to move or to extend??

[shellybelly]

have a lovely dd and we would love to try for another baby soon, our house is small soooooo its either move or extend, does anyone have any advice, have you extended your house and how much upheaval did it cause or is it easier to move (tho i can see that being a big upheaval too)

I'd move.

My parents did extensive renovation to their bungalow after we - the kids - had moved out.

A dusty nightmare even w/dustovers, etc.

We moved last May but we moved because we wanted to live in the catchment for a better school for our kids. I loved our house and it's actual location apart from the schools which obviously we could not change so we felt we had to move. If the schools and the area were better we would definitely have extended (but we did not have the scope fot that either) as moving costs so much money with moving costs, estate agents fees, solicitors, stamp duty, VAT on top of everything and then all the extras like decorating, light fittings etc etc etc.

My advice, if the house is in the right location and the schools are half decent then extend.

we're in the throes of going through planning to extend. For us to move to a bigger house with a matching, or bigger, garden would be out of our price bracket. At the mo, we're close to a good public transport network, in the catchment area for the city's best primary school and we love our neighbours. To extend will cost us approx 120k, to move we'd have to extend our mortgage by 400-500k. Bit of a no brainer for us really! (but, like expat says, it will be a nightmare for 3 months).

we are in the middle of builidng a big extension. So far it has been bearable - but I guess it depends on what is actually done.

I think unless you would be moving to a cheaper area then it is more cost effective to extend normally. I guess the consideration is talking to the planning depratment and find out what sort of extension you would be allowed.

You have to balance up the other issues - re schools, location etc.