Move or improve - living space v lifestyle

mishkanorman

I would stay put and make the changes, making my house into the 2nd option effectively,

If you dont mind adding a 100k to your debts then I would have a total re-jig downstairs - using the house you gave as an example I would change the living room into the kitchen, knock down the wall between current kitchen/diner and make that the living room, with a conservatory off it for the kids to use as their space. Add a downstairs loo under the stairs if needed/possible.

I had the box room as a bedroom and i much preferred it to the bigger one, if its a problem though I would look at a loft conversion.

mintymoneysaver

That first link is basically my house at the other end of the country! (And £100,000 dearer!) Only difference with mine is my kitchen no longer has a door, so my units are along one wall and the back wall, so I have one wall bare.. I have patio doors in the back dining room instead.
We did try to move at one point, but the market was dead so we ended up staying put. And now the years have flown, my 18 year old is moving out to Uni, the 14 year old has the box room and I'm glad we didn't. We had good schools, good friends, and we've never had to stretch ourselves financially. If I had a choice though I would make the kichen into a kitchen diner.

JodyBPM

Lots of fantastic replies, thank you!

The general consensus seems to be to knock through the kitchen and dining room, and then put in a loft conversion, and then stay put and enjoy having a decent disposable income.

That's certainly a possibility, and quite tempting.

I wonder if it would make any difference to people's responses if I menioned that even the £200K mortgage is only just over 3x combined incomes (and I currently only work 2 days a week, if I worked fulltime, it would be less than 3x) so I'm probably being very cautious about what I consider "affordable". Even with the biggest mortage, its unlikely that we would actually struggle, but then I don't have a crystal ball, and its a risk we don't need to take!

Deep down, I think its time to move on. I think we've outgrown this house. The problem seems that an extra £100 - 125K is doesn't seem to buy much more than we already have, and it would be quite a big mortgage that we'd need for the move to be to something significantly bigger/better. And I totally agree that lifestyle is more important than house size, and that a large house/large mortgage could bring worries that we don't have at the moment.

I'll keep pondering about it. Knowing me, I'll probably keep pondering on in for another 10 years, and then it'll all be a moot point anyway, as the children will have grown up and moved on!

mintymoneysaver

Mind you, I've just had a look at the three properties, and the bigger kitchen in the £100,000 easily affordable one would probably swing it for me!

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

JodyBPM wrote: »

Lots of fantastic replies, thank you!

The general consensus seems to be to knock through the kitchen and dining room, and then put in a loft conversion, and then stay put and enjoy having a decent disposable income.

That's certainly a possibility, and quite tempting.

I wonder if it would make any difference to people's responses if I menioned that even the £200K mortgage is only just over 3x combined incomes (and I currently only work 2 days a week, if I worked fulltime, it would be less than 3x) so I'm probably being very cautious about what I consider "affordable". Even with the biggest mortage, its unlikely that we would actually struggle, but then I don't have a crystal ball, and its a risk we don't need to take!

Deep down, I think its time to move on. I think we've outgrown this house. The problem seems that an extra £100 - 125K is doesn't seem to buy much more than we already have, and it would be quite a big mortgage that we'd need for the move to be to something significantly bigger/better. And I totally agree that lifestyle is more important than house size, and that a large house/large mortgage could bring worries that we don't have at the moment.

I'll keep pondering about it. Knowing me, I'll probably keep pondering on in for another 10 years, and then it'll all be a moot point anyway, as the children will have grown up and moved on!

I'm going to sound really old here....


Just because you can afford the credit for the bigger house, does that actually mean you need it? My old GP decided to stay in the 3 bedroom semi he had bought shortly after he first qualified - brought his family up there, as the schools were great, transport was great - and he had the income to do absolutely amazing things with his family, unlike, for example, the rest of the doctors in the practice, who continually put themselves into great debt and never felt the amount of freedom he did.

Could you not look at perhaps having a wonderful holiday home instead?

JodyBPM

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

I'm going to sound really old here....


Just because you can afford the credit for the bigger house, does that actually mean you need it? My old GP decided to stay in the 3 bedroom semi he had bought shortly after he first qualified - brought his family up there, as the schools were great, transport was great - and he had the income to do absolutely amazing things with his family, unlike, for example, the rest of the doctors in the practice, who continually put themselves into great debt and never felt the amount of freedom he did.

I do agree that we don't need a budget busting house, but I do think that we need a bigger one. Ideally finding something where we would be happy with a mortgage in the region of £100-£150K would be an ideal compromise, but there seems very little around that price level around here, and what we do see doesn't seem to have much advantage over our existing house, as per the link posted.

Could you not look at perhaps having a wonderful holiday home instead?

We already do:) Well, we have a static caravan on the coast about 1.5 hours drive away. Not maybe many people's idea of a wonderful holiday home:rotfl:, but we love it, and wouldn't want to swap it for the hassle and expense of an actual second house:)

Spendless

Interest rates are at a historic low and though they *might* stay there for a while longer, in the long term they are likely to go up. For that reason I would't do a mortgage so big that you'd struggle with re-payments as and when rates rise.

The 1st link is not too dis-similar to my house, also with children and we've done some of the suggestions on here, knocked thru the wall between kitchen and dining room to give a bigger space and had french windows put in that initially led to the garden but now to a conservatory that runs most of the width of the house, made a downstairs loo in what was the cupboard under the stairs and have a wooden summer house in the garden which has been playhouse/office space. Eventually in my smallest bedroom,(prob slightly bigger than the one linked to) we will build a cupboard over the stairs, like my neighbours have done for a linen cupboard but instead the doors will open from the bedroom instead of the landing and becoem a wardrobe, freeing up some floor-space. I have DD's bed under the window rather than lengthways to give extra space.

I'd have a think about how much having a re-jig of what you've currently got against how much it will cost you for not a great deal more space and what you'd lose (eg schools)against what you'd gain.

claire16c

Id go for the 150k one because you seem to get a lot more than the 100k one.

The house you are in now, I didnt think was too bad at first, but the kitchen is tiny. So I can see why you would feel cramped. I live in a small 2 bed house but my kitchen is much bigger than that!

I know 1 person who has done a loft conversion, but I cant help wondering - where do they keep all their stuff that I keep in my loft? Maybe I just have too much junk :rotfl:

System

The house we live in couldnt be classed as large by any stretch of the imagination but we bought up 5 kids in it. Three boys in one bedroom and 2 girls in the other pokey little room. The boys were like a whirlwind and the house did get rather battered i must say. We thought of moving more than once (or rather hubby did i wanted to stay). Storage space in the bedrooms was the main issue with toys and clothes and stuff that kids generally collect. What couldnt fit in the wardrobes was put on shelving in the hall upstairs. We coped. Hubby took me to see houses bigger than ours but it would mean going into debt which i really didnt want to do.

Then the kids started leaving home. That tiny little bedroom became my daughters bedroom and we managed to cram a full set of chest of drawers and double wardrobe in it as well as a bed (2ft6"). She coped whilst two boys had the larger bedroom. Now she has moved out and the tiny little bedroom is now our office and our youngest the only one left at home has the big bedroom (not the biggest, thats mine!) and theres so much room here i am so glad we didnt opt for anything any bigger.

gibson123

When I was in a similar quandary, I did some pros and cons.

decided to stay put, what decided it?

Bigger house = more housework
bigger house = bigger bills
Oh and I decided to spend the money on a holiday house in Turkey..