what's the best way to go?

[nykkieberry]

We can't afford to move for two years so we need to improve on the house we've got to gain some more living space for guests and possibly a new addition to the family. We currently have two bedrooms and the master bedroom has a walk through dressing room. We have thought about converting the dressing room back into a bedroom (would house a nursery but not big enough for a single bed) thus creating a three bedroom house with two double bedrooms and a nursery. How would this affect the value of the house? Secondly, we are going to add a conservatory at a cost of 7k - is it worth it if we are going to move in two years time? The conservatory would create a good sized dining room/guest room (we are planning on one full height brick wall and level flooring into a house so it 'feels' like another room) and not impinge on the garden and our current dining room will become an extension of the kitchen. Really in a quandry over this! Thanks to everyone who answered the previous conservatory question! :0)

[woofgang]

are you actually going to do anything like rip out fitted wardrobes in the dressing room? and how often do you house guests? When the nursery occupant comes, and guestsd visit,could the precious bundle  sleep in the dressing room anyway and the guests could use a convertible type settee thingy in the nursery ?. I am not sure that you will get your 7k back in two years, equally I am not sure that a prospective purchaser would see a bedroom only accessible through the master bedroom as a third bedroom. My best advice would be to decide what you want and need now and what you can afford to spend and to base your decisions around that. One thing which might help you to decide, if you haven't already done it is to get house details from estaste agents for houses  similar to yours with and without conservatories and see what the price diff might be.  

[Miss Zippy]

(1) I think it is difficult to generalise and say whether developing your property will make a return or not; it depends on lots of factors such as your location, demand for your kind of property in your area, is your property already in a high price bracket for its type (if it is, you won�t add anything by developing it because all streets and houses apparently have a �ceiling� price).  When I was looking into converting my loft I asked three local estate agents for their opinions on whether I it would add value to the property or at least would I get back the �20k or so it would cost me. I was told there was no guarantee in my case because my 2 bed flat at the time was already at the area�s ceiling price and no one would pay much more than that, even with the additional room of a converted loft, because that would have moved the price up of my flat to compete with posh apartments on the coast.  Best thing to do is get advice from two or three estate agents - they are usually willing to help especially if they know you are looking to sell in the foreseeable future!

[nykkieberry]

Thankyou. Miss Zippy that's an interesting dilema and actually exemplifies why we have dismissed a loft conversion as a solution. I doubted the 20k investment would be recouped when we sold. The second bedroom in our house is currently occoupied by my son; the conversion of the third room back into a box room (involving a relative cheap conversion of plasterboarding up the gap into our bedroom and reinstating the door from the room to the landing) was to accomodate either a study or nursery. I just want to ensure that doing so would not devalue the house; we are not intending to do it for profit. (although that would be nice!)

In terms of the conservatory project, again we are not expecting to gain on the investment; we are hoping to enhance our current living. However, if we do decide to move shortly, we don't want to make a huge financial blunder investing 7k plus interest into the house and recouping say, only 2k.

I think you are right - I think it is inevitable that we need to get an estate agents opinion (or Sarah Beeneys!). I was just hoping to avoid it!