Anyone ever EXTENDED their current house?

[PinkPalace]

We are looking at property and ultimately the house we would like to buy and the house we can afford are 2 different homes lol!

I have found a house on a large block - it is very nice but on the small side. We could make it work (it is brick and tile), But wondering how hard and how much is costs to extend a house?

Ultimately i would like another bedroom and larger back patio area....

anyone done this?
how much did it set you back?

[Rach75]

we are currently extending our house, my husband is very handy and has done evrything except plumbing so far himself, from concreteing we hired a friend to help, he did alll the frame work, the internal gyprock, we got someone to do external cladding as we redid the old part of house too

when we looked at getting it done professionally it was going to cost us same $$ sq m wise as building a new home

we were lucky in the fact we pruchase our house for $36000 nearly 9 years ago we extended the mortgage to $100 000 when we started the extension, we have probably spent close on $50000 on concrete, plumbing, external cladding, gyprock, we still have to get waterproofer and plastere in ( this is happening this month) painters and carpet tiler in, so probably looking another $10000 I would imagine, but in saying that we basiclaly doubled the sq m of our house

HTH best thing to do is talk to builders or home improvement builders they can generally give you a rough idea of what you are looking at per sq mtr

[PinkPalace]

wow ok
So you have added what to your house.
I am talking only 1-2 rooms or 1 room and a larger patio.

At the moment you can get a 3 bed house for $100k less than a 4 bed home, and i am trying to work out if it is better to buy the 3 and live in it for a few years then extend when we have more money.

or get the 4 bed and struggle with $$ until i am back at work full time.....

[Rach75]

well we have added a 2nd bathroom/toilet, moved the laundry, 4th bedroom and large lounge rumpus

as I said make a few calls to local builders etc, see what they can give you approx as a sqr mte price then you will know if finacially it will be viable...

[PinkPalace]

thanks Rach.
Even if it cost $50000 for an extra room it would still be cheaper lol!

[Lulu]

I'd vote on the smaller house, extend later. BUT make sure you are allowed to extend - check for easements etc when you are looking at something.

[Rach75]

yeah I meant to say make sure the roof line is suitable for extension etc makes it cheaper as well if the existing roofline is a good one

also council regulation in regards to boundaries and how close you can build we would have gone a bit bigger but we had to stay 1.5mtr of the boundry on the side we extended

[Salsa]

pink palace I could have written your post myself. We are currently looking at buying but can probably only afford 3 bedroom, but I desparatly want 4-5! So we were thinking we might have to buy something that can be added onto later. I think the cost involved in selling and buying a new one 2 -5 years after the one we want to get into now would be more than extending, but I really dont know for sure? I do know that everyone who has ever had work like this done on there house says you only want to do it once! too much mess, noise, $ etc.

[Rach75]

see I'd do it again, but then Jase has done all the work its a work in progress, mind you ask me when we start doign the exisiting kitchen and revamp the exisiting laundry into a walk thru wiht storage an di may change my mind

[PinkPalace]

thanks girls
it is a tiled roof - but i guess i need to lookinto it - i called the RE - trying to organise an inspection to show DH through.

salsa as you said not worth the pain of buying and selling in such a short period if time - wouldnt get much profit after fees and interest paid - so would be one or the other

i know i woul prefer the cheaper house so we dont have financial struggles

[*Ali*]

I guess it also depends one what sort of an extension you are after. We looked at having an extension put onto the house we are buying- we just looked at a games room/ extra bedroom size room and it was going to cost us about $30,000- this was for a hardiplank exterior, gyprock interior, all electrics, concrete floor etc which I dont think is to bad, to have a patio down with this we were looking at about another $5-8 k depending on type size etc. For us it is a better choice to by the smaller house now (is still 4 bed but tiny living space) and get the extension put on in a couple of years, rather than struggle to buy a bigger house now.