Would you rather ? Extension or fix rest of house ?

[Ozster]

We are buying a dated buy liveable house with a tiny kitchen.

Would you rather :,

1. Do up the whole house to a high standard ( bathroom/rooms downstairs loo) but leave the kitchen as it is to extend in s fee years time

1. Do a standard job on whole house (paint and carpet only) and do the kitchen extension now.

I'm leaning towards 1

Any advice ?

Thank you

We have a very similar situation but are leaning towards 2. Our kitchen us very very small and no downstairs loo. We have done a basic repaint on a few rooms but really needs more (replastering mainly and new skirting boards) but we figure an extension would ruin what we did soon point.

Agree with going for option 2.

When we bought, we couldn't afford extension so did bathroom to good standard, replaced boiler, pipes and radiators plus paint and carpet. Intended not to replace any of above when we did eventually save up and extend. However we have ended up redoing most of the work we did when we bought whilst extending so some of the money was spent needlessly 10 years ago.

Other thing to consider is how hard will small kitchen be to use? I found it so difficult having tiny kitchen with young children. Not enough space to have baby in bouncer whilst cooking or for children to play on one side while I get on with things. And mine hated me leaving them to play while I went into another room. If I could afford it, I would get decent size kitchen asap, can always then renovate everything to high standard when you have built up savings but space is invaluable

I think you should live with it for a while. I've changed my mind every few months as to where I would extend! In that time jobs have come up that I have had no choice but to do (rewire, new boiler etc). Now extension is in my plans for next couple of years (and I still keep changing my mind! Keeping me busy planning though )

1. I could live with nicely decorated but not top spec rooms easier than I could with a pokey kitchen. You could do the work to the other rooms slowly and room by room, whereas the extension is major work and very disruptive- you'd end up with dust and dirt everywhere else anyway. Easier to do the extension now than get properly settled in and then uproot everything.

Definitely live with it a bit. We were in exactly the same position and lived in it for a year.

What we thought was the obvious idea for the extension has altered quite considerably as we've lived in the house, seen where the lights falls and seen how we use it.

The extension is getting built now - old tiny kitchen will become utility and loo and the kitchen is going out the back but not where we originally thought it would go.

We did up one room, the living room, as that isn't being touched. Got it all lovely, got the bathroom above it re-done completely and that caused part of the ceiling to come down in the living room.

We've decided to put doors in between extension and another bit of the house, so any decoration we'd done there would have been pointless.

2

2 more cost effective in the long run if you are planning on spending a decent amount of time living there. A small kitchen is the worst.

I’d go for 1 as I prefer doing improvements at a steady pace. Depends how small I guess...

I'd probably do 2 because for me the kitchen is the key to the whole house & the most important thing to get right. but it would depend on how bad the current kitchen is.

I would do 2, but maybe wait until you're fully settled (3/6 months) to get a sense of the space and what's missing.

Live with it as it is for a bit, (as long as there's a decent shower!), do any emergency work that comes up. Repaint any hideously coloured walls...

Wouldn't replace carpets etc.

Plan the extension for this time next year.(biggest/dirtiest job first)

Take each space as it comes after that.

NO WAY would I do the rest of the house up top notch then start on an extension.

If you can afford it, go with 2. As a pp says, you may end up having to re-do works when you extend or if you can tack on some works to the cost of the extension (i.e. decorate the lounge as well as the extension), you might get a better rate / will be more cost effective in the long run.

I agree however with waiting. We had to wait 6 years for our extension and we did change our minds as to what we wanted. You might move the downstairs loo for example. I wouldn't wait that long, but you do get used to a house by living in it with its quirks / light / space.

Wait. Do an amazing job on the rest of the house, while you save and start planning your dream extension. This will give you time to do things well and will allow build prices to come back to normal. Everyone is booked up now and prices reflect this.