Would we be mad to buy a home and knock down a perfectly functional extension?

I’d get rid of the extension. It spoils the shape and sight lines of that part of the house.

We did just that but then added a larger and better one which inturn added to the value of the house.
If you can afford to rebuild then do it, but make sure you get good architectural advice.

Not mad to want to change it - you’d need to do it properly though with an architect/ building regs and just open it all up to make it one big room / open plan kitchen, lounge, diner with lots of glass / bi folds on the back to the garden.
Not an issue to do that but you’d prob need to live with it as is until you get all of the plans etc in place and a builder to do the work.

edit: to add that we put a large side/ rear extension onto a period house and it significantly increased the value of it.

The extension would certainly put me off the house, partly because of the wrap-aroubd design but mostly because it's ugly and out of keeping with the rest IMO. There is a problem though, that without an extension the downstairs space is small for the number of bedrooms. It might be possible to divide the extension and break the wrap, by extending the original back wall parallel to the front, to incorporate the French doors into the kitchen. But that might be tricky if you are messing with the original structural walls.
One reason why, for me, the extension is ugly is that it lacks any attempt at a period aesthetic. To some extent you could soften that, by plastering over the brickwork, replacing single-paned windows with paned casements and putting in proper skirting etc. That would still look new but a bit more sympathetic.

If it's the house pictured on p2, that's G2 listed so you would have to get planning permission. Crazy as it sounds, anything in situ at the time of listing is included, irrespective of age or virtue. You could ask when the extension was built relative to the listing.
I hear that you love the rest of the house, but honestly it's not unique enough to justify financially crazy decisions. It would cost £££ to remove and replace. I would put that spare money into finding a house that doesn't have these issues- or refurbing an old house to your own taste and spec.

You'd be much better off paying to move the kitchen into the "garden room" and, potentially, knocking through some more of the walls between them if possible to make a giant kitchen/ dining area than demolishing a huge chunk of your downstairs space (which, yes, is utterly mad!) Have a word with an architect before abandoning the house entirely to see what's possible to address your concerns.

I really like it - but then I also put a modern extension on our period house so I clearly have no taste 😉

If it's the windows in the kitchen that bothers you, could you move the kitchen to a part of the extension with windows and make the existing kitchen something else, like a dining room or utility or something?

It would be expensive but so would knocking it down and making good

I agree with everyone, madness, time, stress and money wise.
If the location is perfect etc, would it be worth a consultation with an interior architect, to get advice on some options?
It is a very cold area so could definitely do with restyling to warm up.
Nothing inviting and cosy about it.
But I love my comforts.

You can add your own furniture and decor to make it less ‘sparse’.
I think it’s a lovely house and you’d be mad to devalue it by losing a significant amount of its square footage. Maybe go back to the drawing board.

Yes, it would be ridiculous. The extension would look completely different if you rejigged furniture and had lots of large plants. But if you really hate it, this is not the house for you.

I think the problem you have is that the house is grade 2 listed and this is why they have done the extension this way. They wouldn’t have been allowed to alter the original fabric of the building so they have added to it instead. I am very suspicious as to why there are no exterior shots of the extension on the estate agents particulars. Does it actually match what they were given permission to build? If you check on Cheshire’s planning portal you can see for yourself. It is definitely worth investigating as the rules on listed buildings are very strict and when you purchase you become responsible for the things previous owners have done and putting them right if necessary. I doubt if they will let you knock down existing walls but you could try talking to the conservation officer to see whether they would allow a more sympathetic extension and then maybe use the current kitchen as a utility. This is what we have done in our listed house. It took 18 months to get permission though and the trend nowadays is to insist on a modern design to separate it from the original rather than a pastiche, so may depend what you want.

If you love everything else about the house (location, size, views etc), you can afford it, would stay there over a decade, and you’d be likely to afford to reconfigure after a couple of years, then buy it.

Live in it a bit. Get used to how the light moves around at the times of day you use the kitchen. Looks like you’ll need to capture light from south and west in the afternoon/evening. Also, looks like the extension makes the kitchen dark in the mornings (which is when you often want light in a kitchen), as it blocks the light from the east. Get used to how much space it gives you and what you’d lose if you demolished it. Then, figure out a way you could reconfigure it, to make the space lighter, more functional and more in keeping with the home, but also to give you the living space you need. You may not need to pull it all down. And it gives you the advantage of foundations and wiring.

Large modern kitchens on the back of period homes can work when done well. You may need to take out the original walls to make one big space and avoid the ‘add on’ feel. A local architect who specialises in such stuff should be able to give you ideas.

Yes, crazy.

You do realise that you can change a place from ‘sparse’ to something more ‘full’ by just, you know, putting more/different stuff in it?! Amazes me the number of people who can’t visualise what a space could look like without the furniture and decoration that’s already in it.

Anyhow, good of you to offer your constructive critique 🙄.

I think it’s a lovely space OP and as everyone has said, if you love everything else about the house, the way to go is to remodel the kitchen to open it out to the view. You wouldn’t need to do too much work to achieve a more open aspect - although I have to say the way it’s designed doesn’t look as enclosed/separated on the photos as it appears on the plans.

But yeah, knocking down a really well constructed and expensively finished extension that comprises a third of your ground floor footage would be completely and utterly mental, not to mention horribly wasteful. In that case I’d walk away and let someone buy it who likes it as it is.

I get where you are coming from. The modern extension we put on the back of our period home makes me want to tear it down sometimes. But the house was built in a way that would have made it super expensive to knock down the walls to do anything else…..it’s a compromise that we live with.

you could make that extension, with a bit of remodelling could look far less pub din8ng room, it’s the fireplace that causes the issue opening it up….

It actually doesn't look too bad from the link posted above.

I would keep the garden room until the point at which you want to replace it. Then the cost of demolition can be factored into the rebuild.

If you don't want any kind of extension on this house at all, I would keep looking for somewhere else to buy, as that would be a lot of square footage to lose from a house and your valuation would decrease if you removed it.

Oh my goodness for a minute I thought it was the same house we like just looking at the floor plan, we also don’t like how they’ve extended. Beautiful period double fronted property with modern extension at back, similar layout. Opened link, it’s a lovely looking house.

With our one I think we can rejig the layout, but it would mean ripping out a perfectly fine kitchen (though not to my taste) and knocking through another wall. All just an idea at the moment as need to sell ours before making an offer.

I’m sure you can come up with a way of reconfiguring rather than knocking it down. It all depends on how long you’ll be there, if it’s a home you plan to stay in for a long time then reducing market value for a small amount of time won’t be a biggie, as I’m sure whatever you change it to will be worth it to you long term and by then housing values increased.

The problematic wall is a mahoosive chimney in a listed house. You can see why they’ve done it that way.

I put you were unreasonable before clicking on the link.

You are right, the extension in horrible. I wouldn't knock it down but I wouldn't buy it because of it.

I think it's beautiful! I was expecting something really horrible but that's very well done imo!

So I’ve done this but it doesn’t need a total rebuild, just an interior remodelling.
It was an extension which was absolutely fine but they hadn’t removed the old original back wall fully so there was still chest high “peninsula” where the old wall was.
We brought in a builder and had a proper beam put in, which allowed us to knock down the wall and open up the kitchen.
The extension largely stayed as it was.

From memory I think it cost £5K and the cost of the kitchen units which had backed onto the old wall. A very easy job.

I responded that you were being unreasonable because, I think, it is important to live in the space for a whole year - through all seasons - before considering your proposal.

I voted YANBU before I looked at the photos of it but now I think you would be crazy to do it.

It's a lovely house, but I know what you mean about the extension. It is indeed a very ugly extension and from the outside it looks like a pub.

If you've got the cash to knock the extension down and start again do it, but you'll never recoup those costs.

Just looked at the house particulars and it will drive you mad imo. That half baked extension is probably a consequence of endless to and fros with planners. It's a shame that this is the compromise they reached, but I think that this house is telling you that it's going to be an impossible project. Such a shame

The wrap around part isn’t the problem in my mind if it is boot room. Without that the kitchen would have an external window. Then you could block up the other internal window if your prefer (or make it into a serving hatch for the dining space.

But you would have to find a new home for the utility - I would go with the mini bedroom on the 1st floor as the utility and ditch the boot room.

Knocking it completely down would
a) cost a lot
b) devalue the house
c) leave the house unbalanced (harder to tell from photos) as the downstairs would be small for 6 bedrooms.