People think themselves into a corner over pissy little details that in the grand scheme of things mean fuck-all: don’t set mind-traps for yourself: big picture = best picture.
I’ve experienced LOTS of house moves, and a fair bit of building work on property:
Ballache factor is equal on both if the building goes well… IF
Cost factor is often equal on both unless you plan to move up or downmarket.
Time is where the big difference is - building work not only costs double what you will be told, it will take at least twice as long as you will be told, and that’s if you don’t get into dispute…
Moving house is absolutely not without its potential pitfalls, but it is also a brilliant way to reset your whole life, exorcise some ‘ghosts’, and improve your standard of living.
We probably would have been better knocking ours down and starting again, we changed it so much… but I doubt our semi-detached neighbours would have approved.
I’ve since been banned from watching grand designs or anything similar so I don’t get any more stupid ideas
We spent a massive chunk of change (100k+) on the extension - easily enough to have moved, BUT, there is nothing in the area with a similar arrangement to our house for less than another 100k again. We’ve probably broken even on the investment, but for us it was never about that. We got a unique house in a location we love. Usually moving means picking one of those or spending even more again.
Subterranean extensions are where the fun gets going. Water tables, subsiding neighbors. @stu will remember the Cornish man we went to see who had dug down and out under the road out front to make his own private nightclub…To this day I still think this was inspired.
I walked past a very deep concrete-lined hole in the ground a couple of days ago. It’s going, presumably, to be an underground extension to this place (17th century, Grade II listed)
It must have been tricky to sink the pit, even given that almost the entire cottage was destroyed by fire a few years ago, leaving it looking like this
Unfortunately for the builder, while the external walls were so unstable that he was allowed to disassemble them and store for reassembly, one hearth and chimney stack survived and has had to be left standing, heavily braced, right alongside the new pit.
It’s East Hendred though. So it’ll be worth a very great deal of money when it’s done.
Before you discount building an extension, speak to your architect about modern
construction methods, prefab/SIPS panels etc. It’s the ‘wet’ traditional trades like brickwork and plastering that seem to provide the biggest excuses for extra time/cost.
Going to have to take and share pics of the space under our front lounge. We’ve toyed with lots of ideas as to what to do with it and largely concluded that £100k would provide a faffy under-utilised space of little value.
Finding non-commercial firms that will do the work might be a challenge. We looked at that thin mortar blockwork and only found one tradesman within 30 miles. That was 12 years ago though.
Im in the middle of my second one in three years. Luckily i have my best mate as a builder and hes a very good one at that, between us we can do most things so dont need to rely on this that and the other trade. But its taking forever. You do need a competent PM who can make decisions on your behalf and understands construction. Costs have mostly doubled since i started a year ago. It is not for the faint hearted.
This is my last one , never again
I doubt we would have been able to afford to do our renovation if we had started this year due to the price rise in materials since (early) 2021. On top of that supply of materials can be a real problem especially if you need things done to a strict timetable.
Spoke to the neighbours the other day,her friend got a quote for a new bathroom just before covid at £6,000.
Obviously they had to delay it,just had it done,£12,800
Perhaps one of the many reasons the housing bubble is inflating. Most people I know who wanted to extend tally with the above and just moved having shuddered at the 'cost / hassle / time ratio.
