Extension to rear - should we wait it out?

[EezyOozy]

Hi!

very new to the world of extensions so please bear with me.

we have a period house and on the back there’s a minting, cold, damp single storey extension. You need to walk through this dark little hovel every time you want to get into the back garden. It’s only half the wide of the back of the house.

We would like to knock on down and build a much nicer single storey extension , almost the full width of the back of the house… with French or bifold doors. This would also turn our kitchen into a kitchen Diner. The kitchen itself is find and would basically stay as is - don’t need a new one.

my husbands income has gone up since we bought the house and I have returned to work…. We can borrow quite a bit more than we are already. Our mortgage is around 150k atm , 5 years fixed at a good rate (3 years left to go). I think we can actually borrow up to £320k.

if it wasn’t for the crazy prices of extensions/ building materials we would be looking to remortgage for a larger amount and redo the rear extension, to get the benefit of it now (we have young children and the space and easier garden access would be so lovely).

now I’m thinking it’s madness to do it now… pay inflated building prices and lose our good interest rate. And we should wait it out…. But then things might not improve for ages and we are still stuck with what we’ve got.

we could spend a small amount insulating, skimming and putting some nicer flooring down in the current rear extension (and maybe look for a second hand composite door to replace the thin draughty timber one that’s currently on there). Maybe that would make it more bearable for the next couple of years. But then again it’s money down the toilet if the economy improves sooner than expected and we knock the whole lot down.

in case it’s relevant, we live in southern rural Scotland and the new extension would be around 9-10 square meters.

what would you all do?

thank you!

Agreed - but deflation in general? Who knows.

I'd agree on the materials point though, so deflation on building work specifically? Possibly.

Regardless, improving your home in terms of spending on your home rather than as an investment needs overall consideration.

I'd get it done. We've recently moved into a house with the side return done and bi-folds off the kitchen/dining and it's was incredible for all of us over the summer. Unless your kids are of an age where they can be out the back without direct supervision, I'd get the work done. No point in doing it in a few years when it's not as necessary and the kids are more independent. Different matter if you didn't have the finances available, but it sounds like you do.

We didn't want to get a mortgage for our extension so we went for a home equity line of credit from the bank. Downside of that is it's adjustable rate rather than fixed, so we are actually thinking about turning it into a shorter-term mortgage if interest rates start to get really unbearable. Currently will take us about ten years to pay off. We added 150 square feet to our kitchen (I think that's about 14 square meters) and made it into a kitchen-diner. It's lovely and I love it.

Go bigger. You’ve got plenty garden space haven’t you?

Ask architect for ideas how to make the whole ground floor layout work better. Small things like changing the turn of the stair, moving an internal door or taking down a partition wall can make a huge difference.

Yes please to a floor plan. With aspect marked on the plan.

How long do you think you will be in your home? Is it a 5 year home or a 10+ year home?

You need to get a few architects round to get quotes and ideas. Sounds like this building work needs to be done whatever so it's about how much you want to invest in your property and having a realistic view of what is the ceiling price in your area. No point spending £100k on an extension when your house will probably not recoup back the money.

I would start the design process going. Start asking friends for recommendations for architects and builders. How long does the council take to approve plans? Are there any weird stipulations for your property?

We did our house in 2020 but it took us over a year to do the plans and find a builder.

I would say just get going with it as then you can start enjoying your house ASAP

The first pic is current layout . Rear of house is North facing but garden actually seems to get a lot of Sun.

as you can see, kitchen currently recessed between staircase and horrid extension , and it feels like you are in a cave.

the kitchen has a bathroom
above it, so this part of the house is two storey. The existing extension is single storey with a sloped roof meeting the back of the house.

the first design I did was a couple of days ago and I think is probably all wrong. On this version : The new extension is small AND it means meddling with the sloped roof and northern-most supporting wall supporting it. In this version I was trying to keep in line with the stair case. (The staircase is a beautiful arts and crafts creation with a large landing window above and we don’t want to meddle with it).

After starting this thread I decided to create the second mock up. Larger extension. Keep some of northern-most wall of existing extension (and the whole sloping roof which is in good condition). The roof could then be extended over the new extension in the same shape? With plenty of windows in it.

SR is a (very compact) shower room with w/c as we only have one bathroom in main house. Not ideal situation for a shower room but all the drainage is against that wall … and when I have two teenage girls I’ll be glad of it “C” is a cupboard where I may try and put a washer /dryer or could possibly integrate that into larger kitchen. The squiggly line is a radiator.

i’ve indicated (zigzag) bifold dots but would prob go for sliders actually.

@Pipsquiggle it’s a forever home :) but the ceiling price on our village is quite high and and we’ve just had a railway station open in the village, so prices are going up . Good point about timeline / everything taking ages- Deffo worth getting ball rolling with designs and quotes

Definitely get an architect round. Do you have space to the right to expand?

It might be worth moving that kitchen wall out.

I am guessing you want to keep a downstairs loo and a utility - moving these in and moving kitchen towards the garden?

Looking purely at cost in pounds and not the cost of borrowing it, our financial advisor's attitude at the moment about work we want to do from savings is 'get it done, it won't get cheaper and the sooner you do it the longer you'll enjoy it for'. It may get easier to get trades in as the economy slows, though.

if you’re not planning on moving in the future/near future - which it doesn’t sound like you are - then why wait? You’d only not proceed if you are treating it as a house you are flipping, or a house that you are worried will leave you in negative equity… if it’s the latter definitely don’t do it. Have you had a valuation from an estate agent to see whether it’s worth it financially. The main thing here is cost of project vs value of property which you don’t really mention x

We put on a very simple 1 storey rear extension 4 years ago to extend our kitchen and it has transformed how we use the space. Kitchen is one end, then space for a table then sofa and chairs with 4 panel bifold doors. I love it. We have one roof light in the extension but we should have had 2 really. We have 2 dc and the additional living space has been lovely and we now have much better access to the garden. I did not have a new kitchen to save money and we did all the decorating ourselves. It was so worth doing.

Looking at your plan - you may need to make your compact WC and shower room bigger. I'm pretty sure Building Regs will state that the WC needs to be big enough for wheelchair users. An architect will/should be able to advise on that though.

@reallyhatewinter thanks for that , I’ll check the size and mention it to architect (when one replies to me)!

@Pipsquiggle sadly we can’t expand to the right as the oil tank lives in that space and there’s really nowhere else to put it. I don’t think anyway. And that would add ££££

@mumonthehill that’s so encouraging, our plan is basically what you did! Thanks

@mumonthehill if you don’t mind me asking how much roughly did it cost to extend?

Well it was an awhile ago and we had a friendly local builder. We did not use an architect either! But we did it all for £25,000. We did knock down an external wall and have an RSJ put in. However we also changed our plans due to bats so we would not have to put a bat box in. We are also rural and choose a corrugated silver roof just for the extension which I love and was slightly cheaper than slate. We shopped around for everything. I also did compromise on having things like cheaper flooring and lighting. I still love it though and it is our forever home.

Sounds not too bad! When you think about it some people would spend that on a couple of two weeks holidays so for the improvement made to your daily living it sounds more than worth it!

I am hoping when we do ours we can save some money by digging the foundations ourselves and possibly using individual trades but not 100% yet.

Rate of inflation reducing is not the same as prices reducing. Prices are high and won’t be coming down, the rate at which they go up further will slow down.

With that in mind, now is as a good as time as any. Like others said though, when you do building work, go as big you can. Economies of scale. Overall, it works out cheaper per sq.m.

Scottish Building Regulations are different, an accessible WC is desirable but not essential AFAIK. But I don’t think it can open straight onto the kitchen without another door.

Your architect will know all this stuff.

I agree with the PP who said that you want to push the WC/ shower room / utility room into the middle of the building if possible. But that may not work for you as you are keeping your kitchen.

Open plan kitchen / living room MUST have a separate utility room and cloakroom . It’s not just the noise from the WM and TD , it’s the clutter of washing / ironing / coats / shoes / sports equipment / wellies / dog bowls/ general crap that gets dumped.

Hello, we are in the middle of an extension at the moment and are really glad we've done it now. When we were having quotes all the builders said if we'd done it 5 years ago it would have cost half the price (granted the circumstances of the lastbyear haven't helped). So we did some research to see if it's worth waiting, to see if prices go down and the general consensus is once they go up (prices for materials) they rarely come down. So if you can afford to do it now then I would...it'll be cheaper to do it now than in a few years time and you'll have longer to pay it off. We've got no regrets!