"When we renovated and extended our house, around 10 years ago now, we were on a tight budget and, given that we had no option but to stay living in the property with two children under four, wanted to get it done and dusted as quickly as possible. Having said that, building an extension while living on site with limited means meant that the whole thing still took around four years from start to finish - you'd have thought that would mean that we got everything we wanted from all our efforts, particularly given that we did most of the work ourselves. Not so."
"In short, we didn't extend enough - and what I mean here is that we should have gone bigger. We had space to build out (and up) further and it really wouldn't have made a significant difference cost-wise either - yet it would have transformed our experience of living here. We made the error of failing to look further into the future at what we would need a few years down the line from the house and instead focused on our short-term requirements, looking at creating a home fit for the young family we were at that time. Had we exercised a little more foresight, we would have thought about how the house would feel to live in with two teenagers and taken into account the fact that a dedicated office space would have made working from home easier."
Homeowners renovated and extended their run-down house on a tight budget while living in it with two children under four, completing the work over approximately four years and doing much of the labor themselves. Several specific regrets emerged, including no underfloor heating, a too-small kitchen window, and an uninsulated hallway floor. The primary mistake was not extending far enough despite having space to build out and up; slightly larger works would have cost little more but would have dramatically improved long-term livability, especially for teenagers and for accommodating a dedicated home office.
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