Extend terrace house and redesign ground floor
Martin C
9 years ago
Hi everyone,
So I'm working out how I can extend and remodel the groundfloor of a house I'm in the process of buying.
I've attached one image which shows the floorplans for the new house I'm buying as it is now, two options that I'm considering for it and my current house.
My current house is a similar size to the one we're buying and what I love about the current place we live is the fact that the downstairs is open plan.
I want to try and reproduce this in the new house. Currently, the new house is very dark and feels cramped downstairs. I have seen another house on the street that did an extension similar to what I want to do and the kitchen part is great, but they've have made their front room closed.
I want to open up the space in the house so that it feels light and airy and one room blends into the next.
Not really sure where to start and I keep going round and round in my head about how to make use of the space. I've been kind of loathed to move the current kitchen unless I really need to. The existing kitchen is quite nice. (Could I move it?).
So what I've considered so far:
Option 1 - Keep the kitchen where it is, add an extension (4.5m out by 5.4m wide). Hopefully keeps the cost down by not having to move the kitchen, but there's not enough space for fridge, freezer etc or at least it's not shown in that plan. The current owner currently has the fridge in the family room.
Option 2 - Add the extension and move or build a new kitchen in the extension. Ups the price a bit but I think it opens up the space a bit more. The potential issue I see with this is that the space between the kitchen and the living room will get wasted and will end up as just a corridor between them. Although, this is more or less how I have my setup currently and the space between the living room and kitchen has become a place for our kids stuff - bookshelves, cupboards and a little table for the kids to do their work on, so I'm not actually too worried about this.
I'd like to add a porch with both options, hopefully no big design decisions to make there!
My budget is 40K and I live near London, but a friend who is in the building trade is going to do the work for me and he's very competitively priced and he's work is of an excellent quality.
I'm open to all ideas.
Actually the more I think about the plan, the more that option 2 is more appealing just because it would be similar to our current home and I love our current home. (Reason for moving from where we are now is to be close to my children's school.)
Another question I had is should I indulge in the services of an architect for this work? And how much will one cost to come up with design ideas, draw up and submit plans etc.
I'm hoping that all this work would come under permitted development.
Thanks for taking the time to take a look at this, I've been going round the bend and going round in circles!
So I'm working out how I can extend and remodel the groundfloor of a house I'm in the process of buying.
I've attached one image which shows the floorplans for the new house I'm buying as it is now, two options that I'm considering for it and my current house.
My current house is a similar size to the one we're buying and what I love about the current place we live is the fact that the downstairs is open plan.
I want to try and reproduce this in the new house. Currently, the new house is very dark and feels cramped downstairs. I have seen another house on the street that did an extension similar to what I want to do and the kitchen part is great, but they've have made their front room closed.
I want to open up the space in the house so that it feels light and airy and one room blends into the next.
Not really sure where to start and I keep going round and round in my head about how to make use of the space. I've been kind of loathed to move the current kitchen unless I really need to. The existing kitchen is quite nice. (Could I move it?).
So what I've considered so far:
Option 1 - Keep the kitchen where it is, add an extension (4.5m out by 5.4m wide). Hopefully keeps the cost down by not having to move the kitchen, but there's not enough space for fridge, freezer etc or at least it's not shown in that plan. The current owner currently has the fridge in the family room.
Option 2 - Add the extension and move or build a new kitchen in the extension. Ups the price a bit but I think it opens up the space a bit more. The potential issue I see with this is that the space between the kitchen and the living room will get wasted and will end up as just a corridor between them. Although, this is more or less how I have my setup currently and the space between the living room and kitchen has become a place for our kids stuff - bookshelves, cupboards and a little table for the kids to do their work on, so I'm not actually too worried about this.
I'd like to add a porch with both options, hopefully no big design decisions to make there!
My budget is 40K and I live near London, but a friend who is in the building trade is going to do the work for me and he's very competitively priced and he's work is of an excellent quality.
I'm open to all ideas.
Actually the more I think about the plan, the more that option 2 is more appealing just because it would be similar to our current home and I love our current home. (Reason for moving from where we are now is to be close to my children's school.)
Another question I had is should I indulge in the services of an architect for this work? And how much will one cost to come up with design ideas, draw up and submit plans etc.
I'm hoping that all this work would come under permitted development.
Thanks for taking the time to take a look at this, I've been going round the bend and going round in circles!
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Comments (4)Hi DeeDee! What you're thinking about doing definitely looks like it can work. I would suggest a few tweaks... You could remove more of the wall between dining and hall. This looks like it will be a structural job so you'll need structural engineers design and calcs. You could extend the kitchen worktop on the side of the sink shown into the dining room a bit to create a bit of breakfast bar if you liked. Then you could put a wall back in between the living and dining room - perhaps with a large pocket door, or maybe just solid. It depends how you want to use the living room and dining room really. Do you want them separate or joined, or some flexibility to open up between them at times? You'll find my free Design Your Home Vision checklist useful to help you think it through. You can get that here: https://www.i-architect.co.uk/dyhvchecklist.html You'll also find the Renovation Roadmap Workshop that I'm running next week on Friday useful - it will help you to plan out your project and how you manage it. That's just £47 and all profits go to the homeless charity Coffee4Craig. You can find out more and secure your space here: https://iarchitectlimited.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/1145853 Best of luck with your home design! Jane chartered architect eco-home and conservation specialist www.i-architect.co.uk...See Moremid terrace Victoria terrace house - Floor plan ideas
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9 years agolast modified: 9 years agoMartin C
9 years ago
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