairs + garden was good. Upstairs OK but main bedroom too small and bath also too small.
We weren't keen on the feel of the part of road it was in either. Some of that road was quite nice but the houses next to it seemed a bit run down.
Also there was a large dog that had been left locked in the conservatory and barked like mad at us. It had pooed on the floor a couple of times and then gone through the poo with it's paws and tail. Obviously you try and overlook the 'personal' i.e. current-occupant related aspects of the house, but that was hard to ignore! And also meant we couldn't go to look at the garden or the conservatory.
Biiiiiig living-room though.
And no chain.
Tomorrow we're seeing this one.
Which has a roof balcony but is not in best of locations for us.