Home improvement choice

mistersean

Hi

Looking for some advice - first time buyer, just last month purchased a house worth £180k, got a mortgage for £120k

Got £9k in debts, £1k in savings - house needs some updating - main expense being kitchen really needs some work doing and probably a complete overhaul.

To get the job done, thought about increasing loan and extending repayment period to adjust size of monthly payment to more manageable level whilst using any excess funds to build up savings again.

Or should I just live with the somewhat depressing state the kitchen is in for now and try and build up savings again over the next year or so?

What do you think?

Thanks

onomatopoeia99

Clear non-mortgage debts and build up savings to pay for the kitchen?

I'm in the middle of replacing my kitchen and even doing all the work apart from electrics (curse part P and all who voted for it in the house of commons) and plastering (a black art) myself the costs just keep spiraling upwards. If borrowing to do it I'd be wary of running out of th borrowed money before finishing. The old kitchen was awful, the wall units were probably the originals from when the house was built in 1951, the chipboard of the floor units (probably from the 1970s) was disintegrating, but I lived with it for three years to get into a position to start with the replacement. At the moment all I have in there is the cooker, washing machine, old sink unit (that I had to re-inforce to stop it collapsing in a heap) and a fold out camping table. No storage at all!

Others will probably have a different take on this I suspect.

Davesnave

mistersean wrote: »

What do you think?

Thanks

As you've never had the experience of maintaining a house and don't yet have a full knowledge of the house you've taken on, committing yourself to more debt just now isn't a great idea.

'Somewhat depressing' kitchens are par for the course.

Once you have been in the house a while, you'll be able to work out a priority list, and it could be that the kitchen doesn't come tops. Live through a winter first!

PS We don't know what kind of house it is, other than it's not a new build, and that might make a significant difference.