....If you didn't think its was your forever home?
We moved to a nice detached house 2.5 years ago. It was the best house we could get in budget with all the craziness of the 2021 market. It is a lovely family home, massively practical for family life. However, I love period houses and this is a 90s new build. My DH loves the house and area, but I really miss the character of living in an older property and would like to move at some point in the future, maybe in 5 years or so. But I am also conscious that to get the same sized older house in a good condition, could potentially be out of budget and I don't miss the high heating costs we used to have in our 1930s house! So potentially we could be here a lot longer than 5 years.
Anyway ....
We have a 3 yo. The garden is relatively small. It is south facing and becomes unbearably hot in summer. It has a small patio area and a raised lawn area. Ideally I'd like new patio, new turf, new fencing as it's all tatty and falling apart. Also a gazebo built with a bbq area so we could have some shade in summer. Plus some nice planting so it's not just a bare rectangle of lawn.
All the above would cost circa 30k including vat according to quotes. Or, we could just redo the fencing and live with the dated gross old paving and tired lawn.
If it was my forever house, I would have no qualms doing all the work. But we wouldn't recoop the money if we sold. Then I think, it would make it much nicer and useable for my toddler if we did the work. He loves being outdoors, but I hate the garden so much I prefer to take him to the park over sitting in the garden with him, so feels like a complete waste of space. Our last garden was beautiful and we spent a lot of money getting it done, but tradesmen prices were more affordable back then!
Please help!! Spend the money and have an outside space to enjoy for the next 5 or so years, or just do the fence?