FTB advice on potential house - living with small upstairs

LittleMrsThrifty

How much is the house on for?

How big is your deposit?

How much would the work cost?

It would be helpful to see if you could take a lower LTV on your mortgage initially in order to allow you to do the work and then remortgage in say 2 years once the work has been done and (hopefully) increased the price to get you a better LTV.

All depends on the size of your deposit though.

tilly2484

Thanks everyone for your comments. Some great advice there. I'll answer a couple of things below:

House is on for £399950, deposit is £45k. We can borrow £475k.

The work I'll have a better idea of tomorrow - my Dad is coming and he runs a renovation company - so to comment on some of the posts above we'd know what to budget but it would be around the 5 year mark until we could do the rear extension - possibly sooner if partners salary increases. I'd be be able to work more in around 3 years (currently part time due to little kids). We'd also save a few hundred a month on childcare then.

EachPenny - no need to apologise. Helpful comments. I do understand the economics. I'll understand a bit better tomorrow the costs involved once Dad has a look. To answer the kitchen comment yes we know it can be knocked through and the available budget in 12 months time.

tilly2484

Also would add that the annex has full bathroom and kitchen facilities so I'd have no problem living in there with the kids whilst the worst of the building was done.

ReadingTim

Depends on how old the kids are. As an adult, my bedroom upstairs is for dressing and sleeping in. I have a spare room which has various hobby related junk (guitars, amplifiers, photography stuff, all gathering dust) and a desk with paperwork. I mainly use it for storage and drying clothes in winter.

But as a child and then teenager with a large bedroom, I virtually lived there - it kept toys & lego away from creating a mess in the lounge, plus was my own space when I was older and wanted to stay away from my parents, as most teenagers do!

So, it depends on how old the kids are as to whether it's too small upstairs, and the extent to which you want kids' toys and other !!!! all over the rest of the house if you can't keep it in their bedrooms...

tilly2484

ReadingTim wrote: »

Depends on how old the kids are. As an adult, my bedroom upstairs is for dressing and sleeping in. I have a spare room which has various hobby related junk (guitars, amplifiers, photography stuff, all gathering dust) and a desk with paperwork. I mainly use it for storage and drying clothes in winter.

But as a child and then teenager with a large bedroom, I virtually lived there - it kept toys & lego away from creating a mess in the lounge, plus was my own space when I was older and wanted to stay away from my parents, as most teenagers do!

So, it depends on how old the kids are as to whether it's too small upstairs, and the extent to which you want kids' toys and other !!!! all over the rest of the house if you can't keep it in their bedrooms...

Kids are 8 months old and nearly 4 years old. We have a playroom area downstairs so I'm not too worried about the toys. I'd definitely hope work would be done by the time they are teenagers! God doesn't bare thinking about :eek:

Our 4th bedroom in our current home is for my office and all my geeky related items. Losing a bedroom upstairs so I'd have my office space based in part of the annex. The annex would also probably come in handy for teenagers. I'm not too bothered by the kids rooms. They are sufficient for what they need for a few years and pretty much the same as what they have now. It's our room.... We would have to remove about 50% of the furniture/clothes/storage that we currently have. The dimensions of the new master bedroom is 4.7m by 3m (that's into a bay window thought so not all space is usable.

Link to the property is here in case it help visualize it a bit rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-65880892.html

EachPenny

tilly2484 wrote: »

I do understand the economics. I'll understand a bit better tomorrow the costs involved once Dad has a look. To answer the kitchen comment yes we know it can be knocked through and the available budget in 12 months time.

It isn't just the economics though, feasibility also comes into it, and if you are living in the house at the same time then practicality too. But presumably this is something your dad would have experience of too.

For the kitchen knock-through have you had the advice of a structural engineer on the feasibility? The pictures on the link are really useful... assuming you want to knock the kitchen and family room together then you need to get your dad to have a close look at the parapet wall above. The house has clearly had several additions and alterations already, and any further work may cause structural stability issues.

Looking at the floorplan and photos I would be wondering why - if it is easy to do - the original builder of the kitchen and/or family room didn't knock the two into one at the time of construction.

tilly2484 wrote: »

Also would add that the annex has full bathroom and kitchen facilities so I'd have no problem living in there with the kids whilst the worst of the building was done.

If I've understood the layout correctly, the annex is what appears from the front to be a garage?

If so, then you need to think how the rear extension would be built. If the existing ground floor walls are not strong enough for a first-floor to be added on top (and one of them is a party-wall) then you are looking at major work to demolish the existing, put in new foundations, and then build back up.

From what I can see there is no external access* into the rear garden from the front, all routes from front to back involve passing through three rooms downstairs. That simply isn't feasible to use for major building work, especially if plant is required. So you need to consider the possibility that the kitchen and/or part of the annex needs to be demolished in order to build the rear extension.

Therefore don't bank on being able to use the annex while the extension is being built, especially if water/electricity/heating is coming from the adjacent kitchen.

*ETA: perhaps on reflection there is a small personnel gate between the annex and kitchen?

tilly2484

EachPenny wrote: »

For the kitchen knock-through have you had the advice of a structural engineer on the feasibility? The pictures on the link are really useful... assuming you want to knock the kitchen and family room together then you need to get your dad to have a close look at the parapet wall above. The house has clearly had several additions and alterations already, and any further work may cause structural stability issues.

No we haven't. My dad will be able to look at it tomorrow however I would definitley want to have it looked at by a structural engineer.

EachPenny wrote: »

If I've understood the layout correctly, the annex is what appears from the front to be a garage?

Yes that is correct

If so, then you need to think how the rear extension would be built. If the existing ground floor walls are not strong enough for a first-floor to be added on top (and one of them is a party-wall) then you are looking at major work to demolish the existing, put in new foundations, and then build back up.

Great points - thanks

*ETA: perhaps on reflection there is a small personnel gate between the annex and kitchen?

Yes there is a gate, just not that visible from the angle of the photo.

Thank you for your comments - definitely given me some great pointers and things to consider. I appreciate it

EachPenny

tilly2484 wrote: »

I'd write it off if there wasn't scope to extend. Planning permission for a rear extension (1st floor - making the upstairs bigger) but also for a side extension doubling the house. It really could be our forever home and one day be totally perfect.

You also need to check the status of the side extension planning consent. This is old, and pre-dates the rear extension and conversion of the garage into the annex. The later consent says that the side extension was not going to be proceeded with.

I would expect that the original side extension consent has lapsed, and there is nothing online that a first floor rear extension has been approved.

You shouldn't assume that consent will be given, and the previous consent (if lapsed) is no guide to whether or not a new application would be sucessful.

The house has already been substantially extended, so questions of bulk and 'in keeping' are going to be raised.

If you did think that planning consent has already been granted then you need to get this clarified.

tilly2484

Will do - thanks EachPenny