Another boring Move or Extend question! And if extend, what is the best way?

[southnorwoodmum]

I live in a Victorian 2 bed terraced house. I am not sure why I bought an old house, because I never liked old and just bought what everyone else thought was gorgeous. What used to be a former 3rd bedroom upstairs it has been converted into bathroom for a long time.

As our family has expanded, I would like to have 3 bedrooms. And have always dreamed of new and shiny, with sliding glass doors, straight angles etc. Have found a house 2 miles away which ticks the boxes of 3 bed house, new(ish) and a potential for glass sliding doors :)
The style I have always imagined for my house does not suit for a period house. I would spoil the house if I'd do that. So at the moment I have to put up with all nooks and crannies. It does look lovely but I never felt fond of it...

Extending our current house would probably be the smartest option. People in our road have a variety of 3 bed layout:

1. bathroom on the ground floor at the back
2. 3rd bedroom in a loft room possibly with ensuite
3. one bedroom reduced to single and (small) bathroom squeezed in between bedrooms
4. part of downstairs cut off as a bathroom.
   So there are cheaper or more expensive options, but I am afraid no matter what I do I will never appreciate what I have and I just don't want to rip the character out.

What would you do? Move or extend?
If extend, which of the options sounds the best?

Appreciate your replies!

If you really don't like your house, move. But financially you might be better off extending and staying put because moving house costs so much money. Depends on what you would have to spend on getting any work done, and also and would you need to spend any money doing up the new house.

I personally would go for staying put and putting a 3rd bedroom in the loft with ensuite (slightly biased as that is what we have done to our 2 bed Victorian terrace). I think in London you will get your money back when you go to sell.

A loft room with ensuite has made our house a bit top heavy, we did put it on the market a couple of years ago (we changed our mind about selling), and potential buyers loved our really modern upstairs and were disappointed by the size of the ground floor.

Loads of buyers would love a Victorian property with a filled in side return rear extension with glass sliding doors, that is what we are planning to do next. It is an expensive type of extension to do though, but we are still confident we would get our money back when we sell.

I guess what I am trying to say is if you are clever you can bring modern into an old house and not lose the original features. It does take some creativity and a lot of thought to get it right. You could find yourself falling in love with your house if you get it right.

A larger house is generally nicer and more convenient than a small house with bits tacked on.

Our last house was a 2-bed Victorian and, when our first sale fell through, the agent told us that the only properties similar to ours that were selling were ones that had been modernised but retained some of the 'main' period features - fireplaces, coving etc - but only really high quality-looking ones.

Though in the event we easily found other buyers, I know from my rightmove habit, from the houses we viewed and from some feedback that we had, there is a big market at the moment for period houses that have had the creases ironed out, as it were.

I think, if you do it well, you can get the clean line thing and retain character and that that will appeal to a lot of people.

Maybe it would be worth doing the loft and then selling and getting the kind of house you want?

Move, like PigletJohn says nothing worse than a house where someone has tried to make the most of it but not doing a great job.

None of those options sound good and even doing the loft may mean your home is top heavy compared with the space downstairs.

We had a lovely 3 bed house, which was great when there was just 3 of us. Added another child to the mix and they started to grow and we soon realised that the house was too small as was the garden.

We moved a few years ago to a larger 4 bed, we could afford it because catchment wise it is very close to an okay school but luckily both my children were already in an outstanding primary so we could move out of the expensive estate surrounding the school.

It is our forever home, building work is never without issues, mess, stress, time. We are about to put an extension on our house because the kitchen was always too small in comparison with the rest of the house, we are in a newish build.

Don't just consider the now, consider 5 or 10 years down the line. It was that thought that made us widen the net to consider secondary schools in our move. We have no regrets. Admittedly it cost to move but not nearly anything like the cost of an extension.

Thank you guys. I should be fond of my house. But my heart is not in it. I wonder if it will ever be... I see how it is a very stupid reason for moving, but just cannot change the feeling. I really wish I could, though!!

Move.
If you extend you will still not be satisfied and still want to move. Buyers in general do not like main bathrooms downstairs. Loft conversions are expensive.

Also if you extend & house prices drop you will loose money on the extension. This may not matter if you love the house, but if you don't you will kick yourself.

While modernizing of old houses can work if done well it is expensive and if you're not a person who is in tune with the house you are likely to get it wrong.