Big house or stay where we are?

[SilverDoublet]

We are a family of 6, 4 children aged 5,7,9,11 and are looking at either moving or extending into our attic to give chikdren their own rooms in time.

Current house is 1,528sq ft. on a busy main road with smallish, overshadowed, north-facing back garden. With 3 beds, 1 downstairs bedroom, 1 bathroom, 1 wc. Children are sharing in 2 rooms, in 2 sets of bunk beds and like it at the moment.

We could extend into our attic for another bed and maybe squeeze in a shower room.

If we move we can hopefully get 2,150 sq ft. 5 beds, 2 full bathrooms, 1 office and a much bigger sunnier garden on a quiet road. Only thing is, it's further out and further from public transport and a lot more expensive than doing the attic conversion.

We are very attached to current house, as are the DC as it's all they can remember. I'm worried about upsetting them with the move, particularly eldest who is a sensitive type.

What should we do, we can afford both, but we will use up all our savings completely if we move.

Stay and extend.

Yeah, stay and extend. No real benefit to moving.

I assume the kids wouldn't need to move school if you move to the bigger house? I would do anything to stop my kids having to change school.

My eldest is 13 and is becoming more independent. As all your kids will get there in thy bear future, I'd want to stay nearer the public transport to give the kids a bit freedom once they're ready/able so I'd stay put.

We had a similar dilemma (3 bed semi on a busy road) only we had a beautiful sunny garden and moved to a 4 bed detached with a gloomy north facing garden. It's on a quiet no through road though and we all absolutely love it! It's so energy efficient, has been warm all winter, we haven't had the usual round of bugs and viruses etc. Having 3 loos and 2 showers is heavenly. No regrets at all even if our mortgage is bigger and council tax doubled. Utility bills are lower than our old house though.

It reads like you want to stay and extend.

Also, with 4 kids, being more remote will have a significant drawback in terms of ferrying them about.

Providing the children don’t have to change schools and that you wouldn’t be too far away from public transport I’d advise you to move.

The children won't have to change schools and it will be 12 mins walk from the bus stop with one bus route. Does that sound reasonable? Would teenagers use it?