To extend or not to extend?!

[Mumakate88]

Long story short, we live in 3 bed semi. We love our house, street and neighbours but not wondering whether we should stay and extend or move.

We have a very old conservatory on back of kitchen which leaks and is unusable as a living space. We had quotes of around 25K to knock it down and build a room instead.

However we also need a new kitchen and thought it would be nicer to extend out and have one big kitchen/living area however I understand this would require a RSJ (?) which will likely increase quote. We also have a manhole that would need relocating (can’t build over) hence more money.

As I said, we love our home but all this work is likely to cost 35k+ and we won’t gain any additional space upstairs.

4 beds in our area rarely come up but would be double our current mortgage anyway. However we would need to remortgage for the extension anyway and if we do all that work we would have to stay 5-10 years to get value.

Feel like we are going around in circles! Any advice/shared thoughts welcome 😊

It’s really a question of whether you can afford it, and whether it will make your home that much nicer to live in, if you’re planning on staying at all long term.

My dd and SiL put a kitchen/diner extension on an ordinary 1920s semi that had just a small sitting room, a loo and a kitchen downstairs - the kitchen was big enough for a table and chairs, but only just.

I can only say that the extension, with room for a sofa, too, has made the most enormous difference to their house. Bifold doors have made a sort of picture frame for the garden and it always feels light in there even on miserable days. The added feeling of space is very noticeable.

It did end up costing more than they’d bargained for, but I’m sure they’d never once wish they hadn’t done it.
Personally I think such things will always add appreciable value and make the house that much more desirable to buyers, too. So IMO it’s always going to be a question of weighing up finances/pros and cons.

Check the building regs about the manhole - my parents had an extension where they built over a manhole, but had to leave access to it via a trap door.

That was in the 1970's though so regs may be different now.

Do you own your manhole. If so not a big job to move it at all. If the water board own it then things become more complicated. You would need either to relocate the section or a build over agreement with access. You know if it's yours as it will only contain your waste. If it's shared with neighbors then it is the water company's.

We've extended - double storey to get an extra bedroom (4th) and squeezed in a little ensuite, big kitchen diner downstairs. Sounds like a similar situation, to buy a 4 bed would have been a massive leap, plus the buying / selling costs. Also love our street / neighbours.

We increased the value immediately by double what we spent - mainly driven by the 4th bed, but we needed 4 beds (3 teenagers) and its massively improved family life.

One word of caution - it cost more than we anticipated and took about 7 months (had upstairs reconfigured). That wasnt easy.

Absolutely best decision (2yrs on, the memory of living in dust has eventually faded!)