Four years ago my wife and I contacted the guys at CBI Tulsa to come and give our home an extension which would see us have 2 additional rooms, and take over the garage space. Priori to deciding about the extension, my wife and I spoke at great lengths about whether we should extend the home for more space, or move house entirely. This is a dilemma for many growing families and I must say, I believe that we made the right decision in the end.
If you are in the middle of such a decision regrading a house extension, here are some of the key points which I think that you should be considering.
Move or Improve
When it comes to whether you should move home entirely or invest to improve your existing home, you need to think about the upheaval on both sides. Undergoing a house extension means a great deal of noise, a lot of mess and general daily upheaval, changing homes however, could mean new jobs, new schools, plus the time that you will spend searching, trying to buy and trying to sell. The effort of buying a new home was too much for us and that was why we decided to extend.
Budget
The first thing that I will say about the cost of a house extension is that it always runs over budget and you must ensure that you have enough in the pot to cover it. When I first sat down with the architect to plan our extension, the figure that I told her in terms of what we had as a budget, was only 70% of our actual budget. Doing this meant that we not only had cash to one side to cover the costs of running over, but also enough to furnish and decorate the new space in the home. When you are considering the extension, make sure that you have more than enough money to get the job done.
Stay or Go
A big consideration which you need to make prior to the extension, is whether you will stay in the property as it is being completed, or move out whilst they finish the work. Moving out could cost money if you don’t have friends or family that you can stay with, whilst staying in the property carries the risk of living in a building site.
Planning Permission
A critical consideration that you need to be thinking about is whether or not you will be granted planning permission for your home extension. This is not always a given and I would recommend that you don’t even begin work on the move, until you have the permission signed, sealed and delivered. Permission can be refused if you are going to cause too much upheaval, bother neighbors or even block views so you really need to be on the front foot with this, if you don’t have it, you cannot do the extension, it is that simple.
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