To side return or not, that is the question.

[anielaoliviabeau]

We live in an expensive area in the North and bought a house during Covid which needed a new kitchen plus side return. This was always meant to be a 7-8 year house as we knew we needed to be sensible whilst paying 2 x nursery fees/part-time working.

Due to 2 babies, cost of living etc we just haven't gotten round to the side return. We have architect plans and a recent building quote for £45k+VAT for the 'basic' build, not inc kitchen/flooring (we would have to do quite a bit ourselves). We recently had an estate agent round and she thought the new kitchen and side return would add £60-£75k to the house. I don't know what to do. If we move up the ladder 'early' we are taking a huge financial gamble. If we do the side return, it could be a complete money pit/nightmare with toddlers. Please help me decide!...We have explored other options such as reconfiguring but for various reasons none will work.

Do you need to do it now? Why? Where are you in your 7 or 8 year plan?

We are 3 years in (and counting). Our kitchen is completely falling apart with a new thing breaking each month. Hinges knackered, flooring cracked (with a 1 year old pushing smarties down it!). Plus other things like, we desperately need a bathroom on the first floor but have been advised to wait as its the room above the potential side return. It feels like my life is on pause! I noticed specks of damp on the kitchen walls today and thought FFS, what next?!

Also, we're spending a lot of time in the house due to 2 toddlers so it starts to feel like a big issue. And we can't entertain due to large families and lack of ground floor space (i.e. Xmas Day/LO birthdays)

Worth it for us. We stayed in the house whilst it was being built and had a multi cooker in one room + toaster, kettle, microwave etc. Because our boiler was in the loft not the kitchen we had no heating or hot water outage.

It was worth it for us as now our kitchen is lovely. If you can afford it then do it. Building costs typically go up each year not down and £45k sounds like a bargain as that is what we paid 8 years ago for the shell!

Based on all you've said, if you can afford it I'd do the extension and the work. It sounds like it would greatly improve your day to day life!

Thanks @roses2. Did you also breakeven (or suffer a slight loss)? I think I need to stop listening to my parents who have advised us that for the disruption we should be doubling our money.

Don't know if we broke even - I don't plan to sell anytime soon. We did it because I wanted a new kitchen and had the money to build.

We had joint planning permission with the neighbour and they sold. I think what they spent they got back. But I don't think there was much, if any, profit.

I don't think you can always pound for pound make the assesment on value of the house. Because a large part of the decision is how you live. But also you'll find it much harder to shift a house with a kitchen on the state you're describing and therefore I'd probably do it rather than replace the kitchen by itself?

Your quality of life matters too!

Do it for yourselves and not for a possible future resale. As long as you get pleasure from it what does it matter if you only break even in the long run?

From a disruption point of view just replacing the kitchen throws you into complete turmoil so you might as well bite the bullet and do the whole thing. Surely as long as you make your money back that’s enough? It will certainly make the house far more saleable when the time comes.

Thanks everyone. Even typing it out helped because it seemed to point towards doing it. Also, I don't fancy adding to my mortgage at these current rates!

Sounds like you'd come out about even so it's a matter of balancing the upheaval against better quality of life while you remain in the house. I wouldn't go for any half way measures though- unsatisfying and highest likelihood to leave yiu out of pocket.

We did this while DS was 2 and I was pregnant with DC2. It wasn't fun, but it was bearable.

Tips:

-consider paying more for builders who can devote more staff to the project and thus get it done quicker

• do it in summer so you can spend as much time as possible out of the house

• if one of you can take the kids to stay with family for a week or two during the early phases (demolition/dust/water switched off), this will help

• gas ring and IKEA standalone unit with shelves and a worktop, in the front room, plus fridge plugged in there, made basic cooking possible. We did the washing up in the bath. Hope you like pasta! (and takeaways)