Move or Improve..? HELP!

[NEmum]

Currently live in our ideal village, lovely 2 bed property & due out first child in a few months.

We have been considering extending downstairs so we have an extra reception room but I'm worried by the time baby comes we'll be craving even more space. Moving within our village is difficult, v few homes come up & we are set on staying here to raise a family.

Has anyone experienced this themselves..? What did you do & how do you feel about your decision with hindsight?

Thanks in advance! X

We've just been through this exact experience. DH and I moved to lovely, small semi in ideal, quiet, village 4 years ago and thought we'd never want to leave. We now have a 2 yo DD and we're desperate for more space! Our living space is all open plan and it would be LOVELY to just have a room where we could go and spend time alone, either with or without DD! I also feel like that need will increase as she wants her own space to play with friends, do homework, etc. Saying that, I'm glad we didn't rush into moving before she was born, because it was fine for the first year and we now know from experience what we need in terms of family living space. Pre-DD I didn't know enough about life with small children to understand the practicalities of living with one

Good luck whatever you decide

Thank you so much for your response! Makes me think staying where we are will be a good thing for now...thanks for taking the time to reply X

I agree. it would be best stay for awhile.

With 2 bedrooms, I'd be wondering if there was a way to add a 3rd, unless you're dead set on only having 1 child of course. Might be worth getting an estate agent/surveyor opinion on potential return of doing an extension, should you decide to sell down the line.

I really really wish we'd stayed in our first house in your situation, we'd be living the dream now, 12 years later.

I would wait until the baby is born and you've got through the first haze of parenthood before making a decision ( unless you're planning another soon after). Babies don't take up much room.
Bear in mind that the whole process of designing, planning, building, finishing and decorating an extension will take at least a year including finding an architect and builder and applying for planning permission. Building work is messy and noisy and ideally not best coincided with new babies when you tend to spend a lot of time at home. If you wait until your baby is, say, 3 or 4 months old, and then start the ball rolling, you could have an extension built by the time he/ she is 2. Generally, the larger the extension, the more cost effective it is per square metre gained, so go for the biggest you can afford / get planning permission for. It's also often cheaper than moving if it's just more space that you want.

We did this with our house : extension was finished 2 months before DC4 was born which worked out perfectly for timing.

Thanks everyone. only way to add a third bedroom is to go into the loft, it would effect the layout of the upstairs & be v v expensive so we are ruling that out.

Plans are find one, permission has been granted & we have a builder on board - I was just having cold feet! Build should be complete by middle of oct, baby due December, feel excited about it now! X

That sounds ideal, OP. Would advise to match everything - bricks, window styles, doors - as closely as possible to the original so it doesn't look like an extension. You should be able to get back at least what you've spent and quite possibly a lot more, on a well-designed extension when you eventually sell up. Good luck!