A should we do this question….

[shallwebuy]

Hi all, we are looking at buying our next home. I’m not sure if there is an actual name of this type of house so will try my best to describe!

detached house running left to right as you look at it- with garage, then car port, front door is located set back within the car port and the kitchen runs flush to where the front door is. So the garage/car port protrudes the kitchen and there is a pillar at the front of the car port (above it is a bedroom) and the kitchen and remove above it is set back somewhat. Makes sense?

we would want to make the kitchen bigger by incorporating the carport to be part of the house, perhaps also converting part of the garage to become a utility. Assuming this would require some plumbing to take place as currently there is only electrics in there.

we would then bring the front door to the front of the house (in-line with the garage). This would need to remove the kitchen wall which I assume to be load bearing, and put up stud walls to create a new route through the house.

I know these questions are almost impossible to answer, but are we looking at costs being closer to £50k or £150k? I mean for the general labour of the works, wiring, running services for a utility etc. the fixtures such as new kitchen I know will be according to spec and choice.

it seems to us that the car port is such a waste of space and could be most useful actually being used within the house.

has anyone done anything similar?

cheers

Definitely closer to £150k

definitely

Are there similar houses in the neighbourhood and any examples of this kind of conversion being done? Sometimes you can learn a lot from a Zoopla search of other homes .

Yeah I’d say closer to £150k too.

You might find you get more space to play with if you extend to the back and leave the carport alone? I don know. Would there not be a need for pp as you’re altering the appearance from the front? Might not be a problem, just a thought.

I think it would depend a lot if you were knocking down internal walls to bring the car port into the kitchen. If you’re just bricking up the front of the car port and making a doorway through to it from the kitchen then it might be quite a reasonable price but if you are knocking out load bearing internal walls and therefore needing lots of steelwork then much much more.

I think the suggestion of a single storey extension out the back instead is sensible…

Have you checked in with your local authority planning dept? It can be harder to get planning to alter the front of a house than the rear.

I don’t think you get much for £50k these days. If you need to move planning around they have to dig up the floor and existing concrete so that’s a big job.

Can you post a link?

You should absolute not do this if your budget is closer to £50k than £150k OP

Put it Like that

Why don't you just buy a house the size you want? This sounds like a really complicated and expensive way of achieving that goal.

I imagine because what the op wants is out of her budget so looking for ways to extend a property
But not a chance with £50k

Any chance of a diagram?

In today’s market you’d be better buying a house that serves your needs from the get go. Renovating isn’t cost effective and don’t underestimate the stress of building works, tradesmen not showing up etc.

I’d much rather max my budget on a house that’s already offering what I want, than taking a punt and needing works straight away. I’d have said different 10 yrs ago but not now.