Extension - WWYD?

[IHeartKingThistle]

Hi, I'm after some opinions!

We live in a 4 bed house with a double garage. When we bought the house we planned at some point to convert half the garage into a playroom for the DC, which could then become a TV room/study. It would be quite a small room, however, as the utility room has already been taken out of that half of the garage. So the room I suppose would be just over half the size of a single garage.

Many of our neighbours have also gone upstairs and built above the whole double garage. I would really like to do this - we could have a massive 'rec room' up there with a bed and bathroom. Obviously this would be a much bigger job but would give us way more space. I have no issue with the playroom being upstairs.

The original plan was to do the garage conversion this year, then the upstairs extension as and when we can afford it.

But here's the issue. We had a builder/structural guy round at the weekend to talk through the options. Turns out the garage conversion is not as simple a job as we had hoped due to gas/electric meters, fuse boxes/drains all being in there, plus we'd need to slope the ceiling to get the stairs for the upstairs extension in. Bottom line is that the garage conversion would be smaller than we had hoped, and much more expensive - £16,000 with fees and planning, not including carpets and stuff.

I just can't decide where to go from here. We have been saving up - we might be able to scrape the 16 grand this year but part of me thinks we should just keep on saving and go straight for the upstairs extension, which would be more expensive but better value for money in terms of the space we would gain. But it might take 2 or 3 years to save enough for the big extension. The DC are 8 and 5, and we had said they could have a playroom this year, but I'm sure they can wait.

Thanks for reading! So do we go for the smaller extension faster, or the bigger one later? Is there any point in doing a tiny garage conversion? WWYD?

I'd definitely go for the bigger one later. Sounds fab by the way

I'd go for the bigger one later too - it will give you much more space in the longer term.= and probably add much more value to your property.

Also what do you store in the garage at the moment - bikes, kids stuff etc? where would that go..ours seem to accumulate more outside 'toys' as they get older....

Interesting! Thanks for responses!

It's a double garage and we'd be leaving a single garage as a garage, partly because DH is adamant that a house needs a garage and partly because our garden doesn't really have anywhere we could put a shed (awkward shape). All the bikes and stuff would easily go in the single garage left over.

The bigger extension does seem to make more sense...

Wait for the bigger one. Never shell out cash to half solve a problem one day I might even take my own advice

See I really wanted more downstairs space, I really wanted another reception room. However it turns out the only way to access the garage conversion would be through the utility room. That does NOT count in my book! OK for a playroom but SO much money for a little room off a utility.

"Let's go and sit in the TV room - just step over the pile of washing. Mind out for the teetering pile of recycling!"

Does your garage have deep enough foundations for building over at a later stage?

If not you'd have to deconstruct what's there already and start from scratch, so no point spending 16k now really.

Definitely go for both stories, otherwise you'll have to rebuild the roof again. A double extension does not cost twice as much as a single. Much more money efficient to do it all at once.

Go for the upstairs. And I second about the foundations of the garage, can you build on top of it?

Well 3 out of the 6 identical houses on the street have done it so I assume so. Steelwork I think.

I would be excited about saving up for the big job I think - 16k on the little one does not get me excited at all!