During lockdown we decided to put our house on the market. We NEED a bigger home. This isn’t a case of us fancying something new, this is us totally outgrowing the space we have.
We have 2 decent sized bedrooms, but the boys are at the point where sharing a room (and a bed!*) is causing delays with settling at night.
* They insist on sleeping together, which is rather cute.
If one is being tricky, it prevents the other from falling asleep and bedtimes are a nightmare. So we really need that third bedroom.
Once viewings were allowed again, we progressed with the sale of our home. However, the more houses we looked at on Rightmove, the more we realised we didn’t want to move. We love where we live. We have a decent garden, lovely neighbours and it’s a very short walk to school. It’s ideal for us right now.
So we switched direction and decided planning an extension instead. We have a decent budget to play with for either a deposit on a new house, or extending, so we always knew both were possible. We just weren’t sure if we wanted a fresh start to begin with.
Extending is absolutely the right decision for us. We all feel so content with our decision, and a little relieved that we’re in the position to do so.
We’re at the stage now where we have plans we are happy with (pretty much!) We had an initial quote from a building company, which was within our budget – yay! And we have a rough idea on when the work can begin (after Christmas).
It never occurred to me that we could already be living in our forever home. We always assumed this house was too small and we would have to move at some point, however with the extension, we will have exactly what we need for a home we can stay in for many more years. I suppose the only thing we may want to change is to a quieter location when we’re older.
But IF this house does become our forever home (we would absolutely need to add used stair lift as our stairs are quite steep! HA) I’m confident to say we would be happy with that once the work is complete.
There are no more babies planned for our family, so we only need 3 bedrooms. Our cellar (currently my office for Ada & Alfred) is going to be a snug with a sofa bed, so this then becomes a guest room. We are adding a shower and toilet downstairs for guests to use if they do stay in the cellar. Or for my other half to use after football so I don’t have his stinky kit upstairs!
My office will be moved to the current living room, which will be nicer than the cellar. And you never know, if my business grows I may need a space outside of the home, so this room would become something else in the house!
Overall, we know we are happy to stay here for many more years. The boys are in school in this area so there is no need for us to be going anywhere. Their friends all live nearby, we have everything we need here.
I can’t wait for the building work to begin (and end!) And will keep you posted throughout our journey.
Alex x
* Collaborative post
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