Going round in circles.

pickledonionspaceraider

I agree with you OP - If you can rejig what you already have - to comfortably accommodate your household - then I would do that..and like you say, still have money for other areas of the house

FBaby

Getting a friend to do an extension, on such a low cost is a very bad idea. I would definitely avoid the risks.

jackieblack

pickledonionspaceraider wrote: »

I agree with you OP - If you can rejig what you already have - to comfortably accommodate your household - then I would do that..and like you say, still have money for other areas of the house

I also agree.
If the re-jig will give you the space you need, you can do the work in other rooms of the house and pay off debt.

If you spend all the money on an extension you don't really need, you'll still need to find extra money to do the other work and still have debts to repay.

JodyBPM

In general, I'd extend rather than redecorate, as extending is likely to add value to a house, where as decor won't.

However, an £11k "mates rates" extension seems far too cheap, and open to so many problems, and I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole.

I'd be inclined to pay off any debt, do any essential maintance, and then save the rest towards a proper extension, not done by a mate.

Sezzagirl

Being currently in the process of adapting our completely unused Dining Room into a sitting room/den for the teenagers, i would advise thinking very carefully about creating a seperate dining room

Phil and Kirsty also say that dining rooms really aren't being used for their original purpose now and to think what else you could use that space for

We have space to eat in the kitchen and so the other room just ends up full of junk

If you can adapt your existing space, do some "nice" things like decorating AND come out of it debt free, i think that's what I'd go for

I suppose the thing to think about is whether, before this money was there, were you thinking "Oh, I wish we could change this kitchen around to eat comfortably" or were you thinking "I wish we could build an extension"?

Spendless

pukkamum wrote: »

The kitchen at the moment is set out very badly and with some rejigging, fitting a patio door moving various cupboards etc it could fit a table which we could comfortably sit around.

Redecorate the living room, this includes new flooring, gas fire, skirting boards, plaster work and some new furniture.
Also tiling the bathroom, a new bathroom sink, having the front block paved making the drive much more usable and re-flagging the garden.

How much does the living room, bathroom, drive and garden need doing. Are they desperate or just 'in an ideal world'. I agree that they would be done over time, but that could be years and years, meanwhile other rooms are going to start cropping up that need doing, the kids bedrooms as they outgrow them in terms of decoration and furniture for example.

Is it possible to visualise what the re-jigging of the kitchen would create in terms of space? I agree a room just for dining in won't be used much, depends what other purpose you were thinking of using it for and what you are getting for your £11k

Sezzagirl

Also, think about how you would feel if your friend came back and said actually I've done the final figures and I can't do the extension for £11k - it's going to be nearer £13k all in or said that £11k would just cover the basic shell and then you'd have to find more money to complete it

Would you be disappointed or secretly relieved? Would you be preared to borrow additional money to complete the extension project?

And you still wouldn't have shiney new tiles in your bathroom, you'd have all your current (possible a bit tired) furniture in the new living room and the drive and front garden would still not be as usable as if you'd had the block paving

The more I think about it, the more I can see that so many different areas of your home would benefit from the kitchen rejig plan

RAS

GO over to the recent £100K house programme, which deals with extensions and the like and see if you can get some ideas.

Have to say most of the extensions cost a lot more than £11k. He may be talking about the BUILDING cost only not the first and second fix or fitting out.

schwam66

its all about what you intend to do with the house really....if your looking to move in 5 years thn an extension is a fantastic way to enhance the house and add value, but if your planning on staying then i would do the kitchen rejig and do your other small bits....no sense spending all your money on an extension when you really only need a bit more room to walk around a table....think about it you do a nice big extension as you say you would have enough room for an actual dinning room, would you even use it more than a couple times a year? would be a wastd room imo, yeah you could integrate it into the kitchen which would be what i would suggest if you did it but then its all about cost as well, 11k to do it but then no money to do anything else, we are currently renovationg are whole house and what we budgeted would take 30k has taken 38k so you have to bare that in mind....all the best though and goodluck

QuackQuackOops

pukkamum wrote: »

We have money to spend on the house, it's 12K.
We must have spent this money in our heads a thousand times over and still keep changing our minds.
The crux is we need somewhere to comfortably sit around the dining table.
At the moment we eat in the kitchen which is a bit of a squash and leaves no room to walk around the table etc.
We have 2 rooms downstairs a big living room and a fairly decent size kitchen.
The kitchen at the moment is set out very badly and with some rejigging, fitting a patio door moving various cupboards etc it could fit a table which we could comfortably sit around.
This means we could use some of the money on some outstanding debts (about 3K would make us totally debt free, though we are comfortably paying them off, most is interest free).
Redecorate the living room, this includes new flooring, gas fire, skirting boards, plaster work and some new furniture.
Also tiling the bathroom, a new bathroom sink, having the front block paved making the drive much more usable and re-flagging the garden.

However, we have seriously considered an extension, our best friend is a builder and has told us he can build it for 11K, the idea then being that we have a living room in the extension and use the current living room as a dining room, possibly opening it up to the kitchen.
This however, wouldn't leave much for doing the rest of the house, decorating and furnishing the new room and dining room.

My argument is that we would be spending most of the money just to gain somewhere to eat, that is achievable in the kitchen and would leave money for other stuff.

Dh and I are going round in circles, he is leaning towards an extension, I am pushing to the other side.

Some impartial advice very much needed!

Extension without a doubt.
Adds value to the house straight away.

All the other things you mentioned can be done bit by bit over time.