We can do a loft extension and a rear extension, but only one now (the other in two years).

[Reality]

Which should we do first?

There are five of us in a small three bed house. DH and I have the biggest room (it's about 11x12), DS1 is 11 and he shares with DS2 who is 2, in a room slightly smaller than our (10x10, say).

DD is 9 and has the box room.

We currently have no second loo, a dining room/playroom/piano/drying washing room and a front room, but all open plan. Small galley kitchen.

Loft conversion will give us a big master suite and we can borrow from our room to make DD's bigger, so three small doubles and a master suite.

Downstairs we can go back about four meters and gain a family room, utility and downstairs loo. It will mean sorting the garden out as well as we currently have a garage in the back which will be demolished to leave a big square (currently a squashed L shape).

We need both, but can only afford one now (with a remortgage) and one in 18months (endowment).

So which one now? What will benefit our family more in the short term, and extra bedroom or more living space.

In your situation I'd convert the loft first then do a rear extension, so DS1 can have a room of his own - I'm guessing he's started secondary school and would benefit from a quiet space to do homework, etc.

We have much younger DC (toddler and baby) and did a rear extension before converting our loft. It gives us a large kitchen diner, utility, loo and family room and it's a fabulous space, especially with small ones to keep an eye on.

From a practical point of view it's apparently easier to convert lofts without an extension being in the way; we're in the process of getting our loft converted and all of the companies we had quotes from said this,if memory serves it makes positioning of scaffolding a bit trickier.

Thank you, that's a good point and one I hadn't thought of.

I'm leaning towards loft first. DS actually starts secondary next year (he's a September birthday) so it coudl all be done and dusted in time, which would be nice for him.

No advice, other than to get plans drawn up for both now, and put both in your planning application. Once the work is started you have several years to complete it, so you won't have to apply for planning permission again. And if you had to sell, you can sell "with planing permission for xx".

I would normally say extend downstairs for added family space. Given the ages of your children, I think that doing the loft extension makes sense

Also, a loft extension will mean mess/dust everywhere as they have to come through your house a lot. You dont want them in and out and up and down after you have done your groundloor and redecorated.

But there is no need for the ground floor rear extension to have any effect on the first and second floor of your house.

I'd do loft first, your children are at the age to keep Toys etc in their rooms, a loft extension will also provide more space/sanctuary for when you have downstairs done. Dust tends to fall down, so if you had loft done last you'd have more areas to clean downstairs!

Do one planning application and one building regs application to do both bits of the work. Costs less that way.

You have 3 years to start the work, but once it is started you have no time limit to finish - so if you do the loft conversion, the PP for the rear extension is effectively valid indefinitely if you made it on the same application. We did this and it worked well.

I would do the loft first from a practical point of view.

That's what the builder said, about getting it all in place now.

We've just got to decide what we're doing and get it all started.

We can't remortgage until May anyway so this is all very previous but he said we can start all the plans and things now.

Apparently it's all within permitted development? So no planning permission as such but obvs needs signing off by building regs people.

I think it is harder to do a loft conversion if you have already extended out at the back - scaffolding etc becomes more difficult and, assuming that you would need a steel for the downstairs extension, this might need to be recalculated if you then go and add an extra storey. So I'd do loft first.

Is moving completely out of the question? I'm just wondering if by the time you've paid out for all this work and increased your mortgage anyway, it would be cheaper to move.

We have the loft done and a rear extension, but the money spent wouldn't be made back if we sold as the average price on our road is 25-30k less, as we've discovered now we're thinking of moving. People don't want to pay the price our size of house is worth in this area. It's worth keeping on mind, unless you're sure you'll stay where you are for a long time.

If you do extend, I'd do the loft first.

It's this or move.

We would need to spend another £150k at least to get the space we need. Plus about 12k in Stamp Duty.

The builders very rough estimate is 60k for everything.

If we extend we'll be here forever.

Definitely loft first. As well as all the points made so far, the extra bedroom will also relive the pressure on space downstairs.