What extension would you do?

[Ladyof]

We have been looking to move for over a year.

Ideally I wanted 4 beds, downstairs loo, utility room, kitchen diner and lounge.

We have have an offer accepted on a 3 bed but no utility or downstairs loo.

We only need 3 beds but the 4th bed was just for an office and a guest room (we rarely have people staying)

My question is, we are either going to do a loft conversion for 4th bed or a open plan kitchen diner and make the existing kitchen into a loo and utility room.

I can't decide which to do and I don't think we can afford both what would you do??

Thanks

So we added a downstairs loo (under the stairs).
We made the ‘morning room’ (I don’t know why it’s called that, it’s a 1930s house and was just called it when we bought it) into the utility room and then the dining room became Williams playroom.
Then the dining room came into the kitchen extension.

We reduced one of the double bedrooms into a single bedroom to make the new hallway and then added another big bedroom on top of the kitchen to make bedroom 4.

Kitchen/dining - which is the extension & utility room.

I love your utility room northerngirl.

My bored musings! Switch around/ open up the downstairs with a partial garage conversion for downstairs loo and utility area, then you can also do the upstairs. An extension is not always the right answer.

The challenge with loft conversions nvrrsions is to not lose a bedroom to the new stairs, to add a bedroom in the attic.

I'm really not a fan of garage conversions. With the switch to electric cars it makes more sense to actually be able to charge a car in your garage, if a modern car will fit. If not, it's valuable storage space and you need to think about what you have in there and where it will go.

In your OP you state you don't need a fourth bedroom so why would you spend money on a loft conversion? A utility room separate from the kitchen and a downstairs loo will be much more useful. Conservatories don't usually have the same foundations as a standard brick built extension so replacing the conservatory with a proper extension could be a smarter move and you could extend out at the back of the kitchen all the way across and reconfigure the ground floor space. Put a utility room and loo at the stairs end of the current kitchen.

Thanks so kuchen for the photos and plans @northengirl88 it looks amazing I bet you love it. Was it early expensive and did you start with an architect?

Some other good ideas too thank you all!

@Zonder

I love your utility room northerngirl.

Aww thank you :)

@Ladyof

Thanks so kuchen for the photos and plans *@northengirl88* it looks amazing I bet you love it. Was it early expensive and did you start with an architect?

Some other good ideas too thank you all!

Yes we started with the architect. I drew what I wanted and then we got the architect to confirm it could be done.

We got 3 quotes and went with the most expensive, but we knew that person was good.
In total (but that includes the cost of the kitchen and utility room) it’s come to about £85k. We did get stung near the end with the massive high costs so it cost £13k more than it was meant too.
But still cheaper for us than moving and 4 bed houses around here are hard to find and ridiculously expensive.

You've got a few options actually (and combinations of these when you have the funds):
-small utility/cloakroom in garage
-full garage conversion (so utility cloakroom and living space: office or playroom?)
-loft extension
-single height extension (taking down conservatory)
-double height extension (taking down conservatory)
-garden office?

converting the garage cheapest, then loft with extensions coming in at much, much higher costs.

How big is the garage? Is there other parking apart from the street? If it is an old house then it might not be big enough in which case definitely convert this. You can put an electric charging point outside (we did this).

If you don't do the garage, do you have room for a garden office?

If not then definitely do the loft.

I would be concerned about light if you build an extension as there don't seem to be many windows. You also have a good conservatory.

.... however, do you really need to decide anything now? The very best thing is to live in for at least 6 months if you can and it is liveable, and then it will become very clear what you should do and where and you are more likely to make the best decision for you and your family.

I'm really not a fan of garage conversions. With the switch to electric cars it makes more sense to actually be able to charge a car in your garage, if a modern car will fit.
I think the problem is that lots of modern cars barely fit in older garages. Down our street some of our neighbours have garages but the charger for the electric car is outside on the drive.
Good point about storage though. To make up for our garage conversion storage loss we had a big shed built.

Change the downstairs. It’s the more useable space.

Otherwise you have a 4 bedroom house with the living space of a 3. That is all we’re finding as we look to move to s 4 bed and we’re discounting them as they are too small/cramped.

@BigotSpigot thank you. Some great ideas there and really helpful.

We did say that we might just live there a few months and then decide.

It is so hard knowing what is best as it feels such a waste to take down a perfectly good conservatory and kitchen extension to make it bigger but I also wanted to do loft for my daughter who is 16 and I'm like she might be leaving in next few years for uni.

I suppose whatever we do will add value anyway so I should think of that too.

Thanks again

@Zonder

I'm really not a fan of garage conversions. With the switch to electric cars it makes more sense to actually be able to charge a car in your garage, if a modern car will fit. I think the problem is that lots of modern cars barely fit in older garages. Down our street some of our neighbours have garages but the charger for the electric car is outside on the drive. Good point about storage though. To make up for our garage conversion storage loss we had a big shed built.

Which is exactly why I made the point. Unless you have sufficient parking space and somewhere to store everything currently in the garage I'd be very wary of converting it. Also, if you access the back garden via a garage, if you convert it and lose that access, everything has to go through the house instead.

We built a shed that was a quarter of the size of the garage so gained loads of space while still having storage.