Loft conversion- should we?... (sorry, long and rambly!)

[Erebus]

Or would you say, like my mum did 'Why on Earth do you need another room?'

We have a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom detached, 12 years old, and 2 x DSs, 10 and 12.

The problem, such as it is, is we 'only' have one, large living room with what we use as a study area at one end. It opens into a dining room (kitchen opens onto it so it serves as 'the kitchen table', really) that opens into a conservatory. This works fine now as the DSs do their homework at the dining room table whilst I cook dinner, for instance. However, the dining table is constantly covered in crap books, papers drawings etc etc.

We have an integral garage but it too is filled with rubbish bikes, tools, paint, mowers, camping kit and so on. BUT that'd have to stay as we have nowhere else on the property to conveniently store all that.

Though we have a 'spare room', it isn't very big and it is filled with detritus books, games, toys, 2 set up sewing machines, a keyboard, a guitar, most of which is housed on the biggest size Ikea Expedit unit. Both boys actual bedrooms aren't very big. They hold: A single bed, an Aneboda (ikea) wardrobe and chest of drawers, a chair and a bedside table. The remaining space on the floor is, essentially 3 foot alongside their beds. I had considered cabin beds with a desk beneath but it struck me that though they are a very good idea, they are perhaps more for a 'really stuck for space' house which we shouldn't be (-We so have been in the past!).

Guests bunk down on the living room sofa bed which is a bit daft in a 4 bedroom house!

THING IS: We could probably afford a loft conversion to a single big room and plumb for if not install a bathroom up there now but not for much longer (we are both knocking 50). We wouldn't need to borrow and have no mortgage. In this area we should get its cost returned in added value. The reality is that there is every probability that the boys will be at home til they're well into their 20s. They will probably go to college from home rather than live in digs. Neither are 'friend mad' so I'm not looking to create a hang-out space for all the neighbouring kids BUT I am being told that it would be good for them to have a place to study other than the dining room table, a place where currently Lego could be upended and not picked up every evening; a place where the football table could be erected etc etc. It'd also be our guest room and would possibly have another TV in it. I anticipate that siting the stairs would chop out space in the current smallest bedroom so that DS would move into the 'hobby' room, leaving us with his old room as a small 4th bedroom BUT with a big loft space above.

Would you? I have a bloke quoting right now on the job but I anticipate it'll come in at £25,000+.

My reservation is/are:
Are we 'unbalancing' the house having essentially 5 bedrooms but still only one conventional living room and a single garage? Whilst you don't know my family, do we risk creating an environment where we never see the boys as they're up in the loft? Will I tire of 2 sets of stairs (though a tall, narrow 3 storey town house we rented for 6th months was a lot less hassle than I thought it'd be!). Or will I trill will delight each time I go up there (to sew, probably!) as the light floods into my spacious, airy sanctuary?!

If someone gave me £25,000 I think I'd do it in a trice but... should we be putting that sort of money into retirement funds?!

I don't know!

[Erebus]

Thanks, all, for further input! The ishoo with the sticky out bit of bedroom 2 is that the bit behind it where the loft stairs would start is our ensuite! The builder who quoted sucked in through his teeth when he suggested that and I alerted him to the possible problem!

Here the council have bunged in the PP rule that you now need to get PP for velux windows, that's all, thankfully. Should be OK esp as no one will overlook the velux windows in the loft.

[tyler80]

I'm talking about building control regulations not planning. Planning should be fairly straightforward.

Building controls regulations are the same across the country and have changed over the past decade. Just something to be aware of in case you visit the neighbouring house and then find you can't build something identical.

[Erebus]

Ah, OK, I understand! They may have built under a different code. Good point.

[OriginalPoster]

Going off at a tangent a little...

I notice that you mention several times that the space you already have is being encroached on by rubbish, crap and detritus

This may be because you need to clear out 'hidden' junk in cupboards, garage, drawers etc, so that there is some where easy to put away the things you use a lot.

A good clear out might help, so that you are not paying for space to house stuff you no longer love, need or use.

We moved from a house with less downstairs space (dining room, living room, kitchen) and a great loft conversion (master bedroom ensuite), and 3 other reasonable bedrooms, and one poxy one. We have 4 dcs and the fact we were all in one room mainly downstairs was getting harder.

If there is anyway you can get the space downstairs I would say it is preferable.

[Erebus]

Good point. I will be very interested in seeing how much more space I am able to create by being ruthless with the chucking out. We have got rather a lot BUT the reason is we arrived in the UK 8 years ago with nothing so, via Freecycle, ebay, Ikea and the Dump, we amassed a household of stuff. Then 3 years ago, we got all our stored stuff shipped from Oz to the UK, apparently judiciously sorted by DH (!) but, as you can imagine, a huge amount of duplication. I have done a lot of work in choosing the best of each and disposing of the other but we still ended up with a lot of 'extra' stuff we don't need here and now but which is too good to dispose of AND will 'come' when the present item dies or wears out.

I'd agree that ideally the extra space would be better utilised downstairs- I will be very interested in hearing what the council have to say on Monday about the faint possibility that we can buy a strip of land from them. That would change the Game Plan a lot- the ability to create a decent, brick built shed with proper access on that side of the house for the garage stuff, then we can convert the garage. But currently, the legal access around that side of the house is literally 60cms wide (OK, we 'use' more in that there's no fence before you get into the council's 'nature strip' so we can sweep wider but I wouldn't dare presume anything esp in putting in say bike storage- then find we can't get the bikes in or out!).

[Erebus]

Well, sadly, the loft won't be happening as the quote came in at £45,000 exclusive of painting and carpeting and sanitary ware. So £50k to create a rumpus room. I don't think so!

[ChitChattingWithKids]

Are you redoing the roof at all? £45,00 is a little on the high side if you're not changing the roof line. I would have thought £30,000 -£35,000.

Try another few builders first before you give up.

[plupervert]

How big/wide is your garage? I ask because many garages are useless for modern cars, and since on-street parking is so prevalent, you could be losing something that cannot be used and which no-one would miss. The last two places I have lived in with garages would simply not fit our car (estate).

Light need not be an issue for the "former" garage: you would have a front wall (fronting the driveway), and there may be plumbing in there would could allow you to turn it into a kitchen/utility room, with access to the garden so you could use it to pass through with bikes, etc. Otherwise, you could split it in two, add storage in the front for bikes, then have the room "behind" as a separate diner/study/quiet room, with proper storage for indoor things.

[Erebus]

Thanks chat and plup.

The roof isn't being redone at all! Just 6 dormer windows placed in it. I think £45k is rather steep, too. I mean, the bare faced fact is we won't increase the value of the house by £50k (the 'finished' price) as it STILL only has one large (2 connected-rooms) 'living space', and one single, integral garage.

The next line of enquiry (apart from getting 2 more quotes) is to see if the council will sell us a 1m strip of land alongside the house. Then we could access around the side properly with a 1.6 m opening as opposed to the 60cm we currently have. That way we could use the shed for a fair bit of the necessary garage-stuff storage and free up the garage to convert it as it is, despite only being 12 years old, too small for our car!

Without an alternative, other storage space, the conversion of the garage would leave us with a too-small new 'living room' with a (not yet installed) window fronting a 6' fence and the sheer wall of the neighbour's house.