Could you squeeze into 2 bed bungalow with 3 kids before extending?

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Our house buying options are very slim. There’s a 2 bed bungalow on a good plot that could be extended to 4 bed. Problem is we would have to live in it while obtaining planning consent and relevant works.

Would you? Have you? Kids are 6,8,10. Oldest male. Not worried about them sharing for short term and there is no law against it. But would it be mad?

Sounds very difficult.

Renovations take a long time, start to finish. design, planning, tendering, waiting for preferred builders to be ready to commence, build time.

Quite a lot of the house could be out of action during the works. And with limited bedroom space to retreat to, I think it could be a very fractious and stressful time.

Could you fit a caravan (as a bedroom) and/or builder's welfare unit on-site?

Our builders hired a unit from Elliott's like this: www.elliottuk.com/solutions/standard-layouts/office-canteen

It was a tight squeeze for a family kitchen for more than six months, but worked fantastically well - it was delivered by Elliotts to the area at the front of our house (using a crane off the back of a lorry) and we used half as our family kitchen (it had a hot water unit, laminate table, powerpoints which we used for microwave, coffee machine and convection hob, and window and sink). It was very secure. For storing food, cutlery and plates we used the kids' IKEA trofast storage unit (from their playroom which was out of action)

The builder, who we knew well, used the other half for his office. But you could easily use it as a bedroom. Move in a bed or small bunk bed and set of drawers.

Each half of the unit had an electric heater which warmed up the space quickly.

Various layouts and sizes are available from companies like Elliotts.

Here's a layout if you just want bedroom space and/or room to play

www.elliottuk.com/solutions/standard-layouts/two-offices-24-x-9

Anything's doable short term, but it'll be v hard when you lose the kitchen or living room temporarily. Could you hire a caravan for a few weeks at the worst point, to keep on site? If the budget won't stretch to that then are you sure you can afford the extension?

Thanks for your replies.

That’s definitely worth looking into. We would want a garden studio anyway so could do that first and use as a room. Will give it some thought.

Was wondering if we did loft conversion first to give 2 rooms. Then extend ground floor after.

I would say don't do it. It will not feel "short term" . Getting planning permission, building quotes, waiting for a start date, living with constant noise, terrible dust, areas of your existing house being out of bounds/ unusable/ filthy... The whole process could take a long time. 3 kids in one room when this is not their usual arrangement- arguing, oldest keeping youngest awake. I have done this exact same thing with 3 kids with one extra bedroom to start with and would NEVER do it again or recommend to anyone else. If you could live in a static caravan in the garden, maybe (although this will be very hard too) but living in the bungalow- no, don't do it.

6 + 8 year old girls in the largest bed room together.
10 year old buy in the second bedroom.

You and DH in the sitting room on a really decent sofa bed (consider additional mattress topper, can be rolled up and put behind the sofa during the day).

Yes if it is the right place it will be worth the inconvenience especially if you build the garden studio first.

Once that’s sorted it will give you so much flexibility for the build.

I would do it with the idea of 12 months as the timescale

That's a good idea about us in the lounge. We are renting now and on a sofa bed with topper and the comforts of our own home are a distant memory! So yes could put son in second room. Good idea.
12 months more pain sounds worth it it we can end up with somewhere awesome.

That's certainly a good idea before the building work starts. Once the builders are in you might be pushed to keep all the rooms in use all the way through, whether you're doing the loft conversion or extension.

Short term pain, long term gain. The children will probably find it quite fun, you and DH will probably be quite stressed! :-)

If the location is right then go for it. I would.

Could you afford to rent for 6 months whilst the work is being done? Even just a 2 bed flat?

Anything is OK short term. 8f the bungalow is a good price including renovations then go for it.

I always work my way down in houses and think fabric first. Loft room first is a good plan, as is garden room.

We did similar, Dd1 had just turned 11 when we began the build and shared with dd2 (9) and ds (4).
It was chaos, but so worth it in the end.
From planning permission to build was about 6 months, build itself about the same.

Garden room is a great idea for some extra space first though!

Thanks everyone.
Great to hear people survived this.
We probably could overlap our rental for a couple of months.
Just need to convince my other half now!