Thanks Nick. I agree with you on wider doors - those sorts of changes are not about us adding value, but about making the space practical.

On access to the garage, I agree that access from the hall would be nicer, but from a practicality point of view I wonder whether access from the back is better, eg to cart out garden waste?

Good point about fire doors - we'll need to think about that

Thanks Charnelle, that's really helpful. I think doors to the living room are a good idea, as there are definitely times when you want to cosy down rather than seeing the full open plan space.

Jonathan: I'd love to expand to the side to avoid the garage door entering the house, but our garage is right next to next door's, so there's no scope to do that.

Pippa,

Quite a long email string so not quite sure where the plans have got to. The critical point is establishing what approvals (planning and/or lawful development certificate) your would or may need for your proposals. Assuming you house is not in a conservation area building forward of the existing building line will need planning approval (apart from a small porch) and a loft conversion can be done under Permitted Development (PD) but you need comply to the fairly strict requirement. Also a rear extension can be done under PD (agree with the point above re the conservatory), again you need comply with the PD requirements. Seeking a Certificate of Lawfulness for any works you believe can be done without planning is advisable. Hope this helps? Martin

Thanks Martin, all. We're in the process of engaging a local architect, so will update you on where we get to with the plans. I'm trying to have a fiddle with some layouts to capture some of the helpful thoughts about avoiding garage access through the kitchen, allowing hallway access to the accessible bathroom and using potential rear extension space.

Any idea how much space we would need to allow for a wheelchair friendly wetroom? I've been digging around online but it's hard to find useful guidance.

Thanks all!

Dear Pippa,

Re the wheelchair standards your architect should be able to advice but if you Google "Mobility Code Level 1 Standard - Wheel chair accessible property standard" you should get some helpful information.

Martin McCurdy

Haha, thanks E D - when we get to the point when apostrophes are all we have to worry about I'll be a happy lady!

We did a similar project, albeit an older house, and it never quite looked right, so we decided to get it rendered with K render, there are loads of colours to choose from and it now looks amazing, we had slightly off-White. We just did the front elevation so it wasn't too expensive. I'd also recommend changing the Windows if budget allows. Good luck!

I like gray color with black doors more

Cedar color would work too

With rendering

Hi Pippa. This is a 1970s renovation & remodel we designed for a Surrey client 2 years ago. As you can see, it's part rendered, part timber clad. A similar render could work well for your house. Also, we agree with The Picture House, think about changing the windows if your budget allows - it will help lift the overall look of the property. Good luck...

Hi Pippa.

If it is financially possible, I would definitely go with option 4 and extend the back. In that case you might be able to get the guest toilet between the kitchen and garage without having to extend the latter.

If not, I would go with options 1 or 3 but definitely connect the living room and dinning room with an opening or double doors.

I hope this helps, please let me know if you have any further questions, I will be more than happy to help. just drop me a line or visit www.betterspace.co

Good luck, Avi

Personally I would knock out the wall between the kitchen and dining room but I would also knock out the wall between the dining room and the conservatory (replace with orangery style if budget suits). I would also replace the existing utility with a like for like extension with downstairs loo to save cost. This layout would give you more flexibility and would give you better space at a lower price than the full extensions to the rear.
To the front adding a mono pitched roof above the front windows, above the front door and across the garage would create a porch and a more aesthetically pleasing frontage. There are some very attractive weatherboarding cladding options that you could apply to the first floor too. Most planners will not allow the front elevation to change or be extended drastically though.

I would definitely go with loosing the Conservatory, having always disliked conservatories as I think they are usually completely underused spaces you have to be reminded to use. I would definately move it and extend fully across back.

To the front of the house, there may be many options, but with a tight budget the back extension would be the best addition to the house for appearance, and use of space and definitely value added to property. If that used my existing budget I would probably then leave the front with small changes changing door to Black and getting garage spray painted if still in fair nick. (I have a friend who has just done, it looks brilliant and was done by someone who sprayed cars for a living|) I also like the idea of adding a bit of rendering to front to change the look and bring up to date, .however I by far, prefer the off-white colour render to the dark grey and cedar colours suggested.

Whilst I love the 'grey thing' that is going on at the moment, I personally think it only looks good on very modern builds where grey aluminium window framing is used, if you like that very modern look that is appearing very much now across the country. However that to me would not look good on a semi in a row of semi's as would look 'out of keeping' with surrounding properties. I personally feel that look should be reserved for detached properties although I have seen it done. Good Luck with your project!

What a great site this is!!

Prime Oak Ltd - I absolutely love this transformation. We are currently trying to come up with ways to transform the house we have just bought and this has definitely given me some inspiration - I presume this was an expensive job??!!

Thanks

The Picture House - We did not get involved with the builders side of things so unfortunately cannot comment, we only replaced the windows and built the porch and the garage round the size of the house. We just could resist to show everyone the stunning transformation though! We are so glad you like it, thank you for commenting :)

Hi all,

Thank you so much for all the helpful comments. I thought I'd update you on where we've got to so far and get your thoughts.

Below are the proposed front elevation and floorplan drawings from our architect. We're currently working on the basis that we'll need to split the work into two phases: step one being to extend to the rear and make the internal changes, and step two being to potentially add the porch/changed roofline out front if and when we have the money.

You'll see that we recognised the point several people raised, which was that extending to the rear would be simplest way to open up the space and get in the necessary downstairs loo so that my mother in law (who's in a wheelchair) can use the loo/shower when she visits.

• I still think that the wet room entrance on the right will be tight for wheelchair access. In case you can't see the tiny writing on the plan, the walkway from the utility to the wetroom is 1m at the thinnest point. That said, it's hard to see how to make access easier. Would a sliding door perhaps help?

Maybe I'm not 'reading' your plan properly, but there seem to be a lot of separate rooms. Is that a conscious decision? also, is the only way to the loo through the utility room?

Hi there,

With your changes being minded towards mobility, I would question whether introducing a corridor into your wetroom is a good idea. In most extensions, circulation space is poor value for money as it has low amenity value. I would suggest that swapping the utility and wetroom (as shown in my very crude plan) would be wise as you gain a larger utility and larger wet room as you can then absorb the corridor space into the wetroom/utility and you will end up with a far more usable space. I presume you want to retain access through the garage to the garden however in my experience this is rarely used as garages do have a tendency to become inaccessible due to their use as storage areas, for the small amount of time you may require this access, you could retain a door in from the garage which would remain locked for the majority of the time. Alternatively creating a new opening into the hallway might provide this access without affecting your wetroom/utility.

You may also find that swapping your dining and kitchen space may lend itself better to creating the impression of space as you would be able to see directly from the hall through the new patio doors out to your garden and would allow you to utilise the corner which cheats extra kitchen storage.

Best of luck!

Hi E D. The main space at the back of the house is an open plan kitchen/dining /relaxing space, but the utility and wet room are separate. I should have said that the red lines on the plan are existing walls which are being removed. The blue line shows a structural beam.

Hi Pippa, we make a number of home renovation series for TV. Might be worth taking a look at our website to see if your project would fit with any of our shows... www.amazingproductions.co.uk

Dear Pippa Ev

I see lots of enthusiastic free advice here.

Here's mine - employ a decent architect and develop your ideas with them, or else you'll be going round in circles. Design by committee is not a good approach.

Best Regards

Hi Pippa!

Congratulations on your purchase, it looks like a great home with lots of possibilities!!!

Having had a look at your requirements and layout options I would suggest one of two possibilities.

Your option 2 has lots of potential but we suggest the following changes.

Firstly to rotate the loo and place it in the space of the utility room, this frees up the space in the garage negating the need for that extension and allowing the funds to be allocated elsewhere.

Second, the wall around the fire seems to be mostly timber. We would suggest removing this entire wall section allowing for a flowing open plan space. This will also help with wheelchair access as there are less doors and entrances to deal with. Something to consider would perhaps be to keep the fire as this could be a nice feature in the space, maybe opening both sides so it becomes a double sided fire toward the living room and dining room.

Raising the floor to the conservatory should not be a massive undertaking but in the mean while you could install a ramp to allow access.

The other option would be your option 4 where you have a extensive renovation with rear extension as this allows for extra light and space, something we could all do with. Not only will a rear extension allow you the above but it will also add a lot of value to the property.

It was a real pleasure to advise you, if you have any other questions - please do reach out via our site - www.betterspace.co.
Good luck!
Ed

Yes, Ed, totally agree, but then she did.... posted the design on 13 Jan

I haven't followed the whole thread but maybe that person is not a qualified "Architect"... Love your design, Richard Russett

Pleased Ed and VC agree.

Since you mention it VC, I can't find you on ARB Register, so take it you are not a qualified "Architect" either?

We have a very similar house and added pocket doors between the dining and lounge. It has maximised the space, improved the flow around it and is best of both worlds as can shut them if we want. With regard to the frontage, we’re looking to render the top half add a porch and change the window style and size. Check out ‘back to front’ design based in Farnham for inspiration they’ve done some incredible things with 60’s/70’s properties.

http://www.backtofrontexteriordesign.com/our-work/farnham-surrey/ The before and after photos are amazing

Lauren, I'm always a little suspicious when a professional company is incapable of using apostrophes correctly (haha), but they've done a beautiful job on transforming this Farnham house! :)

Hi all,

Thank you so much for all the helpful comments and suggestions, and sorry that it's taken me so long to respond - house renovation and work have been keeping us on our toes!

This has become a long post, so a quick reminder - we were looking to renovate and rewire our 60s house to update it and also make it more wheelchair friendly downstairs for when my mother-in-law comes to visit. We employed an architect and came up with what turned out to be an 'aspirational' design (much more than the budget!) so we ended up deciding to split things into two stages:

• Stage One to add a downstairs wetroom for accessibility, remove chimney throughout and add a porch
• Stage Two to do the extension across the rear, removing the conservatory to open out a large kitchen/diner and add a utility room

The layout below shows both Stages One and Two as complete. Bits shown in red are existing walls which have been/will be removed (apart from the wall in red in the seating area below which is between the existing kitchen and dining room - that's a mistake).

So.....the building work is now done - hurray! Stage One is complete, we are much poorer, and we now need to decorate the whole house :-)

Some before and after photos below - please bear with the terrible photography skills. The rooms aren't big enough to allow for expansive photos!:

We've re-plastered throughout, apart from in the kitchen and upstairs bathroom, as we'll deal with those later. Current challenge is deciding how on earth to pick paint colours and flooring throughout....

Anyway - hopefully that gives you a sense of where we've got to.

Best wishes

Hi there

This post has been really helpful as we have a similar 1960 property detached with a double garage. I was wondering if you have an update on the final outcome of your project as we may be looking at a similar type of rennovation.

Regards