Not sure what to do, would appreciate other opinions. We have received an inheritance and now own our home outright. We are in our late twenties with two children, on a low income. I bloody love my house, it is a decent sized ex council 3 bedroom semi, kitchen diner, conservatory, nice garden, south facing. We originally rented it and are so happy to own it, I never imagined we'd own a house anytime soon.
The previous owner was a bodger and we have already fixed a lot of his work. The kitchen desperately needs replacing. It's quite long but not that wide. There is a 'utility room' next to this. It's the same length as the kitchen and essentially a long corridor which leads to the washing machine. It is an old flat roof, which originally covered outdoor toilet/shed, with bits of wall knocked out, bits added in and old windows and a door stuck in the gaps - like Lego. I am fairly certain it will collapse at some point. There is a side passage next to this, leading to the garden.
I would like to extend out by removing this 'utility room' and building to the boundary wall, so we'd have a large kitchen diner, with a normal sized utility and possibly downstairs loo, skylights in the new bit and bifold doors to garden. The cost of doing this will presumably be quite high. We have about 30k left to kickstart our saving for this project. The plans will probably change over time when it becomes more real, these are just my initial thoughts. The house has increased in value by a bit over the past two years, but I definitely don't think we'd recoup the money we'd be spending, because of the council estate we are on. We are very happy here, walking distance to family members/school/friends and have always lived in the area. I have looked at other houses in the area and we couldn't afford something similar for the amount we'd have if we left this estate. I see no reason why we'd move anytime soon so part of me says do it, but the other part says it's a terrible financial decision! We are extremely careful with money and don't want to make a mistake.
Sorry for disjointed text, am breastfeeding!