100k gift - kitchen extension?

[TyrannasaurusJex]

We have recieved a generous gift of £100k and would like to do a kitchen extension. It would mean tearing down an existing conservatory and extending out about 2x5m, plus a new kitchen and bifold or sliding doors. A friend has said that £100k won't be enough for this! Devastated if this is the case. What do people think?
We're in Oxfordshire

I think that would be enough. It depends on the quality of the finish. But to give you a rough idea, we’re SE/Home Counties and spent about that last year on a rear single storey extension around 5 x 4 metres, putting a new kitchen in it, and converting the existing galley kitchen into a downstairs loo and utility. No bifold, just patio doors and a window/skylights. About 2/3 of the cost was the build, about a third the kitchen/utility/flooring.

We used DIY Kitchens for the kitchen and utility, but went for quartz worktops and Amtico flooring. If you wanted a top of the range kitchen, you could obviously spend much more; equally, we could have gone more basic.

Doing a much smaller extension in London at the moment and it’s costing a lot more than that. And I’m keeping costs down by using DIY kitchens. I do have pretty big glass doors and underfloor heating. But here you wouldn’t get the basic building work for £100k. There’s also loads of other little fees that add up - building control/architects etc

We had similar plans and a budget of 100k. We are now building a porch only and knocking down a wall to put in big glass doors. £100k did cover the basic build of the original plan.

We did very similar in the south of England (demolishing existing half width conservatory and extending the full width of the back of the house, probably approx 5m x 4m) finishing in April of 2022. We were just shy of £100K with top end appliances, 4 top of the range Velux windows and new flooring throughout existing dining room and new kitchen. I imagine it would be a fair bit more now. No regrets even though we'd originally planned on no more than £60k at the back end of 2019.

Our similar extension cost just over £125k last year.

Wouldn’t you rather pay off your mortgage earlier?

We did exactly that plus a utility and loo on the side. Went pretty high spec on the kitchen and we spent just under 90k in total, so yes, it's achievable.

Forgot to add ours was 2 yrs ago

2 years ago things were very different. Materials, wages and all other costs have gone up hugely.

You're better off using the cash to move to a bigger house.

I agree. Look to see if there is a better house you can buy.

Depends a lot on the value of the property. You could easily spend half of the money on SDLT and fees if it’s a 1m property.

OK, true, but worth considering if possible.

Presumably not, given the post! 😂

Definitely don't want to move, love our house and neighbourhood. We don't have a huge mortgage and it's affordable for us so really want to spend the money on the only thing I don't love which is the kitchen/hideous old conservatory. Will just see what quote architect or builder comes up with I guess!

How much work can you do OP? 2x5 is only 10m2 so even working on 3k a square meter it's 30k (I would aim to spend 2-2.5k), bifolds 5k+ any internal steels even 10k takes you to 45k plus the kitchen.

We have done it previously where we have paid the builder to literally brick it up to water tight which worked out around 1k per square meter as DH dug the trench for the foundations and demolished the conservatory himself. So say 1.5k in todays money 15k

Doors were French at 2k, we then paid 3k for plumbing and electrics, 600 on skimming B&Q kitchen at 5k plus decoration.

Sure you can. We have just an extension which involves propping up the corner of the house, bifolds, roof light. We have spent about £45 so far. Just need to plaster, floor and buy kitchen. I'm expecting 60k all in - and the floor is all of downstairs.

Midlands, Birmingham

We've just had a single storey rear extension that came in at £110k. We had some other small projects that were done at the same time and we went for a mid-high end finish on the kitchen and flooring etc.
I think if we hadn't added the extra projects (replacing all internal doors downstairs, replacing extra windows, additional electrical work etc) and had spent a bit less on the kitchen we could have got it around £90-£100k so it's probably possible but it's surprising how expensive building works and materials are now.

Just had a quote for a 6m kitchen extension with large sliding door, lantern roof, all plastering and electrics - £70k.

Does the conservatory have proper foundations? You need to cost for that, if not.

10 m2 is not a big extension you should be able to do it for your budget comfortably.

interesting mix of responses! have gone from totally disheartened to thinking it might be possible... thanks all

How do people usually afford this? That's a third of the price of houses near me.

@TyrannasaurusJex - I think it’s very doable for the cost but I’m just going to mention Modular extensions. We have just had one put on, it looks and feels just like a traditional extension but was finished in just a few weeks and for about 2/3 of the cost (if not less). We are just in the process of getting g the new kitchen and flooring put in.

It’s worth considering - they’re very eco friendly and really efficient for heating. I’ve got a thread up (from earlier this year) with info on our modular build if you’re interested.

I'm just finishing off a 30m2 kitchen extension and 7m2 utility renovation.

I've also gone down the modular mmc build rather than old school concrete foundations. Large windows, expensive flooring and underfloor heating. I'm using DIY kitchens for the kitchen.

Pretty much bang on £100k.

So yes, definitely doable.