Hi,

Hoping for some advice - sorry in advance for the long post!

We're looking to get our kitchen redone as it's falling apart and doesn't have space for a freezer or dishwasher. It's pretty small - roughly 2.5x2.5 metres - and an L shape layout currently as below. We live in a pretty standard terrace and it's at the back of the house looking onto the garden, with a door into a 1.5m x 3m side return.

We've got quotes and a design for turning it into a galley kitchen with the same footprint. This would involve turning the window into a door and vice versa. The total cost of the new kitchen and labour is about £17k (the cheapest of 3 quotes and an ikea kitchen). The reason we're wanting to do this is:

-keeping the L shape but switching our undercounter fridge for a tall fridge-freezer would mean the loss of our main counter space. we'd "make do" with a freestanding trolley; with the galley we'd have 1.5m of new counter space on the sink side, plus a foot+ on either side of the cooker

-with the L shape we'd only have one set of drawers and a corner base cupboard (hate these with a passion); with the galley we'd have 3 sets of drawers and no corners :)

-with the galley we'd have space for a range cooker, which is our heart's desire

-lovely connection to the garden. a side return which is freed up for a workbench and some nice planting instead of being a sad thoroughfare

The question - are we being foolish in not going even further and extending into the side return? the quote we've received for this + a new kitchen is 35k!!! But it could mean added value, more cupboard space, a breakfast bar etc. There's just two of us plus the dog.

For background, we bought our house for £465k in september 2021. It was pretty dated and so far we've spent maybe £9k on replastering, repairing the sash windows, sanding the floors, rewiring, decorating, and furniture. We still need to do the kitchen, bathroom, and garden, which are all dilapidated, and some more furniture.

Two doors down a beautiful turn-key house with a side conservatory (rather than extension) sold for £505k (the offer accepted was £530k but this was bargained down for reasons unknown).

20 doors down a turn-key house with a back extension of 4m2 (rather than side extension) sold for £512k.

4 doors down a house with a kitchen with same footprint but no kitchen door to the garden (so more kitchen units), and a dormer loft conversion sold for £550k.

These were all sold between june 2021 and january 2022 and are otherwise the same as our house.

What would you do? Is there another option which we're missing?

Thanks!

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