How to remove a shop without destroying the whole house in Manor Lords

At some point in your village development, a level 2 family's shop might no longer be required. 

Maybe you have enough cloaks to hand out to the whole country, not just your village.

Maybe your chickens have provided you with enough eggs to bake the world's biggest omelet. *

Or may you've just given up on your military plans and don't need any more of those weapons and shields.

So, how can you remove the backyard extension or shop from the burgage plot in Manor Lords? Preferably without destroying the whole house and needing the family to relocate?

Pause the building

Short answer to that question: you can't. 

There is no way to change or even remove the backyard extension or shop once it has been built at a burgage plot. Once it's built, it will always be there. 

But, there is hope. 

For instance, if you need planks for construction instead of weaponry, you can pause the workshop. To do so, select the burgage plot and click the pause button at the top right of the screen.

You'll notice the difference between an active and disabled shop in 2 ways: the pause button of a disabled shop is yellow and the tooltip on hover has (Disabled) added.

The family (or families) will still live there, but won't spend their time in the workshop. That means they also won't put a strain on your supply of products. 

Move the family

Now, if you really need the family somewhere else or need a different shop in this location, Manor Lords offers you something else to try.

1. Build a new burgage plot
2. Destroy the shop as soon as it's finished
3. The family will move out and into the empty house
4. Build a new burgage plot on the free location.

It does seem like a lot of work though and not really future proof. You're best bet might just be to trade away excess goods. It'll clear up some space in your inventory and make you some money in the process.

Especially the goods produced by level 2 families, like weaponry and clothing, fetch a handsome price at the traders.

Note: the trading mechanism is set to change soon in newer version of Manor Lords. Developer Greg aka Slavic Magic has already polled the community's take on trading. Bottom line: the mechanism will remain the same, but the supply and demand pricing will be toned down. 

A note on basic extensions

There is one exception to this rule. 

You know how I mentioned having too many eggs? Eggs are produced by a Chicken Coop which provide passive yield of eggs. This is a basic level 1 backyard extension, just like a Vegetable garden, Goat pen or Apple orchard. 

These extensions can be demolished. To do so, select the Burgage plot and click the little arrow next to the bottom of the extension. You'll see an image of a red exploding tower, that is the demolish button. 

Clicking that button will demolish the basic extension, but won't refund you the costs (regional wealth). 

Note: This demolish button is unavailable when a level 2 shop has been added to the Burgage plot.