Trading off a smaller block/house for being opposite a big park?

TL;DR: To people who life directly next to a park but in a smaller house, how much utilisation does the park give you and is it worth the trade off for a smaller place? (Particularly with small kids and dogs)

Context: We’re looking at a house that is opposite a park & playground in a quite dead end street. The location of the house is 10/10 with being able to walk to shops /stations, zoned for a good primary school and in a desirable area. The park is massive (26 hectares) and in Melbourne’s inner south east and has every utility you could think off (footy, soccer, basketball, big playgrounds, ponds, nature walks etc.). The house is looking onto the park and is located where a big playground is, so kids could easily just cross the street to play there (we’re expecting our first baby). We also have two dogs which of course would love the park.

The drawback is that the block size and house is on a smaller side (370sqm) compared to what we have been looking at (600+). We always preferred a bigger block because we wanted a pool, grow veggies, have some chickens etc, play the footy etc. You could still do it at that house, however, everything would be smaller of course. But on the other hand, you’d also have the massive park right next to you. The houses on bigger blocks that we have been looking at, we’d almost always would have to trade off location (from a utility perspective and also being further away from work etc.)

The house itself needs a solid renovation (which we have experience in and like from a value add perspective) and has the option to eventually become a 4+ bedroom house with an upstairs extension. On the plus side, the house is a fair bit cheaper to what we could go for so we wouldn’t be as financially strained and we could afford the renovations over the next few years. From an investment angle we’re confident that we’d make a profit, given the spot and desirability as well as doing a more high end renovation. We’d also happy to live at the place for the next 5-10 years but are just unsure if the place overall is just to small and if the park is ‘enough’ to make up for it.