Disagreement with DH over whether to move house - views/inspiration needed!

[FlynnJ]

Hi all, I’ve seen some similar threads before with really useful advice so thought I’d try my luck myself!

Here’s my current situation:

-live in compact 3 bed detached house with DH and DS (1yo)
-In a decent area close to family, shops, schools etc.
-brought as our first home in late 2019 with a view to moving a few years later to somewhere bigger.

Currently:

-DH of view we’ve outgrown or nearly outgrown the house - wants to move
-Main gripes are lack of living space downstairs and lack of storage space upstairs.
-I’m in agreement but love the house and area and would want to stay here if it could be made suitable

Finances:

-House has been valued and gone up 50/60k (at least) since we brought it
-To move somewhere slightly bigger (e.g more living space and bigger sized bedrooms, we’d be paying up to £80/90k more than what we’d get for this house plus fees. Location would be similar. A 4 bed (the ideal incase we have another DC) is out of reach financially for now.
-We are willing to take out an extra c.£50k on our Mortgage and have a similar amount in savings we can also use.

Current house:

-DH doesn’t believe extending would be financially viable (feels we’d be better off moving) but has said he’s open to ideas.
-We can’t extend to the side (garage is separate to the house by the drive at the front)
-We have a reasonable length garden and could probably extend out by up to 2.5metres and this would still be a good size.
-Landing area is very small
-Floor plan attached

Has anyone been in a similar situation or got any thoughts on improvements to the current house I could suggest to DH? We thought we’d easily
move after a few years but prices have gotten silly.

Thanks!

What do you mean by lack of living space? A 13 x 11ft living room is pretty massive.

What's in the 3rd bedroom currently? Could it be better used, better storage design?

What is in the loft? Could you extend up?

I think I would look at the loft first, as you haven't got a lot of space upstairs and see if you couldn't get a big bedroom, or two smaller ones, some storage space and possibly a shower and loo up there.
You'd have to drop the small bedroom and put a staircase in there, and there would also be room for more storage, under and around the stairs, maybe have those stair drawers too.

Alternatively extend out the back, with extra room/s which could be versatile, either extra living space or bedrooms, with a shower/loo room.

I'm assuming that a two storey extension would be beyond budget.
I'm also not quite clear about where the garage is and whether extensions could abut up behind it somehow.
Depending whether it is brick, there might also be the possibility of making it two storey, for playroom, storage, home office or whatever.

I agree with this. The house next door to ours with a similar layout has gone into the loft and managed to create a good size bedroom with lots of storage and a small bathroom. I would also ask why you need more space downstairs. Can you look at alternative storage solutions? What you trying to store? We have the same issue but the problem is that my husband and daughter have a lot of stuff that they never use but refuse to throw away.

Move, whilst DS is young. You won’t regret doing it at this stage.
Go for it!!

If you can afford to move to a bigger house (but still detached, and staying in the area you love) I would definitely choose that, if I were you, but that's because I'd rather avoid the disruption of extending.

But, saying that, maybe a loft conversion wouldn't be too much upheaval and no more stressful than selling up and moving house?

Sorry, I'm no help at all 😆

I’d move. Extended houses are never as good as ‘original’ sqft.

I didn’t find an extension that hard going

If you can afford to create a room in the loft and extend outback then I would do that

Otherwise you can kiss goodbye to €€€€ in sol fees, estate agent fees and stamp duty for a start!!!

I’d move. Your house is very small for 3 people and it would cost a lot to extend the kitchen and do a loft room

If you two plus a baby can't fit into what seems to be a decent sized 3 bed, you need to get rid of some stuff. Decluttering is a lot easier and cheaper than moving out or extending!

We had 4 DC in a house 18’ x 22’ until the youngest was 9.

I suggest you properly declutter! board the loft out properly for storage.

Thanks all, just on a couple of points above;

-re. need for living space, we can’t comfortably fit a dining table - we have a small one pushed against the wall in the kitchen but it’s really squashed when 4 people are seated at it. That’s the main annoyance and makes hosting challenging.

-Doing anything to the garage is out of the question really, it’s attached to another neighbours garage. Potentially it could be converted to an office (one of us works from home mostly) but unsure if that’s costly.

My friend has a similar house to yours. They have done a loft conversion and taken the wall between the kitchen and living room down so it’s open plan downstairs. It still feels small to them downstairs as they have three small kids so they intend to do a single storey extension next. Their house has probably gone up at least 200k since they bought it so not likely to lose money if they sell

Find out if the wall is a supporting one and reconfigure the downstairs if it isn’t.

Ours wasn’t despite it being brick.

Do you mean just knock down and open it up?

Move. Doing the loft won’t give you more day to day living space. You might need to move further out but worth it surely. Teens take up even more space believe me!

I think if I was in your position I would probably look to move to a larger three bed with potential to do a loft conversion down the line if you end up having another DC.

It sounds like you want to move so you could do all the work and still want a different house, happens all the time. Have you had a look to see what you could get for your money if you moved?

The ones we have seen recently would give us more space downstairs (seperate dining room, utility, conservatory) but either the same size or only slightly bigger 3 bedrooms.

They would cost about 80k more than what ours would sell for which we’d finance through savings and taking out further mortgage.

I see your point, I think even if we did do some improvements it wouldn’t make it somewhere we’d stay really long term, but it would make it suitable for the next few years at least.

Do you know if they lost an existing bedroom so kept it as a 3 bed, or they gained a 4th?

Tough one. Make a list of pros and cons of moving/ staying and doing no work/ staying and doing some work and take it from there? Would you have to work for longer if you toon out the further mortgage? I’d be inclined to not do that if that was a factor

Have you got a plan of the plot? Inc drive, garage, garden etc

You need to apply for Love It Or List It.

Can you put a porch on the front that has a downstairs loo too? As you come into a small hallway and immediately makes you feel squashed.

Plus a back single storey extension for a beautiful kitchen diner and utility room. And a garden office?

I don’t think I’d move from a 3 bed to a slightly bigger 3 bed, especially if I liked the area.

They lost the fitted wardrobe in the third bedroom by doing the loft conversion as they had to fit the staircase into the small landing but it’s still big enough to be classed as a small bedroom. The loft room has a dormer window at the back which makes it a good big room but it can’t officially be classed as a forth bedroom as it doesn’t meet the head height (pretty common with loft conversions where I am) but they use it as one of the kid’s bedrooms anyway

We’re early 30’s so not too worried about it being an issue in terms of working longer, a modest increase to the Mortgage (£50k) we can afford as we were quite conservative with what we brought originally (I wish we pushed the budget more to be honest but we were young and inexperienced with houses!)

We were in a very similar situation last year, and we ended up moving. Our floorplan looked very similar to yours, except we had a lounge/diner and a small kitchen, and it was impossible to host anyone. Plus zero storage for my DD’s toys (or anything at all really). Couldnt fit a wardrobe in the master bedroom, so had to use the small third bedroom for our clothes (which we were using for DHs office). I also WFH pretty much full time, which I had to do at the dining table (where there was already limited space). Couldnt convert the loft due to already mentioned lack of storage, so we would have nowhere to store any of the loft stuff. Garage was set away from the house in a row of other garages, so couldnt convert that. So whilst it was a 3 bed, it was a very small 3 bed which we really struggled with, especially with both of us working from home full time. We also wanted another child (which hasnt happened for us yet sadly), so we made the decision to move. Literally couldnt stand being under each other’s feet all the time, and having absolutely no storage. The amount of time I would spend in Ikea looking for space storage solutions (which also wouldnt fit anywhere we wanted) was ridiculous and I’d just had enough of it.

We ended up moving (to the next town along admittedly, due to house prices) , to a 4 bed and my god its been so nice to have space. With a dining room, utility room, downstairs toilet and playroom! I finally have space for a dishwasher!! More than enough space for our things, a spare bedroom each for an office (although this will change if we ever managed to have another child, but there will still be plenty of space). We even hosted at Christmas for the first time ever which was impossible in the old house! And have space for DD’s friends to come over & play! And my parents could finally stay over rather than have to drive the long distance home the same day! Soooo my vote is move, as I know how claustrophobic it can feel, even when there is only 3 of you! The only downside is the bigger mortgage 😅