My Situation

tesuhoha

Well, Martin does say there's nothing wrong with borrowing if its done in the right way. I too have that uncomfortable feeling about it thats why Im hesitating. I dont want to spend money on the bedroom now because the loft will be done ultimately and it seems a waste.

ZTD

What's the rate after September?

When you say "without dormer windows" do you mean "with velux windows"?

bananakinz

If your daughter was not coming home, would you get a loft conversion done? If you did would you want one, would it be with a dormer window?

It seems to me that getting hubby to do one now without a dormer window would be second best and you'd come to regret it.

You also say that your daughter would be looking to get a job. What are her long term plans? does she want to move out and get her own place and would this be within a year?

spud30

Do you already have planning permission, or is it not needed Tes?

floss2

When will the tax bill be due for payment? You need to be able to pay this off before the next one.....I assume they are annual tax bills? When you've got the extension paid for, will you be able to save towards the next tax bill? Will doing the extension affect your OH's main job - i.e. will he have time to work on the house if he is self employed? (sorry if wrong, I made an assumption from the tax bill)

Will your daughter definitely be coming home, or might she find a job somewhere else, maybe near her Uni? Will she be able to find a job (or has she got something lined up already?)

PasturesNew

It seems to me that borrowing £7k to create a loft room is a lot of money - that you don't have for what could be a short-lived benefit.

You say it would increase the value of your house by £20,000, but you can only get that £20k when you sell the house, not now. And what if it doesn't. You haven't mentioned building regs or planning permission so without these it would still be the same house you have, just with a "loft storage room". If you don't have planning permission - and if you wouldn't have got it for the dormer, then you might be adding more to your woes when some neighbour spots it and reports you.

As was said by somebody else: you can tart up the existing bedroom for under £1000. Get a good carpenter to construct a raised platform for sleeping on, then use the space under that for storage/rails etc.

If your daughter is returning to look for work, she might not live near you when she gets a job and might need her own place miles away. And then you'd be trying to borrow more to get her a deposit etc together.

Whatever you do, don't borrow this additional money. It's not good debt for the right reasons. It will turn out to be your final nail.

chevalier

I take it that your daughter is doing great at uni, and wil therefore be getting a good degree. This being the case what sort of income level will she have when she graduates, and is she going to be able to get the job the degree has prepared her for near you?

The reason that I am asking is that say she got a first, and got offered the job of her dreams 200 miles from your house, then she won't be coming home to stay.

Perhaps you need to factor in a talk with her about this to see if it is just how she feels now about coming home.

However if she really is going to come home, because she already has a job lined up, then to be honest I would take on the debt in the most cost effective way possible, and then do a good job of it. Ie make sure it is not a liability if you come to sell the property. So put the windows in now is my suggestion.

regards
chev

mrcow

tesuhoha wrote: »

The loft extension will increase the value of the house by £20,000 approx.

Don't bank on it.

Is your husband installing a proper permanent staircase? And if you're only having velux windows I doubt it's going to add anything like £20k to your house as it's just going to seem like a "done up loft". Are you having proper heating up there? You'll need to ensure that your current heating system can cope with the extra output and pipes.

I think it's a bad idea considering that your finances seem to be a bit over the place anyway. Deliberately racking up another £7k of debt to do up your loft is madness.

What if your daughter gets a job away from home.....it will be money down the toilet.

sophiesmum_2

Would you be doing a conversion anyway whether daughter was coming home or not?
You may go to the trouble and expense of doing this conversion and then she may decide to not move back home at all. Or perhaps only for a very short while. It is difficult moving back in with parents when you have had the freedom of doing your own thing at uni.

If I was in your situation i would look at making the box room habitable instead. There are some bed/storage systems now with wardrobes/desks/etc built in. Your daughter will likely be working, and socialising when not at work so probably would not actually spend that much time in the room (unlike teenage boys who live on their games systems- I recall you have one of these at home)

At the end of the day, you have to make the decision to suit yourselves and your family circumstances. We can give you input but we are not living there.

Good luck making the decision.

belfastgirl23

It sounds to me like you know in your heart of hearts that borrowing the money is a bad idea but you are being put under pressure to do so by your husband and daughter and being made to feel mean that you're hesitating. It sounds to me like you'd be borrowing a smaller amount of money and doing a cheap job on the loft conversion which ultimately won't add much value to the house anyway. Even if you can do it for £7k and anyone who watches property ladder knows that budgets are always a bit shaky for this type of thing.

Personally I think your gut is telling you not to do it and it's right. I'm assuming from your email that you are the person left holding the baby on managing the debt too. I think that the time has come to say enough! If you have been supporting your daughter through college then I think you've done enough. She has a place to crash if necessary but it's time she was getting somewhere for herself anyway. And if you explain how worried you are about the debt then she should understand. In fact you would be setting her a good example in not spending what you don't have.

But you are in a really unenviable position in either case. Good luck with it.