Hi,

I am due to receive a chunk of money from an accident I suffered in the region of 40k. Our house is a Victorian three bedroom end terrace the majority of the street are two bedrooms.

Myself and my partner have a six month baby and we plan to have another one within in the next few years.

The house is L shaped and has a triangular courtyard that I feel could be used to extend the kitchen and produce another bedroom upstairs. I think the loft is too shallow for a loft conversion into proper living space, but maybe there are other options there?

I understand it is likely we will have to borrow a bit more for a two story extension, maybe?

Question is, do we go for the extension? Pay off some of the mortgage? Invest (I’m fine with this and have knowledge of investments) for at least five years and then move to a larger property when hopefully the family grows?

I’m just a bit concerned about over-developing the property relative to the street.

All ideas welcome.

Cheers

what have others done before you? i think your concern is justified. unless there’s a very compelling reason to stay where you are, just move and buy a house better suited to your needs, with an eye to easy expansion ( loft conversion, or similar ) later, just for flexibility’s sake.

We are about build an extension that will push us over the value of the road. From a purely financial perspective it makes no sense but we like the location and it’ll mean we can stay here for the foreseeable future.

We are in a similar position, do we extend our do we move??? We have decided that the 2 story extension is the way forward for us.

Take advantage of the extra space you will get, 40k should build it with some to spare. You’d be gutted if you invested it and it failed to deliver any return.

No stamp duty on an extension

Not sure how much houses are worth around your way, but with all the fees & general hassle, £40k won’t buy you much of an upgrade if you move house. So either go ahead with the extension or invest / pay off some of the mortgage so that you’re in a better position to upgrade at a later date.

Or buy a Ferrari. Either’s good.

better to have the worse house on a good street, than the best house on a bad street,

move

Yeah, sorry. House is worth about 215k.

Sundayjumper, that is my feeling, being in a better position later on. The thing is at the moment we have no need for the extra space.

“…at the moment we have no need for the extra space.”

I think you may have answered your own question about the extension !

Ha – yup.

What was the point of asking? Lol

Oh you just wanted to tell us you’ve come into 40k! Well done, pleased for you, buy a sports car!

In some of the streets round here, you could buy next door and knock through!

All helps with the decision making process. I would rather have not suffered the injury in the first place to warrant the money. Thanks.

We’ve just extended after pondering wether to move or not. We decided to extend on the basis the house is in the right location given our kids ages and where they are with schooling etc. so we’re likely to be here for some time to come. At the end of the day you need to decide what your house is to you? Is it a home or is it an investment, if ever houses you actually live in can ever be an investment. For us extending the house such that we make it suit the way we want to live in it was far more valuable than further loading up our mortgage and moving to a house that we would inevitably want to spend a shit load on to get it how we want it – who ever moved into a perfect house – there is always something you want or need to do to it. I guess if we were 10 years younger we might have made a different decision.

Also bear in mind the build cost of the extension is roughly half of the total cost by the time you’ve furnished the extension,taken the opportunity to replace and upgrade the CH system, and sorted out the mess the builders will leave your garden in. And then there is the knock on cost due to the fact your nice new extension shows up the rest of your house so you’ll undoubtedly embark on a very costly re-decoration of the rest of the house. All of a sudden £40k doesn’t look like a huge budget to cover all that.

There is/was a 3 bed 1930s semi in a row of similar in our village.

Current occupiers extended into the roof and out to the side. They ended up with a 7 bed semi, but 3 of the bedrooms are very narrow and practically corridors. They also have a garage in the back garden with no access other than through the house.

It’s been for sale for over two years now. Price has dropped over £50k and it needs to drop another £50 to make it reasonable, and it will need gutting inside to sort the room layout.

Think carefully before you extend beyond your street “level”.

S-Works epic, Carbon Nomad, BMC team issue road bike, titanium xc 29er,

Reckon that’s about half of it dealt with.

Get big fancy holidays for 5 years.

Shove the sprog in the pantry.

I’m amazed no one has mentioned coke and hookers yet!

We’re in a similar position but have decided to move, 40k should easily see a double extension in the manner you describe it going off quotes we’ve recently had. Just factor in the hidden costs such as hikes on council tax/home insurance etc if you do decide to extend.

We’ve decided to take the opportunity move, we would love to stay here but fancy taking the next step up the property ladder.

council tax does not change bands until the house changes ownership

and I hardly think an extension is likely to blow the home insurance bill if they have came upon 40k…

I never knew that re council tax. Does it depend on the local council? One of the vendors of a house we recently viewed mentioned theirs had changed due to extending.

Cripes as an aside we have been looking to have a small single storey extension onto the kitchen at the back. Prices from builders have been coming in at between £45 -75k! Can I borrow some of the builders quoted above?!

There is/was a 3 bed 1930s semi in a row of similar in our village.

Sound like that house was as much badly developed as over developed. Poor layout e.t.c. They might have been ok with the same size extension less bedrooms but well designed.

Hey hammy I wasn’t being snotty with you.
An accident where you get awarded 40k compensation must have been horrendous.

Enjoy the cash, whatever you choose to do with it. Good luck.

Cripes as an aside we have been looking to have a small single storey extension onto the kitchen at the back. Prices from builders have been coming in at between £45 -75k! Can I borrow some of the builders quoted above?!

Were they including lube in their costs?

FWIW I paid about £18k + kitchen and decorating (about £25K all in probably) for my single storey 3×4 extension. That was including complicated founds (building over a sewer), the obligatory whole house plumbing refit and new boiler, and knocking down the old deathtrap that was there previously.

Same as you squirrel – over the sewer and a collapsing lean-to to go. We cannot work out why it’s coming in so expensive – admittedly access isn’t brilliant but it can’t be adding on twice as much.

Your price is much more what we estimated originally.

I haven’t read all that but…..There’s always a ceiling limit to a property’s value no matter where you are. It’s very hard to break that. Maybe invest in something new?