Clever Mumsnetters. How do I improve my house?

[meggymoo]

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I know a lot of people who have converted their garage into an extra room in the house and haven't regretted it! No-one uses their garage any more apart from storing junk...

Provided the garage is convenient for all the plumbing (which it seems to be), it sounds like a good compromise. Kitchen/diner type arrangements are (apparently) very popular with buyers.

One thing - do you have adequate off street parking should you get rid of the garage?

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Only thing with conservatories, is that they can be pretty impractical temperature-wise. DH and I thought about having one on the back of our house, but as the back is south-facing it would've been like an oven for the summer months. If we were to extend, I'd seriously look at how much extra a brick built extension would be.

I think a conservatory adds more value than a converted garage. We were thinking about this but have gone against the garage idea. It does put some people off if you are thinking of selling - unless you have a big garden + large shed for storage of stuff

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Is there any scope for going up into the loft? You might be able to get 2 rooms up there, which would give you 4 bedrooms and a playroom.

What about making the garage into a playroom, rearranging the kitchen (sounds expensive, but IKEA is really reasonable and good stuff!), and adding the conservatory. Or making the garage into then dining area and the conservatory could be a play area (seeing as it would lead into the garden). If you put the kitchen in the garage, and the dining room in the conservatory, it sounds like it would be a long way from kitchen to dining room, and could be through the playroom, which might be precarious depending on the tidiness of your children!

re: prices... In the northwest a small brick extension with cathedral ceilling and velus window, about 10K. Conservatory would have been about 7K. We went with the first option because was advised it adds more value, and the difference was small. The high ceiling plus the velux windows made the room a real nice feature.
HTH

There seem to be lots of ideas on here for you to mull over. One thing I'd be wary of is making your downstairs space disproportionate to your upstairs space.

It might make re-selling the house more difficult if your downstairs screams 'large family home' and the upstairs only has 3 bedrooms. I like the idea of the garage being made into a playroom - then someone could move in and use that as a fourth bedroom. Could you leave space to add a downstairs cloakroom at a later date?

Perhaps you could merge the diningroom with the kitchen and make a large kitchen/diner and then add the conservatory as an extra reception room which could be used for sitting in or formal eating.

Let us know what you decide.

What would I do? Well first thing would be to get a couple of estate agents round to look at your house. Given that they would know the area and the current market value of what certain types of houses would be worth, etc. I would then ask them for their opinion, i.e. what would add more value, what would sell better, what in their opinion would they definitely NOT do, etc. etc.

Most estate agents are more than happy to do this. With that information, it would then give you a better steer on what might be worth looking at in more detail hopefully saving you time, effort and anguish in terms of building quotes etc.

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we opted for a garden room rather than conservatory. So it had a lot of floor to ceiling windows - but had a tiled roof - much cooler. Couldn't use previous conservatory in summer - tooooo hot!

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one good thing..maybe a bit cheeky though..would be to look for similar houses in your area that are up for sale and go and see in real life what difference the conversions they have made have done for the overall feel of the house...

Ours was going to be part of a 2 storey extension - which the whole job was £55k. I would reckon a garden room only would be slightly more expensive than a conservatory - but not that much - as you would still have to dig the foundations etc which are the time consuming expensive part. Maybe 10 grand?? But I agree with BOB - have a nosey round some other similar houses that have had work done to them - but be prepared for the estate agents to hassle you either to sell your house - or to buy the house you viewed iykwim.

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