*Ad
I feel like we are in an eternal debate about what to do with our home. We love the house, and, over the eight years we have lived here we have done so much to it.
But, there are elements of the property that just don’t work for us as well as they might. We do have some plans this year to do a few bits and pieces to is, but we have some big decisions to make on whether our future remains in this house, or if we move on to a different property.
The Dilemma
Our house is lovely, but we really could do with another bedroom, and the kitchen just isn’t big enough for us. We have space at the side of the property that we could extend across to and make a really good size single or double-storey extension. This would give us two extra bedrooms if we went up as well as giving us a large kitchen diner as well as a utility room. It would also see the current structure at the side of the house-made much more usable.
Alternatively, we could probably afford to move, but to move to something that has all the things we both want, would require us to mortgage ourselves heavier than we feel that we want to right now.
My Choice
My personal preference would be to extend the house. We could create the space that we want, as we want, and at a much lower cost than it would cost to move and get a house that is designed and made to our tastes and style. And of course, in a new property, you aren’t always aware of the hidden issues until you’ve lived there! It feels a bit to me that the grass isn’t always greener and we would be better staying in our current home and extending it to work for us.
Extending our property would enable us to build the kitchen I dream of – Kitchen Warehouse is where I seem to spend much of my time dreaming about the type of kitchen I would like – do I go for a modern look or something more traditional? How do we integrate the modern with our older style home? I suppose we could always choose the kitchen our heart tells us and then, if our (and fashion!) tastes change it might be a case of altering the kitchen doors which is a much cheaper option then overhauling for a new kitchen every 5/6 years.
What we have done so far
Since living in the house we have done so much work. The entire upstairs of the house was taken back and almost rebuilt. New electrics, new ceilings, flooring, internal walls reboarded and others taken back to brick. Air vents put into old fireplaces and new picture rails and coving put in place. We even added in new torus skirting as the skirting in place was different heights and styles as you moved from room to room. We now have a consistent look and style across all the rooms.
We have had the roof replaced, wood burner installed and new windows and doors installed. There is still much to do but it feels like we have done the big things and we know we can be confident that they’re good now for a long while; only needing a little maintenance here and there rather than complete overhauls.
The interim plans
Whilst we decide on our longer-term plans we have some interim jobs to do. We need to decorate our living room and look to get a new sofa. We also need to tidy up the outside with some repainting of the stonework and render as well as replacing the decking in our rear garden. This might, in fact, present a more drastic overhaul to our back garden and we may well remove some of the decking to create a larger lawned area.
We need to get some re-pointing work done to the outside of the house and the boys’ bedroom needs a coat of paint. Nothing that’s too big a job to do, and it should give us a chance to catch our breath and make some big decisions about where we live for the next decade.
