House extension - how did you afford it?

[Stuckinstressville]

We bought a £500k 2and half bedroom terraced house in Wandsworth on the northern line in 2013. Worth about £700k now but we have one ds and one on the way and feel we have run out of space. The kitchen is galley and you cannot eat in it, living room is also the playroom and dining room and the nursery only
Fits a cot and chest of drawers. Spare room is for mums and family who stay a tiny double, the master is lovely with space for
A nice big bed . One bathroom 1.4m by 1.4m and that's it. Oh and a 70ft garden.

We have scope to sidereturn and add 2m to the end too, plus a loft bedroom,wet room and box room/study.

So having had a few builders and designers come it is looking like £150k for a basic build and £180k for things like nice glazing, underfloor heating etc.

We can't afford to move but we're are shocked at this cost!

Most of the road have extended and my question is - how do you afford it? We will need a second Mortgage! Help!

That sounds very high construction costs. Get a few more quotes. I know London isn't cheap to build in. I've done it myself and the parking charges drove me crazy. What I did was have one company build out the shell. Two years later, after I had saved up more money I finished it out, doing much of the work myself and I coordinated plumber and electrician coming in myself. I spent £80k building out one story in Brook Green with foundations to support three floors on top. Once that was done I spent £20-25k on extending each floor. I managed the project myself. This was in 2011.

Bottom floor was build out with high end kitchen etc which is why it cost so much. The upper floors were bathroom and rooms so not much to spend on. I used middle of the road materials.

Extortionate amount. Ours was a lot less starting in 2004. We used some savings and borrowed an extra 20k on mortgage. DH did some work and we paid for some as we worked.

The average seems to be £3k per m s.

Recently they know many can't afford to move and supply etc demand ... we both work and pay for childcare... agh!

We borrowed on our mortgage
Can't you just knock down the kitchen wall?
Have a large kitchen diner/play room?
Take some meterage from one bedroom and add to the boxroom?
We put a wc under our stairs

I think the cost in 2004 and the cost now (having extended last year) wiĺl bear no resemblance at all. Market was completely different. If you're talking a double storey extension, plus loft conversion, I don't think the quotes are way off.

We remortgaged, took equity out of the house to fund it.

Your house has increased in value by 200k/40%. If you can afford the repayments then you should remortgage. If you can't then you can't afford the extension...

Stuck, keep on looking. Someone near us put their plans out to 20 odd builders, only 8 replies but they got some to pick from

The ballparks we have been estimated are £120-200k depending on build finish, our job is different but there is a huge range seemingly out there. We are planning to move out and are fine doing it in the winter

Mrs Martel if only! The kitchen wall is load bearing so will need steels- the stairs max underfloor height is 5.4ft and the box room
Is all by itself sticking out with 2
External walls , bathroom and party wall with neighbours . On a mid level floor so can't fiddle.

We did remortgage to a 5 year fixed but has 3 more to go. Will prob get a second mortgage!

So was ours...we just put an RSJ in

To answer your question those quotes sound extortionate

I was stating how we afforded it. Yes of course prices will be more but it seems very expensive.

Is this because people don't move and extend instead.

Can you find out how much you can afford to borrow and speak to builders to see what you can do for that money. Maybe worth considering doing essentials ATM then the rest when you can afford it.

Girls that is a good move! Will have a look !

There is a house along our road, we got talking to the builders, apparently they have spent £200k just putting in the basement with £120k on the rest of the refurb

But frankly around here they quote stupid money, we got a quote for £15k to redo a Victorian plaster ceiling. One ceiling.

Blimey that's a lot! My brother in law had a 2 storey side extension done last year. Large reception room plus extension to kitchen and an additional bathroom and additional bedroom upstairs. £66k completed including new kitchen and fancy woodburnwr.

Good luck. We did a kitchen extension this year. Stressful but worth it.

Considering what you want done (it's basically three jobs iyswim) and the fact that you want high-end finishing for the kitchen, then I can see how it is going to cost £150k.

Have you tried using mybuilder.com to get several different quotes? You might be able to shave £10k+ off by doing this.

We saved £15k by doing similar.

We recently spent £50k on a loft conversion (bedroom and en suite) in commuter belt surrey. I can see how a side return would add an extra £50k or more on to that, plus the expense of new kitchen etc. We extended our mortgage to afford it. Still cheaper than moving.

In West London. Did kitchen extension (increased depth by 3.5m) and loft extension with ensuite last year and came to well over 100k including kitchen and other fittings/finishing bits and pieces. I'd rather not think of total cost. We paid for it from savings and cashing in shares.

If you have a spare bedroom used only for visitors, wouldn't you be better putting one or more DC in there (or turning it into playroom) and paying for a Travelodge/AirBandB during the nursery years. £70 a night seems better value than the expense and hassle of extending...

Can't you do it in stages? It would probably benefit you most to extend the ground floor first and have more living space. Maybe get a sofa bed downstairs for guests and then use the spare room more. Don't get a high end kitchen, you can get lovely ones from Wickes etc and save £££. Get integrated appliances so people can't see that you've gone for cheaper brands!

It's not cheap, is it?

We're having a single storey side return job done at the moment and it's (hopefully) going to come to about £110K. That's with a pretty basic spec as we couldn't afford luxuries like underfloor heating or custom glazing.

To fund it we sold a property that we bought in our early twenties (when 0% deposits were a thing) and had been renting out, plus saving as much as we could over the last decade. Everyone I've spoken to has said it's worth doing both in terms of lifestyle and financially - let's hope they're right!

I agree with NonnoMum - all very well having a room for visitors, but give your child a bigger room and as they get older and can play unsupervised, they can play in their bedroom leaving downstairs as more adult space. If you haven't got the room then you have to draw the line somewhere.

How about just doing the loft conversion first? Does a family of four need two bathrooms, even if the current one is small? Maybe put a downstairs loo in instead if there isn't one.

If I were you I'd turn your guest room into a child's room and do the side return making some sort of area for guests to stay downstairs. Then convert the loft in three years when your fix comes to an end.