Yes, you can appeal to the Planning Consulate / Secretary of State. However, I'm a bit confused by your statement of PP being put on hold. The local planning authority have to make a decision in writing, if PP is granted or refused. Do you have the decision letter? Or is it a case of the planning officer having reservations before the decision due date? If you have the decision letter it should provide guidance on how to complete the appeal process or google the Planning Portal and read up on the process there. To complete a successful appeal you will need a well reasoned and justified document / statement describing why the refusal is unsuitable. You will need to refer to the relevant sections of local and national planning policy to back up your argument. You should also be able to obtain a copy of the planning officers report and use this to support your statement by finding errors / inappropriate judgements. Don't expect a quick response, about 3-4 months turnaround. You or your professional designer should be able to complete this for an extra fee or use a local, independent Planning Consultant to do it. They are ex-town planners so know the system etc. I wish you well and for a positive outcome.

Thanks for the plan :-) I really like how you have got rid of the wasted space in that corridor (which I assume was probably really dark too!). I got the impression the lounge would be more of a family/tv room than formal guest area - with young children that may seem like a waste of space! So having it off the open plan kitchen wouldn't be a problem. Having said that it looks like you are taking the fireplace out anyway so you could put a door straight in there from the new hallway. Might be worth doing for flexible living as the children grow/you sell up? I don't know if it would be practical with structural walls etc but given you are planning moving the front door anyway could you have the entrance hall where the new lounge is currently going? Make that space slightly narrower and have the snug off to the right and the wet room off to the left, with a door straight from the hall. I've attached a (felt-tip!) picture!

Hi Kate. We have three children under 8 so are in a similar position to you. If it was my house I would..... In response to your first question, a 33ft x 14ft open plan room would not necessarily be too big, but it would leave you without a downstairs utility or WC. As tamp75 has commented, a hallway is good for isolating noise to upstairs bedrooms, and you need somewhere for coats, bags, shoes etc. With three storeys, having the kitchen open to the hall may create problems with building regulations (fire safety). I'm not an expert in this area but it should be considered. 2. I would definitely reposition the cloakroom. It looks like the drainage to your house will be on the right hand side of the plan, so I would not put the WC under the stairs. Something like Jonathan's second suggestion would work well. 3. I would create a utility room, but only a small one. Large enough to hold a washing machine and tumble drier (stacked to save space), sink and some storage. If you can get hold of a copy of George Clarke's Home Bible he has a whole chapter devoted to utility rooms - it is well worth a read. 4. I would reconfigure the property in a similar manner to Jonathan's second suggestion. The only minor changes would be to move shorten the hall slightly by bringing the entrance to the kitchen level with the stairs, and possibly reconfigure the area for utility/WC/cloaks. I recommend retaining the first floor living room as it stops the house feeling too 'top heavy' and could be a really good family space. 5. It's hard to answer this without knowing more about you. I think it might be possible to have a kitchen, seating area and dining area but I suspect that you might have to make some compromises. You have the potential to create two lounges elsewhere in the house, so I would compromise on the seating area. Given the scale of this project I would take my time to consider all of the options. I think it is definitely worth spending a few £100s on a concept planner as they could save you £1000s in the long run. Good luck.

Hi Everyone, I hope you are doing well wherever you are but I bet everyone's busy at this time of the year. I have been a busy bee myself and learned how to use Homestyler but I must say it's a painful and slow process. I have been obsessed with the floor plan of the small flat for the past week as the time has come to finalize it with the new team. We'll be around 2 months behind the plan which is fine. So I made the decision to not have a loft in the small flat because the floorplan I chose seems to work well with loads of storage. Please excuse some of the furniture such as the kitchen and the colour of the large cabinet, they will be white but Homestyler is quite limited so I had to chose from whatever they had in store. Let me know what you think of the floor plan please. I'm happy with it so far. I'll send you links to short panoramic videos Honestlyler created which was a godsend as that'd exactly what I wanted to see, at least approximately how my flat would look like. I really wanted visualise what to expect. The videos are pretty much the same but starting from different angles of the 30sqm flat. Entrance: https://hspano.homestyler.com?m=p&id=twsxPMyMR32r148hAj4AEj Kitchen with closed crittal door: https://hspano.homestyler.com?m=p&id=j6XZ8RxpunFXsWs6B4wWCY Living room with closed crittal door. https://hspano.homestyler.com?m=p&id=qET2nhmJqjuirhSjHjrga6 Bedroom with thc crittal.door opened: https://hspano.homestyler.com?m=p&id=isx9qoEcNs6bh5h4inQeVo Bathroom: https://hspano.homestyler.com?m=p&id=eQMHPghXhakFJKP5xXDApb