Extending into and above garage - can it be done?

[Feierabend]

Hi, just wondering if anyone has done this recently. Basically we're contemplating buying a house that's just about big enough at the moment, but in a few years time we'd want to extend the kitchen into the garage, adding a downstairs loo, and build another bedroom above that same garage. Not necessarily in one go. Has anyone got any idea how much this might cost, how long it would take, whether we'd have to move out for the duration of the work? Any other tips? Thanks so much! Oh, and is it any more pain than converting the loft or similar?

Fei - we looked at a similar thing recently but we needed to do it straight away. The house had no garage so we thought about putting a double height extension on the side of the house to give a garage and utility room downstairs and master bedroom with ensuite above. The owners already had plans drawn up (although they hadn't gone any further than that). We had a couple of builders go round and look at the plans to give us a ball park figure for the work. One came in at £50K and the other at £37K plus electrics and plumbing so basically around the cost of the first one. It worked out at approximately £1K per square metre.

We abandoned the idea after speaking to a number of local estate agents to see what it would be worth with the work done. The information we got back suggested that to break even we would have to get the owners to drop about 10% from their newly reduced price.

Thanks Spiralqueen. DH has come up with a figure of £40k. The idea is that if we did extend in this way then we'd be able to stay in the house for the next 20 years or so so I'm not too bothered about whether it adds value to the house or not, who knows what will happen in the next 20 years anyway? Do you know if you would have been able to stay in the house while the extension was being done?

I believe so as most of the work could be done before knocking through to the main bit of the house. I guess reading some of the other threads on having builders in would enlighten you as to whether this is as simple/easy as it sounds.