Damn typical!

As some may know we've been seeking to downsize for at least a year now. We lost the lovely bungalow that started our search, when The owner could wait no longer for our place to sell. Then we found a lovely barn conversion, but still nobody wanted our place and eventually it went SSTC to somebody else.

A week later our place sold but we had nowhere to go. Eventually we found a new build bungalow that was just having it's roof trusses fitted. New build, everything spanking, low maintenance, a little small, but we'd adapt. Then along came lockdown and everything stopped. Moving day looked like being Sept/Oct.

Then today an email came through with the barn conversion details again. The sale has fallen through. Do we leap at the chance? It's bigger, older and we'd fit better. It's 10 minutes nearer our daughter, in a big village where we already know lots of people. Oh decisions.

Without knowing if your daughter is currently 30mins away or 4hrs 30mins away, it's hard to judge the benefit of a 10 minute saving on the journey 


Personally, I'd go for the barn conversion, it's what you wanted originally and you can buy a new build anywhere these days  

Sorry, our daughter is 15 minutes drive away from us at present and would be 27 minutes away at the bungalow and 21 minutes away at the barn. All timings by Google Maps.

Buy new , energy efficient, guaranteed, minimal maintenance , enjoy life not chores! This is of  course assuming  it is not a '  bungalow of excellence' and comes with 10,000 snagging  list!

New bungalow gets my vote. As well as the above reasons of low maintenance, running costs, guarantees etc  and can be quite nice making it yours where no one else has been. 
You’ll soon meet the locals and even better that neighbours are also new so less of people who have been in the village for decades and already established.
The last thing you want is to be forced to look for a bungalow if/  when joints etc start to fail. 
Extra travelling time to daughter....who is to say that she won’t move  in years to come. 
Go for the long game to suit you and Mrs SDA . I gather you really won’t want to move again so ditch the stairs!

On Saturday lunchtime we both agreed 'bungalow'. Then Mrs SDA was put in touch with the lady who lives in the farmhouse to which the barns once belonged. To her delight she discovered they already knew each other and, it turned out, Mrs SDA already knew residents of three of the other barn conversions. The lady also gave a glowing report on the small barn conversion community (about 15 residences in all). All this somewhat changed our view.

Then I did an SDA special spreadsheet. The bungalow was priced at roughly the same as the barn, but to accomodate Mrs SDA's baby grand piano we would have to extend AND to accomodate the dogs we needed to knock through from the kitchen into the garage and fit out a grooming/ironing etc room. All this would cost an estimated £23k. By contrast the barn, barring survey surprises, might need a couple of thousand spending to accomodate us.
The barn has a dining room, bungalow nil, the barn has a study, bungalow nil, the barn has a bigger lounge and kitchen. The barn has a double garage, bungalow a single. The barn has an interestingly unusual established garden, the bungalow will have grass. The barn has a dressing room to the main bedroom and a recently refitted ensuite, the bungalow has just a bedroom and ensuite. 
The barn is a short walk from a very large village pond and a village pub that is currently being renovated by a local brewery. Our local chippie is just a short stroll further on and Mrs SDA's hairdresser is around the corner from there, as is our GP surgery and a small Co-op. Mrs SDA's 80 person community choir is based in the village, whereas the bungalow is 10 minutes drive away. Our current vicar is also vicar of the church where the barn is, whilst the bungalow village has no CofE church nearby.
So on Sunday morning we made a mutual decision to go for the barn. This morning our offer was accepted by the vendors and we instructed a surveyor. In breaking the news to our bungalow builder we were pleased they agreed to keep our reservation for the bungalow, just in case the survey turns up horrors. Whilst discussing the bungalow the sales lady let slip that the current estimate for completion was October, not July/August as she had been saying. This would put a strain on our sale, given our buyers have already been waiting since mid March. Hopefully we should be able to get moved to the barn by August, which would be 2 to 3 months earlier than the bungalow.

Just my take on it . It seems to me the barn was where your heart was , so fate played her hand . Hope all the checks are ok .
Wishing you every happiness in your new home .
      Dotsontour