Should we reconfigure our old house or build an extension?

[TeamChaos]

Hi all — new to posting, and also please forgive that and also that our skynet friends may or may not have helped me write this post! I'm also not sure if its ok to ask any of this, so apologies in advance - i'm very aware we are very fortunate to be able to even consider home improvements in current environment.

We’re in an old stone house in Scotland and trying to decide whether to reconfigure what we’ve got vs do a big extension to make it work for modern living, and I can’t work out if we’re overthinking this or about to spend a lot of money unnecessarily.

We’ve got 3 boys (9, 9, 7) so the bedroom situation is going to become an issue before too long.

Current layout (roughly)

Downstairs:

Main living room (where we spend all our time): 4.24m x 5.46m
Dining room (labelled as lounge on attached - well used): 3.91m x 4.90m
Kitchen: 3.10m x 4.37m
Toy room / general disaster zone: 3.66m x 3.91m
Utility block

Upstairs:

Bedroom 1 (4.06m x 5.13m)
Bedroom 2 (4.67m x 4.70m)
Bedroom 3 (3.45m x 3.94m)
Bathroom (3.45m x 3.30m)

its a 1.5 storey so eaves eat into some of these measurements, but bed 1 and 2 in particular are quite big as is bathroom.

So it’s a decent sized house but very “old school” — good reception space, 3 proper bedrooms upstairs.

I’ve attached a floor plan from a planning application on the street where someone else extended. It’s not exactly our house but very similar (where it says WC on that plan is NOT a WC for us, our WC is in what is labelled as pantry)

Option 1 — reconfigure

Current thinking:

Turn the toy room / disaster zone into a downstairs master bedroom
Add an ensuite
Boys take the 3 bedrooms upstairs (one each)

Also separately (but all part of the same rethink):

Knock through kitchen → main living room with pocket or barn doors
Put in doors to the garden
Add an island (likely long narrow perpendicular / T-shaped because the kitchen is only ~3m wide) with seating etc
We’ve also got a large white stone fireplace on the right-hand wall of the kitchen which we could potentially sink a range cooker into and make a feature

Basically trying to turn it into a more modern open / broken-plan family layout.
This all works on paper and is obviously much cheaper.
But not sure if we’d regret being downstairs long term.

Option 2 — extend

Looking at something like a 7m x 4.5m 1.5-storey extension
New master + ensuite upstairs
New kitchen / family space downstairs with doors to garden
We could potentially fund it via remortgaging, but it’s still £150k+ or more (would appreciate if anyone has any real experience on costs) plus the hassle

What I’m struggling with:

Are we about to spend a huge amount just to move ourselves upstairs when we could make it work as-is? Is it pure vanity to get the magazine type downstairs?
Or is the downstairs bedroom thing a compromise we’ll regret once the boys are older?
Is there a better way of reconfiguring this that we’re missing?
Would you prioritise fixing bedrooms or doing the kitchen/living space first?
We’re not moving as love the area, so this is about getting it right for the long term (10–15 years), not resale.
Would really appreciate views from anyone who’s been in a similar situation —
what would you do: reconfigure, extend, or something else entirely?

Could you just extend the kitchen out to make a kitchen diner and then have one downstairs room as a bedroom?
We are currently moving to get an extra reception room for the kids so I feel like you’d not want to lose that but adding 150k to the mortgage is a big decision.

It'd depend on your extension plans (not attached?). With the position of the stairs I can't visualise what an extension would look like.

The extension cost would make a lot of holidays, or invested could buy a starter home for a child. I'd just knock through the kitchen to living for a kitchen diner, then runt one of the of the other rooms into a bedroom. Not bother with an en-suite

Thanks - interesting hadn’t thought about just extending out the kitchen. Here is an idea of what some neighbours have done in terms if
extending if that helps! Leaning toward ‘it’s not worth it’ but interested in views!

What would the difference in cost be for a single storey and a 2 storey extension?
I love the extra garden room space too and that would mean you have your extra living space that you’d otherwise lose by putting a bedroom downstairs.

Thanks so much - tbh that’s part of our confusion is unless you have actually built something it seems so wildly variable to get a handle on what costs might be. I reckon there is probably about 40-50k of a difference in it, so for arguments sake 100k for the single extension (would appreciate anyone with experience of costs these days though) - that feels like it might be on the vanity side of the spectrum as all it does is give the posh big kitchen diner but no extra bed…

poll results are showing 70% in favour of reconfig but would appreciate any more views plus people who have done either and whether they feel it was the right call!

interested in any other views on this one, the poll has narrowed so looks like everyone is maybe just as split on it as we are!

you could also do a no-cost reconfigure NOW where you tidy out the toy room and move yourselves downstairs. Then live with it for a year (while you save furiously for the building work). that will help you decide if it is good / bad having a downstairs bedroom in the long term.

Also spend the year getting quotes for the different options - different plans for a kitchen redesign or one story extension or 2 story extension.

@TeamChaos I would say if you can fund it and still live comfortably, do it. The proposed layout looks fantastic especially the ground floor and with 3 boys I'm sure you'll make good use of the extra room upstairs as well. As they grow each will likely want their own room and I am sure you and your partner will very much enjoy the master suite.
I'm doing a similar extension as well; adding an extra bedroom, ensuite to the master and opening up and extending the ground floor. We're looking at a cost of in excess of £150K as well but I know the improvement to the way we will be able to live our every day lives will make it all worth it.
Wishing you all the best.

I was going to say reconfigure but looking at the neighbours’ plans I’d say remortgage and do the whole thing. That layout looks fantastic and would future proof the house for teens and also if/ when kids returned as adults. If you love the area and can do it without breaking the bank I would extend.