Loft conversion or buy bigger house?

[sunnyfields25]

Our home is a 1950s three-bed semi with one decent-sized living/dining room and a smallish kitchen. Lovely location, big garden and long driveway. However only one toilet and we're bursting at the seams with two children and all their stuff!

I'd been thinking about a loft conversion, which we could maybe just about manage without needing to borrow extra money. It would give us more rooms upstairs and a second shower room. But would still leave us with a small kitchen and one living space downstairs.

Been to view a four-bed detached house today in the same town and we love it. Location not as good (bit hemmed in), smaller driveway and garden, but it has everything else we need inside. They've had loads of viewings and will be taking best and final offers next week. To stand a chance we'd need to take a second mortgage and the monthly repayments would be approx £250 per month more than we pay now, which makes me uneasy.

Has anyone else been in a similar position of choosing between staying put and converting the loft, versus buying a bigger house? If so, which did you choose?

Thanks 🙂

We bought the bigger house, albeit 13 years ago when interest rates were lower and the job market more stable.

Have friends who live on the street that we used to who have 3 children (we have 2) and have done loft conversion and kitchen extension.

You can make either decision work.

We had loft conversion and it was brilliant and a lot cheaper than moving!

Extending will be cheaper and means you don't have to compromise on location. From what you've said I think you'd be better off extending downstairs rather than into the loft though as you have enough bedrooms and want more living space, and with a big garden you can afford to go out. You could gain a bigger kitchen, extra living space and add in a downstairs toilet (with shower if that's what you need). We have done both - I would say the kitchen extension added far more in terms of useful space than the loft, but we needed to do the loft eventually as we had another child.

I can't understand why you would consider paying more per month plus thousands in moving costs and stamp duty to go to a worse location with smaller garden. You have enough bedrooms already, so do a downstairs extension and add a bathroom/utility.

Thanks for the replies. Sorry I should have explained - although on paper we have enough bedrooms, in reality DD is in the box room which is only really big enough for a bed and chest of drawers. There's a built-in cupboard above the stairs for hanging a few clothes, but access to this rules out a high sleeper bed (which would have given more floor space!). So ideally she needs a bigger room.

DH also mostly works from home, but without a spare room for an office he's stuck at the dining table, which is tricky when the children are at home.

So although I'd love a bigger kitchen, a utility room and a downstairs loo, and there is space outside to extend, I thought converting the loft would create the rooms we're more in need of. I wish we could do both but can't afford it.

I would move and prioritise living space.

loft conversions are ok but limited and not solving your problem here. Also they aren’t saying exactly expensive and can easily go wrong/over budget particularly when adding a shower room.

perhaps the house you have viewed isn’t the one. Maybe something better out there for you.

We also have a 1950s house with two and a half bedrooms and were debating this same thing two years ago. We had already extended our kitchen though so the downstairs living area was plenty big enough. We looked around at houses for sale it would have been more expensive to move especially when you factor in stamp duty.

We went for a loft conversion but that was also on the expensive side, hip to gable and a dormer. It was very disruptive and we had bad luck with the weather and had a few leaks but it is lovely now that it's done.

If you find the perfect house, moving might be best but if not the conversion and an extension might be the better option. It all depends on what else is out there and how much building costs are in your area.

We had similar set up to you and couldn't afford to do both. Box room/bedroom is now office. We have loft bedroom and second bathroom which has worked brilliantly for us.

Kitchen/diner and sitting room are still small, but we have managed pretty well and have used tge garden effectively. Lots of people locally seem to do kitchen extensions/open plan first, but for us (2 kids/2adults) it has worked and continues to work as dcs grow up (eldest is living at home doing a masters so is well set up in the loft for privacy and a bit of separation). I think we may be unusual in that we didn't move to loft, but it felt too far from kids and dog and front door!!

However, I am not sure now that with building costs as they are that it is cheaper than moving and only fractionally less hassle.

Oh and bathroom is not ensuite in loft which was a deliberate choice so people wouldn't be walking through someone's bedroom and guests could use it if needed.