Loft conversion or move

[Leobynature]

I have posted about our potential loft conversion before and I may continue to post to gain the wisdom of MNetters

I live in a small 1930s semi. It has 2 double bedrooms and a box room just big enough for a cot. DD (2) has a cot bed and a chest of drawers the room, but it will never fit a single bed. I’m pregnant with a boy. I know the kids could share for a few years which will be ok if I was to move however if I am going to extend I would rather just do the loft conversion now and reap the benefits as much as possible. I am not sure whether to move or do a loft conversion (this will give me an additional bedroom and bathroom). The box room will almost disappear to accommodate the stairs.

Pros of the house
Good Area
Close to good schools
Close to family
Good Local links
Recently renovated to our taste
Good drive
Large garden
Nice neighbours

Cons
South east facing garden. (I would love a west facing garden)
No downstairs toilet
Rubbish box room

The loft conversion will cost over £30k so I need to get this right.

I’d do the loft. It sounds like you like where you lived and SE facing garden is pretty good too.

I have same type of house and similar dilemma. We are opting for the loft. 30k is much cheaper than trading up to a 4 bed and we can’t affford that. House next door had a fab dorma conversion with ensuite.

We had similar size house and needed to something because box room was too small for ds (10). We moved to a four bedroom house nearby. We wanted to stay in the area and luckily for us a house come up for sale that was perfect for us.

Sounds like mine. I totally thought the stairs would take out the box room but they didn’t. It’s the width of a small staircase and you get storage space underneath. Hard to explain but it goes up rather than taking up floor space.

Do the loft

Move. Don't do a loft conversion as the footprint of the house will still be small. It's just like comparing a pot with a very large circumference to a small circumference but tall. A very large sqm2 house will give you a lot of room to move around and storage

We did the loft and managed to take the space for the stairs out of one of the good sized double bedrooms rather than the smallest bedroom, leaving us with 4 usable good sized rooms. If you love the house then it’s a cheaper and easier option than moving. However we are also extending our ground floor to give the house a similar amount of living space to sleeping space, rather than possibly making it feel ‘top heavy’.

Thanks for the replies. We extended downstairs by the legal limit before planning permission (I can’t remember what that is) so it doesn’t feel proportionate at the moment. I can’t decide what to do

Is building on top of the downstairs extension an option?
I think you probably need an architect to draw up the best place for stairs to go to get a feel for what the rooms would be like.
I've also seen people move the wall from the box room and take a slice out of tge adjacent double. You then end up with a small double and a large single and then the other double untouched. Its not more space but its a more equal distribution of space.

We let both options open. We had an architect to plan extension but at the same time we were looking for new houses.