Did anyone regret getting an extension?

[SauvignonGrower]

We've been debating for 5 years whether to extend the back of our house to get a nice big kitchen-diner-family space. Currently the kitchen is at the front and is falling apart so decisions need to be made.

We guess it would eat up £100k to have an extension+kitchen. Should we just get on with it or have any of you regretted getting an extension?

Sorry no help but wondering the same - our kitchen is poky and tbh the whole of the downstairs of our house is badly designed. It's a lot of cash though ..... we haven't got much left to pay mortgage wise and I worry about adding to it when the kids will possibly be at Uni in 5-10 years

I decided not to. I redecorated then watched my husband get ill. I was delighted we hadn’t splurged and I love my redecorated house. Suddenly the debt seemed daft for the benefit. I would prefer to pay kids though uni or have more holidays I decided.

We found it cost us more than we had planned, but we’re happy with the result. Depends on stability of jobs, finances, but I would probably wait a bit before committing to a big project.

You could do research into the documents you would need from neighbours (eg party wall agreement), research architect/draughtsman and builder if appropriate. It will probably make the other things easier.

You could also think about what you might like (eg knock through wall, locations for electrical sockets) which may make things quicker later

No, but when looking at houses to buy, I’ve rejected houses where extensions have reduced the garden size too much.

I’ve done 2 in 2 different houses. Never regretted. I’m planning to do another very soon in our new house. I love extending and making a house our home that suits our needs.

No. It is a garden room and I spend the day in there. It's light and bright and my favourite room in the house. The living room is now for late afternoon and evening.

We did the whole kitchen diner thing in our last house. It massively improved our life in that space (open plan kitchen and living space with small children was great). The main motivation for extending was for a utility and downstairs loo. We sold the house 5 years later and broke even on the extension cost. for this reason I would always be mindful of the spec of any extension - it needs to be good enough without going overboard; our neighbours did an extension almost identical in layout but spent almost double (hand built kitchen, limestone floor, project manager overseeing work compared with our high street kitchen, karndean, and self PM) and it will be a long time before they see the return on that investment, if at all.

We moved into this house last autumn and have also opened up the kitchen-diner (knock through this time rather than extension). That open plan cooking/eating style really suits our family.

We did the large back of the house extension. Transformed it so old kitchen became a utility and built a new one, large living area and dining space...is huge with large 5m sliders across the back. Still have a large separate lounge area as well.

On many days/ evenings we sit with the doors open. Is delightful

However, cost £80k. I don't know if I would have wanted to add it to the mortgage. We were also unsure as kids were 16 ish as eldest and I thought would be around for a few years....now not so certain.

It has worked really well in lockdown though for us

Hmm... you are expressing both of our big concerns about losing jobs/ill-health and costs spiraling out of control. Everyone we know in the area who has done similar jobs seems to hit the £100k mark. That's a huge commitment.

On the other hand, we would definitely enjoy the space and entertain more with it. And there is no point waiting another 5 years - it's now or never really.

Love ours and wish we'd gone a bit further out now the DCs are older teens and take up more space. Well worth the investment.

No best thing ever - every time we've done it

I'm very happy with the space that we now have but if I could go back in time knowing how much we'd end up spending, I probably would have just moved house instead. I also worry that we won't make back the money that we spent, as our circumstances have changed and we might need to move in the next couple of years.

Yes agree with previous poster. Any risk of moving soon, don't do it. We loved in a building site for 5 months. The beginning and end were easy, but it is when they move inside and do the knock through.
I suppose we do get used to the space which is fantastic. We also didn't compromise at all and have things like underfloor heating which is delightful.

We were also lucky (did a lot of due diligence and DH wrote the building contract) to have an outstanding builder

We had an extension built about 3 years ago, it was absolute hell! The builder was a nightmare it took about 4 times longer than it should have and in the end we sacked the builder.
It was so stressful, I still haven't lost the 2 stone I put on but now I love it and with us both working from home through the lockdown it has been a godsend!

Did a kitchen extension in 2018 and love it. It wasn’t cheap but it’s done to a high standard. We funded it from savings.
I spend a lot of time in it so I wanted it to be well done and comfortable to sit in.

We decided against it. Our area (1930s semis and detatcheds) has a lot of really ugly extensions; it's a style of house that seems to particularly suffer for it as they were built on big plots, but that's what makes them nice! Our house is in proportion to the outside space, it's pretty and the floorpan is sensible as it is. There wasn't a way to extend without substantially altering the character and outside space (blocking outside access to the back, or building into the garden). We decided to just save up and move if we want more space.

What we have done, though - knocked out the chimney breast in the second-biggest-bedroom and kitchen/diner (immediately downstairs). Was so worth it as it really dictated where the furniture went. No party wall to contend with, cost about 3k I think.

Full kitchen refit - cheap kitchen (IKEA), but gutted the room, levelled the floor and changed one of the windows to make it bigger and better proportioned. The room has a lovely feel and I'm confident we'll make that money back (8k total - plus chimney breast cost above)

100k is a lot of money - here that would be the next increment up in size if you were to move in any. case. Personally I'd save and move if you're not happy but it depends on the potential for the house really, and your finances

My DF did a bit. He was made redundant so couldn't afford the extra debt repayments so had to sell and move to a cheaper house. It wasn't the end of the world though, the extension did help to sell the place quickly and they made money. But it was a shame to say goodbye to that lovely house.

I think you kind of have to view it as buying the same house twice - would the extended house be the house you want to buy next, or would it be different? For us it was good neighbourhood, good catchment school etc. But we still ultimately grew out of it and moved anyway. It worked out ok because there is a shortage of intermediate sized houses in our area. But ideally after all that work you don’t want to be moving on

Our kitchen is north facing in the front and living room south facing at the back so would lend itself brilliantly to extending and swopping the rooms around IF I could wave a magic wand an have us at a financial point we’re at right now but with kids 10-15 years younger as I feel that set up lends itself to young children watching them play in the garden while cooking etc.

our 2 are 15 and 17 now so to sacrifice our big south facing living room, the most used room in the house, and change it into an extended kitchen that would only get used and hour or 2 a day would be bloody daft for us and a complete waste of a huge amount of money

We are at planning stage. In some ways it's a bit daft as its a big house that the two of us are rattling round in. But the conservatory is too hot in summer and too cold in winter. An extension will give us a usable room instead of the conservatory, a utility so we can bring the wm and dryer in from the shed in the garden, somewhere to sit and see the garden, (the conservatory has no view) and a downstairs loo. We'll lose garden space but not a huge amount and its not the sunny part of the garden.

It's going to be about £100K all in including kitchen.

We could just live with it as it is .... and we probably overpaid for the house 6 months ago. But we are in our 50s and not intending to move for a long time.

I haven’t done an extension (YET) but just wanted to say all these responses have been very helpful to me while I go through the same thought process so thank you for starting the thread. We’d have to spend £100k really (probably more I reckon) and it would be to knock down and re-do a mishmash of old extensions and a conservatory and square off the dogleg at the back, so not a massive increase in space but a rationalisation. I often wonder whether we want to do it. But some structural attention will be needed at some point anyway at the back, plus £100k doesn’t take us up a rung here (London), and the rest of the house works perfectly. It just feels like so much money doesn’t it, for things to be nicer (albeit a lot nicer) rather than them going from unworkable to optimal. Thank you to everyone who has shared your experiences.

My kitchen ended up too dark, so I regretted that element but I didn't regret the extra space.
It made it much more saleable and increased the value of the house beyond the cost of the extension.

So interesting to see lots of us in a similar position. We are also looking at an extension to replace existing conservatory and extension mish mash which isn't really useable all year round and blocks space to the garden.

I think we should do it... but will certainly explore fixed cost company options.