To abandon the extension?

Having seen your floor plan OP, get a downstairs toilet off that utility room! You’re going to need it when the teenage shower time gets ridiculous

Theres a downstairs toilet already.

You're paying interest on the £60k over the entire lifetime of the loan. That means an additional £20-30k, interest rate dependent. That's a very expensive few holidays, so yes, it is stupid. Mortgages are not for holidays, they're for appreciating assets. I totally agree holidays are important, but you absolutely should not be funding them with a loan secured against your house. That's not my 'rule', that is what any sensible person who knows a even just a tiny amount about money will tell you.

Having seen your floor plan OP, get a downstairs toilet off that utility room! You’re going to need it when the teenage shower time gets ridiculous.

We had a similar debate and reconfigured which made a massive diy.

How much do you use your conservatory?

We hid a washing machine (and additional fridge and freezer) in a long run of units which just fit behind the door the room that adjoins the kitchen. All integrated with wooden worktop. TV goes above it so it was really dead space. You could do something similar in conservatory along one wall.

I put our tumble dryer in the shed. It's only a few steps from back door and on the way to or from washing line.

You could turn the dining room into your kitchen or open it all up.

We've found having two areas with sofas and TVs brilliant as kids have got older. Neither are massive and one has the extra bits described above hidden but it's still lovely to sit in. We lowered the window so it's a big picture window.

You could make the existing kitchen into a snug. Lots of options without extending.

i would look at the costs of extending slightly out the back and see if it’d be worth it. But I think you could achieve what you need and would Definitely improve your way of living in the house plus the desirability of the house should you sell at some point. Without having to go to all the effort and cost of an extension.

or losing storage space down the side either

This is exactly what I would do - and if you have a side passage with access from the front see if you can get a door to the outside from the utility so muddy kids can be walked straight into it

Rather than extending out to the side and losing side access. How about knocking through the kitchen and dining room and extending out slightly in line with the edge of the conservatory.
then keep your current doorways but create an internal utility / laundry room (even if it’s only the dryer in there to save on sorting out plumbing for a washer).

if you didn’t want to extend out the back or to keep costs lower, keep the existing back wall but put a proper / lightweight roof on the conservatory and have open plan to the knocked through space.

Your question is equivalent to "Should I borrow 50k against the mortgage so we can go on some nice holidays?" I hope you realise how silly this sounds. Either build the extension or pay it back (or invest it really well if the mortgage is low interest).

What about knocking through to make it open plan, and a new kitchen, but not building an extension? This would be a middle ground cost wise.

Don't spend the money on holidays though, you should pay back your mortgage.

We have a similar house to you - we extended into the loft but couldnt afford to do the downstairs extension. Our house was very top heavy and as the DC grew up it became harder and more difficulty living here as everything was too cramped downstairs (original separate lounge, diner and kitchen).

Over covid we finally got the downstairs extension and I dont say this lightly - it has changed our lives. I am so much happier, as are the DC that we finally have enough room to live, use the kitchen, have friends & family round etc.

3 years on its definitely worth the stress & expense of having it done. No nice holidays or nice cars would ever make up for how good the house makes me feel now and how much our family has benefitted from it.

As your DC grow up and get bigger, you will really need more downstairs space - dont delay and get it done asap as it will only cost more the longer you wait.

Knock through. Maybe get a decent shed with electrics, plumbing and ventilation for the utility. Stand alone if needed. I wouldn't spend money on a utility as it would not be liveable space. But I have one already that I squeezed into a downstairs loo by reconfiguring the space (took some off the hallway). No extension. It has a washer and dryer stacked, a sink, some shelves, a tall skinny cupboard for the mops and brushes etc. Oh and a toilet! Not much floor space for sure, but it works fine for me.

Personal decision of course but I’d opt for the extension on the basis of two things really:

• we like spending our money where we get the most use day-to-day and long term (think very boring things like nice mattresses, a good hoover and a comfy sofa), with a lovely space we would enjoy it for hours every day
• secondly I haven’t always found a correlation between the amount I’ve spent on holidays and the amount I’ve remembered or enjoyed them! By which I mean, more expensive holidays can mean more pressure and less enjoyment!

I say this as someone who loves holidays and priorities them, do the extension, with 3 kids you’ll start to feel very crowded as they get older if you leave the house as it is.

God no, do it! We did an extension on a similar house which finished this time last year. It was June until April, the year DD was 1. We have 2 older kids too who were 8 & 6. The extension is literally life changing, our kitchen was tiny before and what was the dining room was mainly a playroom. Now we have somewhere to eat together, or the kids eat and I do jobs around them, the noisy machines are in the utility so can be shut away rather than in the tiny kitchen. We have empty cupboards which is such a luxury after cramming supplies for a family of 5 into one food cupboard, an under counter fridge and a fridge freezer out in a leaky garage. Honestly our family culture has changed, we’re happier and closer.

Also that quote seems reasonable so I would just get on with it! You’ll live in your house every day, and the same money would get you what, 10-20 weeks of holiday??

You'd be crazy to blow borrowed money on holidays! You could end up in negative equity.

You're thinking of that money as yours, like savings. But it isn't, it is borrowed from the bank with interest.

I would definitely create a larger kitchen dining room, keep separate lounge (as kids get older, have mates over, etc., if the entire downstairs is open plan it can get noisy!)

You might be getting the same rate as the interest on your mortgage on your savings now (no idea how!), but this is very unlikely to always be the case, so you also need to consider the amount of interest you'll be paying over the entire term of the additional borrowing. It will be £000s, and way more than the cost of a few nice holidays! But you'll have nothing to 'show' for it

Agreed. What a bonkers idea!

Essentially you've got a 3 bed semi with rooms in the loft. I would do the extension.

We effectively doubled our downstairs space a few years ago, and put an extra 2 bedrooms upstairs. It revolutionised how we live in this house.

This is a me thing, but I would rather make the place I spend 355 days of the year more comfortable than have nicer holidays. A bigger downstairs will be useful if you are planning on another child