The changing needs of a growing family (growing in number or the actual size of the individuals), the blending of families and the cost of moving often mean that extending your home is the most practical and economical option to getting more space.
Naturally, the aim is to “improve” your space but there are often pitfalls which mean that you can damage the energy of your home too. It defeats the object to go through all of the effort and upheaval only to create a home which drains your finances or causes a family member to be less supported or have to work harder than ever.
Here are some of the key points to consider when extending your home:
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Keep the footprint of your home a regular shape.
If you are considering adding an extension or conservatory, make sure that you add something that extends across the back of the house, rather than jutting out across part of the building. By creating an irregular shape, you lose potential energy which can affect your health and finances. It can also mean that one member of the family no longer feels comfortable in the house or is often away more.
Conversely, if you already have house with an irregular shape, extending to make it regular will have significant benefits.
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Don’t open up the house from front to back.
While open plan living is popular and there is a huge temptation to create a “Wow” factor as you enter a building, opening up your home completely means that it will be hard for the house to hold the energy. For “energy” read opportunities, money, luck and anything that can make life easier.
3. Reassess how you live
If you have lived in a house for a while, you will have become used to the energy. You may have accepted how the rooms are used when you first moved in and since then you have accumulated “stuff”. It’s worth having a thorough clear out and then drawing a floor plan of the space. Both of these factors will force you to look at your home more objectively and may give you inspiration on how you can better use the space. This is also the point where you can ask the advice of professionals if it’s a big project.
4. Make sure your house fits the plot
When extending into the garden it can be tempting to make the most of the space. However, it is really important to keep your home proportionate to its plot. Not only is a family home with a tiny garden harder to sell in the long run, but the property can’t get good support from the land and you could end up feeling unsettled in your new home.
5 Use your garden
If its difficult to extend, either due to planning permission, cost, time or you just can’t face the upheaval of building work, then a garden room or office is a great way of getting extra space from your property. It has the added benefit of offering you somewhere away from the day-to-day noise of home life as well as being a much quicker and easier way to gain space than building work. More importantly, you have the opportunity to tailor make a space with just the right energy for your needs.