Considering a house needing a kitchen extension

[Unicorn1991]

Viewed a house today which we’re thinking of putting an offer on. We liked it but didn’t LOVE it, everything was quite dated and we would want to change quite a bit. But it’s the exact style of house we’re looking for, in our top location next to an outstanding primary school, and has lots of potential for us to make it our perfect family home. Not sure if it’s our forever home but I’d say we would be there 10 years at least.

But one thing we’d want to do is a kitchen extension. We have a 1 year old and 3 year old so the thought of an extension with them in tow sounds a little scary! We currently live at my parents house (although they will be selling in the next year), so potentially have the option to continue living here while main extension works take place.

So my questions are;

• kitchen extension with young kids - complete no go?
• How do we fund? If we did buy this house we’d be about 60k below our top borrowing - is it possible to add on to mortgage? Or take out another loan? I’m not sure how people fund these things 😂
• Is an extension even worth doing? Have been looking online and seems to be some people saying they cost a lot more than the value they’d add?

Sorry if these are stupid questions, we are first time buyers with absolutely no idea!! Just after a few opinions and to hear other’s experiences 😊 thanks!

If you plan to live there for 10 years, the kitchen is for your enjoyment. Look at the house as a home and not an investment.

How long would it take you to add to your savings - so that you could manage to do it without borrowing ? Your first time buyers so its not realistic to borrow again, after taking on the biggest loan of your life. Could you make do until you have the funds to extend put by ? Yes it will very likley cost more than it will add to the homes value so you need to take care.

@DrySherry it would take us a couple of years to build our savings back up, but yes we could make do in the meantime.
Ideally we would want to buy a house that doesn’t need much doing to it, but there doesn’t seem to be many options coming up in the location we want!

I'd caution against rushing into doing major work on a house, unless it is actually unlivable in its current state. It doesn't sound like that, as you just mentioned it being dated, which sounds just about liveable for me. My advice would be to live in a house for enough time to see how the space you currently have works. Where are the pinch points, how much storage is there, how does it flow, and what things are you craving to have changed - that kind of thing. Don't rush into very expensive building works straight away. The solutions may actually be easier and cheaper that sticking a large extension on the back of the house. Do the other stuff like decorating other rooms first. It's amazing how things can change when you get rid of an awful carpet and put a great colour on the walls.

I decorated the DCs rooms and the main bedroom, and re-did the ensuite and main bathroom. Once the upstairs was changed, we'd had enough time using the existing layout of the ground floor. I discovered that I wanted to keep a room separate that I'd thought would get knocked through, and the final changes didn't include an extension. I now have a great kitchen diner, but without the extra living space I thought I needed in that room. Instead I've kept the 2 remaining reception rooms separate and it works well to give space for everyone to do their own thing, plus we still have a space to eat and cook together.

First of all, building work is not cheap at all

My husband is a builder and 10 years ago we put a 4 metre extension to our kitchen which cost us 12K - 4K went underground - we needed to be piloned

Hes doing the same size extension this year - 30/40K for shell, plastering, roofing - electrics and water - comes extra and that's with normal foundations

You need to factor in the costs when applying for your mortgage so you have enough funds to get a loan

Back when we did our first home renovation - complete back of house removed for 6 weeks , things weren't easy, this one - dead easy as we have so many appliances that take little space

We put the kitchen table in the hall, the fridge in one of the downstairs rooms ( spare room in our case ) and on the table I had a microwave, kettle, and George Forman ( would be easier now with an air fryer ) so other then a couple of ping meals , we ate as normal, although washing up was a PITA However if you have dishwasher etc , they can be left plumbed in till the last moment

If the house is perfect in every other way, then an extension makes sense.

My house now is a five bedroom, 3 bathroom, 3 receptions and yet the kitchen/ diner you couldn't fit more then four , now we can seat 12

We also had the garden space to extend without being over looked or encroaching on anyone else's privacy

All possible.

But check on Rightmove and Mouseprice etc for houses in your immediate neighborhood where extensions have been built.

Most houses have a maximum realistic sale price even if you have done the ritziest building work imaginable. You want to avoid buying for £x , carrying out building works for £y and finding out that you can't sell for more than x + y and a profit!

So be really thoughtful about how you spend your money.

lso if you are FTB be aware that there are a lot of horror stories out there about builders. It would be ideal if you had a friend or relative who has been through a house project before to guide you. Never pay more than a nominal sum upfront!

@suki1964 why has the cost of building work gone up so much over 10 years?

I’m worried when you say “…we would want to change quite a bit. But it’s the exact style of house we’re looking for…”

Kitchen extension aside, what do you want to change?
Whats the exact style of house you are looking for and why?

Does it have a kitchen? Is it functional? If the answer if yes, then you don't need to do the extension immediately.

We bought a house in 2019 with the intention of renovating/ extending. It had been built in the 60s and not touched since the 80s.

Then Covid happened so we had to live in it a lot longer before doing the work and it was... absolutely fine! We did the work about 4 years after moving in and in that time we learnt a lot more about the space, the light and also how we wanted to use it. Our kids were 4 years older and we had more perspective on how their needs would change as they got older.

So while it ended up being A LOT more expensive than if we'd been able to do the work in 2020, I think we ultimately got a better house out of having to wait.

@blueshoes prices went up hugely during and after Covid and then because of the Ukraine war. Since then there's been one thing after another pushing prices up... Just look at inflation and the cost of living increases.

@Tortephant i probably just haven’t phrased it very well. It’s a 3 bed semi with garage which is what we want. The layout of the house is what we’re looking for, but decoration wise it is all very dated which is what we’d want to change.
The kitchen and bathroom do need updating (estate agent even commented this) but would be functional for the time being.

Thank you all for the responses, it’s given us a lot to think about!

cost of materials

OK, go for it then. If it is simply decoration you can do most of that yourselves and without spending much.

You may never get to the extension and you will have to weigh up if it is worth the cost at the point you have built up funds again. It think, at the moment, you will be in to 100k to do it, so it may be that you are best re-doing the existing kitchen and bathrooms and then moving on in 5-7 years.

If you're thinking 10+ years of staying there then do also consider secondary schools.

Given your circumstances and that you’ll be living at your parents house - the stress will be more manageable having young kids - as you wouldn’t be living on site.
Your parents could look after them whilst you visit and check up on contractors?

You can get a loan out or re-mortgage if you don’t have the equity straight up - one thing to bear in mind though - have a contingency budget! We spent £15k extra on kitchen renovation/extension works than we had planned to. You’ll find that things could crop up during the demolition /strip out process that we’re not evident before.

An extension is worth doing if you’re planning to stay in the property for a long period of time - as you mentioned 10 years then definitely more feasible. If you’re looking to buy and then move again in a couple of years, I probably wouldn’t go to the great lengths of an extension.
We spent just under £150k on our extension/ renovation. £50k of that was the kitchen and associated building works.
maybe have a look at nearby properties to see what they’ve done to get ideas? Etc?

Do you know what has pushed the price up so much, I imagine your builder husband is. It making 4 times more than 10 years ago and it cannot be cost of materials alone?

Which area are you based in? And how big was the extension? Looking for family house in London and often come across houses that needs extension. Agent mention it may costs 200k or so which unfortunately is not reflected in the price more often than not.

Building materials have gone up by about 40% since COVID, add in national insurance increase if they employ anyone, general cost of living it's easy to see how.

I did exactly that. I took on a dated house with a horrible kitchen when ds was 3. I had some headroom on what I could afford, so similar in that regard, although I was on my own with one child.

I took my time, moved in in 2011 and applied for planning in 2013. It took two applications and some negotiation with the local council, then finding a decent builder, work started April 2015, finished July 2015. I lived in while work was going on, which was stressful but I didn't have an alternative.

It's been worth it, a lovely home and a great place for ds to grow up. I could probably have got a better return on investment by buying a smaller house and building a bigger extension, adding more bedrooms, but smaller houses with large gardens (which I wanted) are hard to find.

It cost £60k. Between 2011 and 2015 I saved £40k, and I borrowed the other £20k. That covered a knock through kitchen extension, and added an office and utility room. 22 square metres in total.

We've done 4 extensions (house is unrecognisable, it was practically a shell twice over), each with a newborn/young baby/toddler stage (3 kids). It's completely do-able although many thought we were mad. The builders practically lived with us for years and almost became like family, and our kids still love seeing them out and about. You just need to go with the flow and embrace the madness, dust and lack of facilities. It's worth it in the end.

Actually, my DH is earning LESS then he did, so wind your neck in

Even though he can do our work himself, we are also being clobbered with the price of materials

He just built a decking area in our garden - cost us less then £50 because we used pallets Over £600, if he had bought new wood

I think there is a some really good advice on here already. Maybe speak with the guys at 'chattoyourbuilder' and have an informal chat with them and im sure they might give you a bit of confidence and the real insight of what it will be like at each stage of the build