How do people afford extensions/loft conversions?

[AngryFeet]

We have just bought our first house (well bungalow actually). We like it a lot but it was a bit of a compromise as I did want a house but this is in the perfect location and has a lot of space in comparison to what else we could have got for our money. It also has lots of potential to extend and lots of others on the street have done it.

We are hoping to do a loft conversion - fingers crossed we can fit two bedrooms in as we would like DC to go up there, hopefully with a small shower room/toilet - and then a single storey extension at the back, removing the current single glazed conservatory and creating a larger lounge and a large kitchen diner.

We are about to get some quotes and ideas of what is possible so we can try to start saving. Chances are we will never be able to save the full amount. We are in the south east so I am guessing the loft will be £35K and the extension approx £50K.

How do people get the money to do this sort of stuff?

Normally by remortgaging or inheritance

Do you have any money to save at all? We're saving £250 a month between us at present, its meant cutting everything right back but it soon builds up. Are you sure it'd be that much?

Sounds an awful lot. Wait till you get the quotes, then worry about it. Ask them to quote seperatel for the two projects, assume you don't have to do it all in one go?

We saved like mad and then got a loan for the rest. Well worth it, we LOVE our loft

we are wanting a new porch/utility room, looking to add sum to our mortgage, approx £8000 for the shell. We will do the interior cosmetic stuff ourselves

we got a loan for 12k for our extension. we just see the repayments as part of our mortgage but will be paid back quicker.

we've just added a single story extension to the back of our bungalow, increasing the house to a 3 bed and adding about 20 to 30k to the house value.

We inherited a bit and we're (hopefully) taking advantage of low interest rates to borrow more to pay for the extension. I'll be doing a lot of the interior stuff myself and I am pretty good at doing this stuff on a budget. We're gaining an extra bedroom, which will probably take a lodger cum babysitter to defray the cost.

We added the cost of the loft to our existing mortgage.

Remortgaging or inheritance. We don't have £35k spare at the end of each year either!

yep remortgaged / inherited or in our case we were luckily enough to have been given it by elderly relatives who wanted us to use it for our growing family.

We are looking to use savings and some fo DH's redundancy money (good package and he now has a new job). I think your figures are probably about right. We have been quoted about £35k for the loft, but need to pay for bathroom fittings and decor, carpets etc on top of that. By the time it is all done and furnished, I think we'll probably be north of £40k.

i live in the south east. our extension cost £22,000. we extended our kitchen double the size.

How many quotes have you gotten?

Added to mortgage.

Think your estimates are right based on our experience (London).

Good luck.

We did it by taking our mortgage back up to 30 years (we were at 21 years in the flat we sold) . We would be at 13 now

remortgage plus a loan but yes the costs are a little eye watering aren't they