Outgrowing Your Home – To Extend, Convert or Sell?

This is a collaborative post

We are getting to the point where we are slowly outgrowing our home. Whilst we have no plans to have any more children, we have a 3 bedroom house and two children, and are slowly running out of storage, having recently converted the box room into Neve’s nursery.

We have a few options, and I am completely stuck when it comes to deciding which one is best for our situation.

Loft Conversion – My in-laws just completed a loft conversion in their bungalow, and it looks AMAZING. They now have a welcoming guest room for when family come to say, and it is deceivingly big – with enough room for a double bed and lots of storage space. From an aesthetic point of view, you can really improve the look of your home with a balustrade, opening up french doors to look out across your garden and take in the view.

At my in-laws, despite the high ceilings, they have installed two large Velux windows, and use Rocburn window openers – particularly useful as they are both on the petite side! They have incorporated a beautiful ensuite shower and toilet room and the natural light is fresh and inviting.

Whilst we have a large loft, this idea would be a significant investment for us and also involve some thought around the existing staircase, as our landing isn’t particularly spacious. Adding light to a loft room of this nature can also be expensive, so we would need to shop around for your windows to make sure we got the best price.

A loft conversion would create a large additional bedroom for us, but in reality, it may end up just becoming a dumping ground, and as such, I am not sure if the cost will justify the benefit.

Extension – one of the biggest bug bears I have with this house is the kitchen, in that it is TINY. As such, I hate cooking in there, and spend as little time in the kitchen as possible. Now I have two children, I have total kitchen envy for families that can bake together or sit together at a breakfast bar in the morning.

We do have the option to extend outwards and to the side if we wish, and with other properties on the road doing something similar, I am pretty sure we would get the planning permission. However, in order to benefit from an additional upstairs room, we would have to do a two story extension, which again is a MASSIVE investment. It is unlikely we would ever get that money back on the sale value, and as such, I would need to be confident that this would be our forever home in order to do that.

I love the idea of an extnsion to our dining area with real solid wood floors and underfloor heating to ensure our toes stay nice and warm. Having had cream carpets in our home now for years, we seem to spend a lifetime cleaning or removing stains, before having to inevitably replace them when they become grubby from spilled drinks or sticky fingers. Not only do hard wood floors look elegant and timeless, but they are easier to clean, and far more hygienic than carpets.

At the moment however, as nice as the idea may seem, am not sure if I can commit to that long term investment!

Sell Up – The other option is that I admit defeat, and accept that at some point in the not too distant future, we sell up and move to a bigger house. I don’t think we would be able to afford a four bed in this location, however, if we could find a bigger three bedroomed home with a large kitchen that would probably be enough for now. Even better if it had a garage that we could convert or space or extend over the top.

I receive regular Right Move alerts just in case anything takes my eye, but waving farewell to our garden after such an extensive garden renovation is not something that I will be able to do easily! It’s rare to see a garden so big!

For now, I have to accept the fact that none of the above options are easy, and that as such, none are going to happen any time soon. In the meantime, I have got to try and have a bit of a declutter and stream line in order to make more space.

A girl can wish though right?

*This is a collaborative post*