Loft Conversions, additional rooms, conservatory, adding a garage?
What would be the first thing you would do to make your house exactly how you would like it?
Maybe you have been lucky enough to move into your dream home but more often than not we need our homes to grow with us. I love to think that I now live in my forever home as its perfect for us right now but I know should circumstances change then our home situation may do too. For starters we would need more bedrooms and a larger kitchen, it also doesn’t help that our bathroom is downstairs so moving that upstairs would be on the list of renovations too! Extending the kitchen and building above it to create an additional bedroom and en suite would be perfect and solve a lot of problems.
Unless we have a lottery win or get an unexpected inheritance then the ideal solution would be to remortgage for home improvements, which lots of people do to free up the equity in the house and add to the overall value.
I love those big American style kitchens with the islands in the middle of the room where everyone seems to congregate during parties, somewhere for the children to sit and do work and help me bake. Having fallen in love with the white shaker style kitchens I can see it now with huge glass doors to throw open so that the indoors and outdoors come together in the summer. A pergola covered in lilac spilling scents through the house and masses of natural light which would be a bloggers and photographers dream!
My dream bedroom would have an ensuite that I wouldn’t have to share with the children, there are only so many bottles of bubbles, lotions and potions I can take and lighting a simple candle or two without having to blow them out within 2 minutes as a little person has decided to join you. For these reasons alone this would be my first port of call for home improvements!
Another option would be to extend upwards, adding a third storey onto the house or convert the attic into a full bedroom and shower room. Of course with this comes the complications of adding an additional staircase and our landing area does not lend well to the space another set of stairs would take up. We could always choose a home lift, these can be bespoke made to cover all 3 floors and have options of full sliding glass doors and 3 way door configuration.
Some of my fellow bloggers have also gone down this route of remortgaging to release the equity in their properties and found it was the ideal solution for them…
We bought our first home four years ago and released funds last year to pay for a new, bespoke kitchen. It cost £17k but as this is our ‘forever home’ we weren’t too fussed about the value added to the home, but rather the value added to our family life. Carly from Forever Cosmopolitan
We had a side return extension as well as extensive renovations on the entire ground floor. Since moving in six years ago, we’d done so much work ourselves on the top floor but couldn’t do the structural work ourselves. With small kids it becomes a bit of a logistical nightmare so this was a great solution for us. Jemma from Have Kids Will Travel UK
We did it a couple of years ago to add an utility room and downstairs toilet. It was such a great investment. We have since sold the house but it definitely added value and made the house much easier to sell. Clare from Freddies Mummy UK
We have just done it for a garage conversion. We wanted some more room and looked to move but prices have become ridiculous in our area. We loved everything else about our house, so the conversion actually made sense. Pete from Household Moneysaving
We have just re mortgaged for a rear extension, garage conversion and new shiny kitchen.
It was the far more cost effective option to moving. We wouldn’t be able to afford a bigger house in the postcode we want so makes sense to invest where we are. Sinead from Sinead Latham
We’re just starting the process now to put a rear extension onto our house so I can finally have a new kitchen. Then after that, a loft extension! Maria from Suburban Mum
XOXO
Debbie
This is a collaborative post with Habito