It’s a hard predicament—if you love where you live but your house no longer suits your lifestyle, you most likely tossing up between the idea of extending your current home to create more space, or doing a knock down rebuild.
Both options come with their respective pros and cons, so here are a few pointers to help you work out which option might be best for you.
Extending
If you love the character or design of your existing home but need more space, an extension could be a great move. Adding an extension allows you to keep everything that you love about your current home, while allowing you to add that extra bathroom, bedroom or living space you so desperately need.
However, there are some potential downsides of extending, including the fact that your designs will be limited to the constraints of your current home. Because you’ll need your extension to tie in with the existing structure, floor plan and style of your home, you may not be able to add every feature you’d ideally like to include.
It’s also very common for renovation or extension projectsto uncover a range of unforeseen structural, electrical or plumbing issues along the way, which could result in significant budget blowouts that leave you high and dry. While most experienced builders will be able to give you a general idea of some potential issues you could encounter along the way, there are no guarantees when it comes to an extension project.
Rebuilding
The other option is to demolish your existing home and rebuild. This can be a good option if you don’t particularly like the design of your current home, or the existing layout simply doesn’t lend itself to an extension.
Starting over by building a new home offers a range of benefits because you’re essentially giving yourself a blank canvas to work with. Because you don’t need to make your designs work in with the existing structure of the home, you have far more flexibility to create a home and floorplan that ticks every single box, considering everything from design, to layout and features.
The obvious downside to opting for a knockdown-rebuild is the cost. Because you’re doing a lot more than simply adding a room or two, building a new home will typically cost significantly more than a simple extension. However, there are some work-arounds to help you keep costs down.
Rather than going down the route of a custom-designed home where you’ll need to employ an architect to design your home before finding a builder who can bring the design to life, you can see what the volume home builders are offering.
Volume builders like this home builderin Melbourne allow you to choose from an extensive range of home designs for a fixed price, meaning you’ll know exactly what you’ll be up for from day one. While you may be a little more limited in terms of customisation, if they offer a home design that comes very close to what you had in mind, you could save yourself a lot of cash.
Ultimately, determining if extending or rebuilding will be a better option for you will come down to whether you’re most driven by budget, style or functionality. Because there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to working out which option is best for you, it’s a good idea to contact a few architects, draftsmen or builders to discuss your ideas and get a feel for what’s going to be possible with each option.