Kitchen extension or loft conversion?

[MyCatScaresDogs]

If you wanted an extra bedroom and more space downstairs (including a downstairs loo and a kitchen big enough to eat in), which would you prioritise?

House is a 3-bed 30s semi (2 bedrooms and a box room, knocked through living/dining room and galley kitchen). Currently have 2 DCs (aged 4 and newborn). We have one bedroom, DC1 has the box room, and the other is a spare room. For various reasons, we’re keen to keep a spare room if possible.

A side return extension isn’t possible and none of the architects we’ve had found have been very keen on the idea of reconfiguring the back of the house to get a fourth bedroom out of a part double height extension.

We were originally going to do the ground floor extension to get a decent kitchen and downstairs loo, with a view to doing a loft conversion at a later stage, maybe 5 years down the line. We are now thinking it might be better to do the loft conversion first (also cheaper) to get the bedrooms that we need, and to do the ground floor extension at a later stage.

No plans to move - we see this as a long-term home. Cost-wise, the loft conversion is cheaper and costs more predictable. We could stretch to the ground floor extension but it would cost more and I suspect there are more likely to be hidden costs; the building work would also be more disruptive, I think.

Which would you do first and why? Which is more useful with children under ten, living space and an eat-in kitchen, or sufficient bedrooms?

We only have one child at the moment and we are doing a ground floor extension, small loo downstairs, kitchen living diner. As our lounge is separate, we had in mind maybe to have our bedroom in the lounge in case we need to larger bedroom upstairs for the children (if we are blessed with another one) for a few years when they are at an age where they don't want to share. Our loft is partially converted, but doesn't count as a bedroom. No proper stairs, rest of house not upgraded. Don't think we are able to do it, so will keep it as storage.

I think an eat in kitchen is so much more useful than a spare bedroom with children. Once I had a preschooler and was weaning a baby, spending every mealtime darting between dining room and kitchen for every drink refill/damp cloth/seconds/pudding/fresh spoon got old really quickly! First world problems I suppose, but there's a reason why eat in kitchens are all the rage. Any mileage in moving dining table into a kitchen extension and reverting back to the old separate dining room and living room? Then the old dining room becomes playroom/office/spare room, and you might not even need the loft conversion at all.

Separate living spaces become more useful as children get older, we've found. Especially if they take up instruments like oboe and violin!

What would be the impact of the loft conversion - would it compromise any of the bedrooms,and if so, how much?

Kitchen.

Ooh, a unanimous view! Interesting!

So we originally planned to extend on the ground floor first, adding in an eat-in kitchen, converting the existing kitchen to downstairs loo and utility, and reinstating the wall between sitting room and dining room. This would leave us with a separate sitting room at the front and an L-shaped space at the rear. This would either be a kitchen-diner and a sort of snug-playroom-maybe office or a kitchen and sitting area plus dining room.

I will spare you the saga but the bottom line is that we had plans drawn up but the architect we used caused us a major problem by failing to act properly on our behalf at the planning stage. So for various reasons, we are no further forward than a year ago. Hence us pausing to take stock, especially as we are now a family of four.

In terms of bedrooms, we had envisaged baby sleeping in the spare room at the cot stage, but then we will either have to get rid of the “spare room” or acquire an extra bedroom. DP is precious about his sleep being disturbed and we are also some distance from family, who visit regularly, hence wanting to keep a spare room for as long as possible.

In answer to pp’s question, the loft conversion would not compromise any of the existing bedrooms but would massively cut down on storage (obviously).

Kitchen for me, no question. My theory is that with young children you need lots of communal living space and with older children you need more personal bedroom space.

I’d do the ground floor extension too. I’d keep the room at the front of the house separate so your partner could have s sofa bed there. When your LO is older, it could be your adult sitting room/study/occasional guest bedroom.

Kitchen.

I'd always prioritise downstairs space - quite simply as you spend more time there.

That said I agree with a pp that when children hit their teens bedroom space becomes very important- but you're years away from that.

I also think the sofa bed is a good idea that would (with the kitchen extension) solve all your issues for a few years whilst you save up for phase 2.

As a final point - you say you have no plans to move - but if you did for unseen reasons then the kitchen extension is likely to add more value.

We had the loft done last year and will do the kitchen extension in the future. I disagree that a kitchen extension is likely to add more value; we were told unanimously by estate agents, a surveyor and an architect that obviously nothing is ever guaranteed but that typically an extra bedroom is more likely to increase the value than a kitchen extension. But you’ve said that’s not why you’re doing it anyway. We actually are doing it that way round in case we needed to remortgage to borrow extra for the kitchen extension, having already increased the value of the house with an extra bedroom. We also needed the bedroom as DS2 was bursting out of his tiny room and the grandparents needed a room as they stay fairly often. Good luck with whatever you decide.

I will differ from the mainstream for these reasons:

1. the downstairs work will be messier and hideously disruptive. You have a newborn and a preschooler.
2. If you do the kitchen first, there will be mess created in your lovely new space when you then do the loft. Having had both ends done as it were, I would say do the loft first, less planning issues too, so can be done quicker while you get the plans sorted for downstairs then get that done when DC1 is in school.

Kitchen without a doubt, I know you don’t want to sell but if circumstances forced your hand and you had done the loft conversion first, you would have a top heavy house which will appeal to a far smaller market, few people want more space upstairs than downstairs.

Depends on your priorities and only you can know that. We have the exact same thing happening. Our girls are 10 and 5, but I cannot see my 5 year old squeeze into her tiny room anymore. She cant play in there. Getting the loft converted this summer. We will have more storage as full size conversion so building in a storage room up there, eaves storage access built in. Also we dont lose any of the existing room so that will become a study, moving PC upstairs - toys of daughters can go in loft instead of dining room - so in effect for the price of one room being built I end up with way more space for storage and decluttering downstairs = more space. My kitchen extension can wait - its functional for now, we have a lovely garden and the girls still have space to play - for me giving them equal space in their bedrooms is so important - especially when they have friends over to play and want their own space.

Thank you - this is all really helpful.

On the one hand, I see the point about the house being unbalanced. On the other hand, as we don’t plan to sell any time soon, I feel we do need to make decisions based on how we live and what we need now.

Part of me is tempted to stick with plan A and extend downstairs, but am put off by the additional cost and disruption.

We do have a sofa bed downstairs but it’s old and crappy, and we’ve been holding off on updating furniture prior to extending. Plan was always to get a better one once we’d done the building work! But I know my parents and DP will all moan about sleeping on a sofa bed...

Part of me does think the loft conversion might be the better option first as we could then move a lot of DS1’s toys upstairs into a good-sized bedroom, which would take some of the pressure off the downstairs space.

I’m going against the general consensus and say loft. It sounds like you really really need a guest room and it’s well used. We use our guest room so much and I could not be without it.
I’ve got 2 young kids and all family live far and the guest room needs redecorated but I can’t find a time to do it as I have guests so often. I wouldn’t want my guests on a sofa bed either. It’s so important to have a welcoming space when you live far from loved ones.

I think if I were to do the loft I’d try to find some money to make some improvements downstairs.
My sister moved her kitchen in to her dining room - with space for a table still, and then turned the galley kitchen into a loo and utility. Much cheaper than an extension and still a big time improvement.
I’d also still reinstate the living room wall. Having a bit of separation downstairs is bliss as the children get older and noisier, or when guests are outstaying their welcome!

As the girls get older would the spare room be big enough for them to share? DH could then have a single bed in the box room for his occasional sleeping space, plus a sofa bed in the living room for guests. We used to keep our spare room for guests but it was such a waste as it wasn’t being used most days. Far better for the dc’s to benefit from it.
I’m not a property valuer but if I was a purchaser with children I’d definitely prefer an eat in kitchen plus downstairs loo over an attic bedroom which I probably wouldn’t be arsed to climb up two sets of stairs to very often.

We are in a similar position. Something that might sway me to do downstairs first is because next door are thinking about extending downstairs. If we extend at the same time we could get less disruption and more cohesive extensions plus save some money. Our garden will need to be dug up to move the drain, and we would plan to share the party wall. A sticking point might be that I want a sloping roof, whilst I think next door will opt for flat!

Very similar layout in our house and related circumstances . We have a conservatory at the moment (only 3x3 ish) and plan to replace this with a small extension, knock through tiny galley kitchen into dining room, block up living/dining wall again. It's going to be a lot of disruption.
I would probably not do a loft conversion if the main priority was guest sleeping space (it's a lot of money - I'd send them to a hotel )
Surely if you do the downstairs work as others say you can keep a nice sofa bed in the living room?