To abandon the extension?

[Extendorsave]

Just after some opinions really as DH and I can't decide what to do and are after some Mumsnet wisdom.
We bought a 1930s semi 2 years ago with the intention of doing an extension. It's a 5 bed semi (2 rooms in the loft) but it needed loads of work. It currently has a small old kitchen and separate dining room, it feels small downstairs. Our plan was to knock through, get a new kitchen and build a utility on the side. We've been quoted about 50-60k for this. We borrowed the money as part of the initial mortgage, planning to do it quicky and have it in a high interest account.
We have 3 kids aged 8, 5 and 2, and planning one more possibly.

As time goes on I feel like we would be better off keeping this money. I imagine all the lovely holidays it would cover, and possibly helping the kids through expensive phases. We are not struggling for money, we can afford a basic holiday every year, but the extra money would mean nicer holidays, maybe extra trips, the ability to not worry about money and buy things we need. Or we could even pay off some of the 380k mortgage!
We also have an additional 30k in savings if that makes a difference, which is our back up money as DH is self employed, so it will remain untouched.

My DH thinks we should do the extension and prioritise making the house nice to live in, I am having doubts as I'm not sure a side utility will make a huge amount of difference to our lives but I do see how much nicer it would be to have an open plan space for having friends over and spending more time together as a family. I don't think it would add much value we there is a ceiling to houses in our road. We might not make it all back if we sold and ideally we don't want to move for a long time.

Anyone had a similar dilemma? What did you do?

If you're not doing the extension pay the loan back don't spend it on holidays!

I see where you are coming from. I also note you said you’d like to give your children nicer holidays & help them through expensive phases. My first thought was that will be more difficult with 4.

But appreciate it’s not the topic of the thread.

Don't waste the money on holidays, but use it to the max to get the best value. I would square off the back of the house, knock the dining & kitchen into one and then change the access into it. The bit by the loo where all the doors are, take the space there, square that off and incorporate the existing loo into a utility room. You need to use existing services (foul & water) to save costs. Your biggest unseen costs will be structural and services. You can spend a lot on those, but you don't see the end result. Try and work with what is already there. Think it all through beforehand. Plan it out properly. You don't want to be changing things once the build has started, that really wastes money. Don't forget to insulate it properly either.

Our house is a similar ground floor layout to yours but a mid terrace so no option for a side extension. We knocked though from the dining room to the kitchen but kept the kitchen where it was originally.
What I now wish we had done was turn the kitchen into a utility and move the kitchen to the dining room as a kitchen diner. Someone else on the street has built a small extension at the back (where your conservatory is) put the kitchen there and the original kitchen became a utility.
Just some ideas as I think you can gain more usable space without increasing the footprint and possibly breaking the ceiling price for your property.

@Extendorsaveyour house sounds lovely and in a great location. It’s hard to envision before you start, I was worried right until we finished that we had spent a huge amount on a house that I still
might not love. Actually I do love it now, but right up to having the shell being plastered I thought I’d made a huge mistake. I think increasing the family living space was key to me - so extending and opening it out had made a great social space for us to all be in together. But we also kept other rooms and pocket doors to future proof it.

How big is your rear garden? Is there the possibility to level it a bit? That will make it feel masses bigger. We’re doing that right now with a lot (20 tonnes) of MOT stone and some small retaining walls. We’ve done a lot of the labour ourselves (but had professionals building the retaining walls) but it’s made a big difference. How sloped is your front garden also? Ours was very sloped but we have again managed to level it and somewhat (it still slopes quite a bit) and have a driveway now. There’s a lot you can do with retaining walls (they’re made out of cheap blocks) and either removing or adding stone. I was really surprised - couldn’t envision it myself before.

How old is that quote? 50-60k feels on the low side with the way costs have risen recently. Do you have contingency?

This thread has made me want to post my own floor plan for ideas. People have really great feedback.

My house had a similar layout when we bought it, inc the conservatory. I would suggest taking down the conservatory, and building a single storey extension that comes out as far as the conservatory, so the back of the house is all the same depth. That would give you a decent open plan space with a kitchen and a dining table, and maybe a small cosy sofa area too. Velux windows/roof lights right across to get lots of light in. If you can, a utility/boot room would also be brilliant, esp with four children!

It was a year ago. I think the reason it's cheaper as it's a side extension that doesn't involve losing the side wall. He explained that going out the back would be far more expensive.

I think back fondly to the times of my son and five or six friends playing video games and eating us out of house and home. They did take upnso mich room.

Thank you. The only issue here is we can't put sky lights above the conservatory as there is a balcony above it. So unless we extended further out there wouldn't be sky lights. But I'm hoping we would get enough light with large windows/bifolds.

It's reassuring to hear that you weren't sure at first and ended up loving it. I really hope we can get to that stage. Our front garden is probably too sloped for a driveway. Also at the moment from the living room we have a view of the sloped front garden which makes it all green, if cars were parked, it would mean just a view of the top of cars which I think would really upset our attached neighbour too as we would need to take out our hedge and that removes the privacy from both houses from the pavement on the street.
I know we don't need to get agreement from the neighbour but they are lovely and older and the one thing she was concerned about is that someone would come along and remove the hedge.

The rear garden doesn't feel that sloped due to the stairs down to it. It is fairly flat especially down the end, flat enough for a trampoline. We are currently cutting back some of the bushes round the sides to try to make it a bit wider so we can fit some more things in the kids. Thanks for all your advice much appreciated.

Having a very similar dilemma, we have 45000 sat in an account for 18months after getting plans for extension and a new boiler. Having saved/borrowed £50,000 over 6yrs only for COVID/Brexit etc to send prices soaring, the £40,000 extension is now looking to be 90,000-100,000. (Would likely add 30,000 to house value, maybe 40 at a push) So now not sure it's worth it (or if we can afford to find the rest of the money without going without holidays or luxuries for another 5years) But hard to give up on after 5years and the excitement of getting the plans done. 😭😭 (Even though I really want a holiday!!) But a holiday is a week and I see this as my forever home.

@AlliWantIsARoomSomewheeeereits so tough to decide. Is it a long term home, or one you’re planning to sell in a few years? Would it constrain you badly financially for a few years?

is there a modified /smaller version of the plans you can do? I loved Houzz stories for inspiration, like this https://www.houzz.co.uk/magazine/5-times-a-smaller-extension-made-a-huge-difference-stsetivw-vs~117718161

It’s very tricky. We called the two estate agents who had listed our property and honestly asked them for advice and they were great. Could that be an option? They told us what value the house would be (what they would market it for and what they thought we would get) with the extension. It was more than we had estimated ourselves and gave us a bit of confidence to go ahead

I see staying here for the long haul yes.
We could do a smaller one, but wouldn't get out of it what I want/need. (Storage, a bit more space and a utility room that I can shut the door on all the washing! Ha) I definitely think it's worth it. Just a crazy amount of money to save on our earnings. 😅

Do you really need a utility on the ground floor? We've put ours on the top loft floor where we have a washer, dryer, airer and heated airer. All the clothes chaos is out of sight and never comes to the ground floor.
This won't cost much at all. We carved it at one end of the bedroom where there was a velux window in the roof.

You can then repurpose your living space as you like and not lose the side access/storage.