Which extension? Bungalow

[flumpybear]

Hi - I'm hoping for some expert advice from you guys please - we have a large 3. Bedroom bungalow but with two children we've grown out of it. Our location is fabulous so we don't want to move, we want to extend. The previous owners put two extra bedrooms on the back about 25 years ago which meant when we originally moved in 10 years ago we could make the kitchen much larger and move the bathroom to a dead space that wasn't anything useful.

So now we e two options

1. Extend into the loft - looking at three bedrooms and 1 bathroom for kids plus en suite for us

Problem: the lifts are large so space not an issue but due to the angle of the roof the height isn't good so would need either to build up external walls a bit to lift the height

1. If we van buy a small patch of land from neighbour (he's considering this for various reasons ... they don't live there it's a rental and space isn't needed particularly), wed really like to build a front extension which I'd prefer as we're looking at hallway with washing room, large cloakroom for coats and shoes, office then upstairs two beds and bathroom and a loft bedroom for me and husband - none of this would encroach on our current bungalow, just 'tie in'

So, here's my queries

Which is more do-able? I'm assuming the second would mean a battle with the council as it's already had an extension so footprint may then be too large (currently garages on the majority of the ground we want to build on do not sure if this would be included as extra footprint?

Cost - which would be cheaper?

Move out? I doubt we'd need to move out with option 2 but assuming we would with option 1, how long would this likely be whilst work being done?

I'll try to draw a diagram if poss but essentially our bungalow is loaf shape, about 10-12 ish metres wide and 16-18 ish metres in length (very approx lengths!)

Photo of my rubbish diagram

Pic

no photo?
In my area, you would not be allowed to build onto the front of any property i.e bring the property forwards from its original footprint. Not sure about this being a national thing but don't buy land until you have checked this?

Hopefully a bit clearer

writing on photo is difficult to read. Is this what already exists or your proposed plans. have I got this right - your neighbour has a garage on your land??.
You have 2 children and 3 bedrooms already? Is the bungalow very small as otherwise I am a bit confused as to why you need a further 3 bedrooms?

Thanks @takemetomars
All the houses in my street are very different looking, ours has zero kerb appeal too at the moment, some really close to the road, ours is really far back and if we did extend it would bring us in line with the neighbours bungalow as they're much further forward than us.
But good point I would need to check out

This is current

Our bungalow is big but compressed. No storage and we want to change the room by the lounge into a dining room, have a separate part at the back (current bedrooms and bathroom) as an Independent area for elderly parent if needed

Yes the garage for neighbours in in the middle of our land as the properties were rentals to start with and when they split it about 50 years ago they split it so the neighbours garage is in our land - Rubbish set up, we own all the pathways around the neighbours house so literally as they step out of their house they step
In our land, we don't need it so looking tondo a swap of pathways for the garage plus bit of money - essentially so both properties are split off from each other so no troublesome right of access etc which impinges on both house prices

hmm
if you just have 2 bedrooms with a bathroom upstairs is the height better - ie more of the rooms are in the tall bits?
then keep one master bedroom downstairs
and keep the other bedrooms, bedroom shaped for resale purposes, but repurpose them as an office and a cloak/launder room

If you want to extend out the front by demolishing the garage and up by raising the height of the roof and rejigging inside rooms then I would seriously look at knocking the house down and starting again. I think you can claim the vat back it might work out cheaper.

Blimey chicken that sounds like a huge job 😱

Oh it'll be either extend at from OR lift roof, not both

Probably but then what you are thinking of doing seems a fairly big job. At some point when you are doing that much work it might be easier to demolish. The work you have suggested doesn't seem to me the type where you can still live in the house anyway.

Crosspost there. I'd look at extending forward then. If it's isn't a uniform Street then you might get planning permission.

Definitely not uniform street, there's a mix of Victorian properties, modern flats, mid to late 1900's builds plus a few shops too so pretty much anything yo can think of - ours is probably one of the smallest non- flat properties in the street too as there are large 5-6 bed properties

We have just put 3 bedrooms in our bungalow loft conversion, we needed a new roof and raised the ridge height at the same time.

It was not cheap, we also did some rejigging of downstairs layout and new kitchen and flooring throughout. Total cost approx £160k

We had to move out for 6 months. We considered knocking it down and rebuilding but we would only have got a better layout no extra square footage for our money.

We bought th original bungalow very cheaply on a good plot as it was in need of updating and the layout was mad. The house now works for us as a family and we intend to stay for a long time.

Nearly all the bungalows around me have been demolished and rebuilt as houses. There is a huge advantage in doing this, if you want to extend in future, the clock is set to zero. I would definitely start again if the plot is good and it’s in a desirable area.

Perfect @Hungrylimpetmum - figured it would be over 100k

These guys might be able to help you do the roof without messing with the walls. www.apexloft.com/about

I think that given all of the extra info you have provided, only you can decide if it is worth doing this.
I think £160 sounds reasonable depending where you are. Here, it would cost more than that to do what you are planning.
Def buy the garage!!
You would need to move out I think.
I would have to absolutely want to die there to go through all of that but it is a very personal thing. I would also be considering the onward possible losses if for some reason you decided to move as it is unlikely you will recoup your investment (again, this depends on where you live)

@DonaldWeasley - wow that looks amazing g! Have you used them before?

No but I think they were mentioned on here so I bookmarked it - do a search for apex or
Woody. It might have been on a thread about econoloft?