move or extend house

[Tadla]

We are outgrowing living space for 2 adults, 2 dc and have one toilet which is becoming an issue!

Nice sized garden, not overlooked, walking distance to a good primary, just off on a main road etc.

options are to sell house and buy a 4 bed double garage, pay a load of stamp duty and have a greater mortgage each month but an amount which wouldn't leave us close to the point of penniless or to extend, use savings and borrow a bit to make it possible.

i know im lacking in a lot of detail but im really asking if anyone has bought a larger property with higher mortgage each month and regretted the stretch/impact.

we'd have to think about complete redecoration/ new kitchen for the houses that we've seen on the market, so maybe 15-20k for that too,

a rough estimate on a larger house would be £600 a month more than our mortgage now and it would be a 25 year one - we are just into our 30s if that makes any difference. it would be affordable on paper but in reality, might mean fewer weekends away over and saving less each month.

Any one regret moving to a larger property or wish they'd not extended

[BikeRunSki]

We recently knocked about some internal meals to make our house more suitable for us. Bought for 2, now home to 4! We could have moved but we too snaky couldn't afford anywhere much bigger in the area, we are in a lovely st, 5 mins walk from school. Having weathered redundancy once, a larger mortgage scares me. Really scares me, but I am 10 yrs older than you. I'd extend, or otherwise adapt your existing house if at all possible.

[BikeRunSki]

Eh?

Too snaky = probably

[Tadla]

Same with us, only been living in house a couple of years before DC1 arrived!

[bonborez]

It depends on the value of the property where you live. We are moving for the same reasons and our costs to move are around £40,000 plus around 20,000 for decorating, furnishing new larger property. Its London btw so values make stamp duty extremely high. If we could have extended we would definitely have done that but its a tiny terrace with loft already converted. Although value of the house is only about £40,000 different we have to deduct the £40,000 costs so have to increase mortgage by £80,000. On a suitable house you could get a great extension for that. We are going to be very very stretched and its keeping me up at night.

[Tadla]

bonborez, that sounds like a huge amount of stamp duty. i dislike stamp duty ALOT.

[Notyetthere]

As long as you don't end up with a house that is disproportionately much bigger and more expensive than the rest of the road; you don't want to exceed the ceiling price of what someone might be willing to pay for the road. That is the one thing has stopped us from extending. Non of the houses on our road have ever sold over the 250k stamp duty mark.

[Tadla]

So you would say extend? We live on a varied road which has about 60 houses and our house is below the average.

[Plockplock]

Personally, I would extend, if you're happy with where you live. We've converted, extended, etc. and would be unlikely to recoup all of what has been spent should we decide to sell; we care not a jot about this because it is our home and we love it. Before doing all of this work we looked at bigger houses, but we weren't tempted, simply because what we have now is out of our house price range. The bigger houses we looked at, which were in excess of 100k more than our house, were often without a large kitchen/diner and utility and so we could have potentially got more bedrooms, but not more living space. If you love your house and can see yourself spending many more years there, then extend.

[bonborez]

Ask an estate agent what the value of the house would be if you extended. Then also take into account costs of moving as that is totally dead money if you're happy where you are ie you aren't buying a better lifestyle, schools or anything more.

BTW the £40,000 isn't all stamp duty, also estate agent, solicitor & removals but still high!

[Tadla]

I wouldn't say I love our house.

Its good enough but has minor down points like once a fortnight some cat shits on our back lawn - cant work out who as don't think our immediate neighbours have cats!

Neighbours are nice enough, not super friendly but a quick hello on the doorsteps etc.

No parking issues for both cars either.

Its a bit of struggle when family stay as no room for them to sleep and queues for loo (they stay 4 times a year).

[Plockplock]

Can you imagine that you would love the house if you extended? The cost and stress of extending tested me to the limit. Most people we know thought we were crazy for spending so much money instead of moving!

[Tadla]

Yes, i could apart from the cat shit!

[Tadla]

what did you add plock

[minkah]

Extend.

Get some "cat away" treatment or something for the lawn.

Don't worry about the rest of the street either. They will all be extending too.

Seriously! Eventually there will be no family homes in London that haven't been extended.

Location is too valuable..all space will be optimised.

Extend and enjoy getting the new space exactly how you want it.

[LondonGirl83]

Extend. Depending on your house and area a loft conversion can add two bedrooms and a bathroom to a house for less than 50k in my part of London.

A ground floor extension will help balance out the living space and can cost 50-60k. You might not need thus though!

Based on the monthly mortgage increase you mention doing a double extension on your existing house should be cheaper than moving especially when stamp duty / renovation cost of the new house are taken into consideration.

[Plockplock]

We did a single storey extension, converted the loft and had a studio/office built in the garden. And, yes, I'm sure there are ways of sorting the cat poo issue!

[Tadla]

Sounds like an amazing addition plock We'd be looking at either loft conversion with bedroom and bathroom or a utility and loo with lean to half brick conservatory added to rear.

Thanks, gathering experiences is very useful. Need to contact architect for drawings or plans or whatever needed to get process properly costed up.

[minkah]

Go to see Malcolm at premier lofts! He did ours and then several of our neighbours. Incredibly quick and efficient and great at maximising space, with his own architect who knows building regs etc.

Truly impressive work and very very stress free to work with. Fast and efficient.

I think you'll be so pleased with your extra space.

Good luck if you decide to go ahead.

[Tadla]

ah ha, would love a recommended loft person but we are in west midlands.

[sugarhoops]

We've had the same dilemma as you recently - currently have a 3-bed, with 3 kids (so youngest two sharing at mo). We looked at 4-beds, but we'd essentially be swapping a detached, period, 3-bed property with downstairs playroom, for a 4-bed new-build, no period features (v important to us!), 4th bedroom would be a box single room, plus less downstairs space.

We've decided to extend - 2 storey which will double the size of kitchen (keeping existing kitchen, just knocking through to new room to make it eat-in kitchen/diner), plus large 4th bedroom upstairs. No new bathrooms or kitchens, so fairly straight forward (or so we've been told by architect!).

We're hoping to do it for around £60k-£70k which we calculated would be financially preferably compared to moving to a 4-bed. Not remortgaging either, funding from savings plus a loan. Like bikerunski, DH does not want to considerably extend the mortgage - we've got 18yrs left to run, and DH is already rubbing his hands with glee at the thought of retiring early once morthgage is paid off

[Tadla]

Thanks for all your posts. I have booked a consultation with an architectural technologist in about a week so hear about a loft conversion or a small utility with a half bricked conservatory.

[RiverTam]

well, that's bollocks that everyone will extent - the only people on our London street who extend seem to be the ones who live next to us . And on that basis I bloody hate extensions so would say move. But I may not be entirely irrational about this as we are facing the second extension next door have done starting imminently. And in both cases I can't for the life of me see why they have to extend .

[RiverTam]

entirely rational. See, I'm going off the rails about this already!

[MillyMollyMama]

Believe me, retiring when the mortgage is paid off never happens if you have children!!! I wish!!!

[Tadla]

i know rivertam. I didnt like my neighbours when they started to extend as I annoyed that it would block our sunlight. It did a bit but not really badly.

Why are you unhappy about theirs?

A few doors up have been extending for months now and it was not fun when we had all the really good dry weather as I could never dry outside due to the power tool dust and brick cutting.