would you live in property whilst work is done?

michele-p

HI all,

I'm a newbie to this forum, but think it's going to be a great help. We in the process of buying a 2 bed detached bungalow, and are going with the purchase of our present house. We have no chain, our buyer is in rented and the one we want is empty.

I have a real dilema though. I work from home, as a graphic designer, the bungalow needs work, and I'm very reluctant to live in it whilst the main work is done. I don't want to live and work on a building site really. I just know I'll end up project managing if I'm there. Plus the kitchen at the moment is so small and grotty I just don't want to!

What we're thinking is an upstairs loft room for my step daughter, as she visits every other weekend, and a half width conservatory/extension/orangery type thing on the back, which will be a kitchen diner.

Everyone we speak to says as we are having work done we should really go for it, and put a huge extension on. But we're worried about starting and running out of money. I'd hate to live in it unfinished for years, I've had to be really persuaded into this in the first place!

We have around £50k to spend, but need to add heating, move a bathroom, a loft room, the extension and a kitchen in it. I'm thinking if we build a huge extension it might just take us out of the comfort zone.

Also, if we rent somewhere for 6 months whilst it's started, I'm worried that it won't get really started for a good 2 months of that with getting plans and planning through.

Sorry for the huge first post, once I got going....

Would love to hear the advice of anyone who has done similar though.

Michele

Mankysteve

Personally I would but I'm willing to rough a bit more than others would. You've got to think about it and make decision for what you feel right is for you.

slummymummyof3

I personally feel that you need to live in a property before you make the final judgement call on what you need to be done (excluding the obvious such as replacing kitchen/bathroom etc) We have always lived in each house we have bought for a few months before deciding how we needed to extend it in order to satisy our wants with a house. Likewise we have lived in all but one of the houses whilst we have renovated and extended - sometimes it can be hard going but worth it in the end.

PasturesNew

How big's the garden? Get temporary planning permission granted to have a mobile home on site for the duration of the works. You'll be able to pick one up for £2k or less for this purpose. You might even find somebody giving one away free just to get shot of it. A mobile home without a site is virtually worthless, so older holiday mobile homes and ex-residential ones are traded on the 2nd hand market for self-builders and as storage sheds, hence the low price. Another alternative is to get a large touring caravan to live in - the larger the touring caravan the cheaper they are to buy, might be able to get one of these cheaper than a mobile home.... you might even look into whether you can site it for 6 months at a local caravan park, with electricity. Quite a lot of sites do this, you won't be "living in it", just on the caravan park long-term. Most sites have 2-3 pitches where people leave their holiday/towing caravans on a specific pitch all season or even all year on some.

G_M

You've got two issues here - how much work to do and where to live.

My biggest regret is not doing more/all work upfront. I improved/added to my property over years and just wish I'd done the whole lot in one hit. I'd've had longer enjoying the finished product, plus done a complete job instead of having bits I've never got round to.

As to where to live, only you can decide. Obviously renting costs extra and reduces your available cash but I can sympathise with your reluctance. Living in a building site is stressful, but trying to work from one....

How about live there while you sort out planning etc, then when work actually starts move in with friends/family till it reaches a managable point? Or find a LL willing to do a short (2-3 month) let. Rare I know but LL's planning to sell, or desperate to get a tenant in sometimes agree to this.

michele-p

Hi, thanks for the answers so far. We did look into a caravan in the garden (which is HUGE), and also my OH last night thought about moving in first, then out again for a few months whilst the main work is done after the planning permission is done with.

I'm just so torn on what to do, and need to make a decision soon (weeks in the next 2-3 weeks anyway).

If the main work was starting straight away it could be an easier choice, but as we'll have to get planning permission first, that could eat into any 6 month tennancy we start in rented.

I'll go and have a search through the forum and see if I can find any more useful threads too.

Thanks

poppysarah

Is it a sensible budget? You should make enquiries in this direction.

If you can't bear dust and disorder don't do it. You'll go mad living in it.
If you don't mind sharing your house with builders who will seriously rip is apart...

Ask builders - it might not be possible for you to live in it if you're having lots of ceilings ripped out.
Neighbours had an extension and sent their kids to relatives and were going to slum it during the work. Until the big storm that flooded the roofless house they did anyway.

DKLS

I have done it in the past, but never ever again, do not ever underestimate the mess and flith that is involved.

I remember sneaking out the house in my suit for a meeting, thinking I had done well avoiding the muck, until I got outside and looked like a tramp.

The caravan/mobile home is a great idea.

Welsh_Totster

Ive done it and never again much like DKLS said. We lived in the house when it was gutted around us, one day we could stand on the ground floor and look up straight to the roof trusses, though the ceiling/floor/ceiling as it has all been ripped out. Its messy, its dirty, living with no kitchen and 3 inches of dust EVERYWHERE is no fun.

Id go for the caravan idea.

RenovationMan

We've done it and will never do it again! Our new house needs work, but the majority of the work is on the granny annexe and that's separate to the main house (attached, but self contained).

With the loft conversion, have you made absolutely sure that there is sufficient headroom? With changes to building regs, you have to put an absolute ton of insulation in the roof and in the floor (for fireproofing), add to that the drylining for the ceiling and steel beams and boarding for the floor, it can make what looks like a large loft space into quite a small room where you end up stooping anywhere other than under the roof apex. Also make sure you have decent ventilation up there because even with all of that insulation it can get really oppressive in Summer.

michele-p

we've not made sure about the headroom yet, as we've not completed on the house, there's a limit to what we can do before. It may be that we do it as an "attick room" rather than an official bedroom. I would like to get a builder to come round and have a quick look, for some rough estimates, but the bhosue is empty, and the estate agents give you about 5 mins to have a quick look!