Extend or move? I am clueless!

[Mimmit]

I am falling out of love with my house but am not sure what to do about it.
We are running out of space and as much as I declutter it is clear that space will always be tight. I would also like a spare room so we can have parents and visitors to stay.
My DP is more keen to stay put and work towards paying mortgage off. I would like to assess options but don't know how to go about it. These are my thoughts so far:
Make list of necessary/desirable work needed to house to maintain/improve storage and estimate cost

Get valuation from EA and (I am not sure if they do this) advise on what can be done to increase value/saleability

Consider redesign/extension. I am not sure about this. Can you get a builder to give suggestions and quote or should it be an architect and would this be very expensive?

I really don't know what to do.Neither of us are good at DIY or design. We have had some things done to the house which I don't think we researched very well and we are a bit disappointed. It kind of puts me off doing much more but I am so fed up with it and it is getting on top of me.

Sorry for rambling. Am laid up at the moment which doesn't help but I would appreciate any help. TIA

Why don't you start with a list of what your ideal house would have? Then tick off the bits your current house has already got, separate the remaining items into 'must have' and 'would like to have'.

With the 'must haves' then consider whether your current house can offer those items.

That should give you a place to start, and a place to start when talking to architects as well. Also, there's a book called 'architect your house' which is quite good. And lots of other books on the subject if you find reading and research helpful.

What sort of house do you live in, as some are more successfully extended than others?
how much will it cost to move up a rung on the property ladder in your area?
You should be able to get a free valuation from an estate agent and an indication of the cost of a larger house. don't forget that he/she will want you to move!
try and work out in your own head what you actually need/want. if your extension is just for visitors, is that really worth it.
if your husband wants to pay off the mortgage, is that because of perceived economic insecurity?

Thanks Rational.The list is a very sensible idea. I think it is just all the work an older house needs. It sounds daft but I have a continual battle with slugs in the kitchen which, although a decent size, puts me off eating in there. With old skirting, gaps etc it just never feels clean. I have tried filling holes etc but it never seems done!

7, thank you too. I live in a 3 bed detached. Smallish living room/playroom, dining room/playroom, tiny bathroom. Bedrooms are small by the time you work round chimney breasts and alcoves which are too shallow to make proper use of iyswim. They seem ok in size but in the biggest the door opens onto the bed whichever way we have it and we rely on storage in my DC1 room for a lot of our clothes (this may be helped with built in storage cupboards in our room but it would still be tight on space.

I know exactly what you mean about extensions. I think it may ruin the character of the house and although I have no idea of cost I think it may be no/not much cheaper than moving and may not solve all the issues.

DH is overly cautious and concedes this. We are lucky that he is as secure as can be expected in the current climate. I think the idea of being mortgage free appeals to him but we don't have any other loans or debts. We are overpaying and he yhinks we can be finished with it in 5years. It is also becase we are on a good rate (2.5%) so we did agree it made sense to overpay while we could and he is reluctant to get a new mortgage on higher rates.

I am currently part way through an extension that will more than double the house as it previously was. I was lucky in the sense that my house was a detatched corner large plot but small house.
As it stands at this moment it will have been far cheaper to move for us. However we wouldn't have been able to get anything in the setting we have and would have to have left the area which would mean moving schools etc.
We are doing our extension in stages have been granted planning permission for entire project so we are able to set our own time frames, and save and pay for what we can when we can.

And sorry, forgot to say a move up would be beween £70 and £100,000. That would be for a house we could stay in indefinately.

Hi nunnie. That sounds like a massive project. I hope you are pleased with how it is shaping up.
It sounds like you have the plot size to do it which makes it worth doing I think. I just have a feeling that ours would be an uneasy compromise, unpopular with the neighbours and eat into our garden a lot.
I would like to know what an architect would suggest. Do they do a free initial visit ( I fear not?!) How did you go about getting yours done?

We had 3 architect visits and non of them charged for consultation and all suggested something different.

Luckily we aren't overlooked from the back and there is nothing but a field on the side where the extension is, so our extention only affected to two houses opposite and once it is finished it should look better than the original mess (from previous owner) fingers crossed.

No one objected to plans thankfully.

Wow that sounds ideal. No wonder you wanted to stay! This has given me lots of food for thought thank you. all the best with your work. It sounds like you will have a beautiful home at the end of it!

It might be worth having a look at this - this is what we used. I didn't know of any architects locally that would come to the house and give us their advice for free, so we used this scheme - www.architectinthehouse.org.uk/

You have to make a donation to Shelter (minimum of £40 I think) and you get a local architect to come for an hour (the one who visited us stayed for about 2.5 hours!). Bonus is that they will know the area, how your local council will approach applications and what will / will not be granted planning permission. Came up with some good ideas for us. There is no obligation, if you want to take it further and have plans drawn up thats up to you, but its just a free (subject to the donation) consultation.

Mandy thanks so much for that. I like the idea of getting some advice for a donation. I will go and have a look at the link...

I've been reading with interest as we're considering an extension and I didn't know where to start! I've registered for artichtectinthehouse - what a great idea. Thanks Mandy

Mandy sorry to butt in, but did they give you an idea of cost? We know we can't afford to do what we want yet, but would like to know a rough budgetary figure...

Yes, we're talking an L shaped extension (across back of house and down the length of the side of the house where the driveway currently is) with the hope of going double storey for part of it. He just gave ball park figures. He said it would be between X & Y depending on the spec and the size we'd eventually be allowed. I think most people used £1000 per square metre of extension, slightly less if you're double storey.

Since the architect came round, I'd had 2 firms come round to quote for the work - no drawings as yet (one building firm gave me a figure from doing the drawings, getting the permissions and then building it all) without any outlay from us, and another firm quoted for the work in general terms but said if I wanted an accurate estimate I'd need the drawings.

EXTEND
We did a mahoosive extension on our semi - took two walls off the original house. I designed my kitchen diner from the ground up - EVERYTHING where I want it. The only thing I regret is our choice of plumber!
Start to finish, including decorating and carpets it came in at £1500 a square metre. And there were a LOT of square metres.
BUT we still live near the motorway, school, shops and have enough space to not need to move till the kids leave school.

And your garden will get WRECKED during the work so you can revamp it too!