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Renovating Design Dilemma Living Rooms

How to get kitchen/dining/living space with remodelling/extension?

5 years ago

We bought our house in a bit of a rush (enter baby 1), having not completely fallen in love with it as it was. But since there was potential to extend, we went ahead with the hope of turning it into a real family home with a lovely big kitchen/dining/living space looking out onto the garden. Now with baby 2 a bit older we are ready to seriously look into changing things around. But I'm back and forth with my ideas. And still not 100% sure that this will be our forever home - so keen not to spend lots. I'd love to get other people's thoughts on potential layout and whether we even need to extend.

Key info to help! Here is the current layout in pic 1. We have potential to extend on the right (see pic 2) and also have a garage to the left (see pic 3) which we could partially convert and add to the living space at the back (the rest of it could remain as a garage and we could steal a bit of the driveway to add back as the driveway is currently too short for two cars but too long for one).

My initial thoughts are to move the kitchen to the right side of the current living room, use the garage conversion as the dining area on the left side, and consequent space in between as the play/living space for the kids. Then the current kitchen and dining room could be knocked through to make the lounge. Meaning, as the front door currently opens into the dining room, we'd move the downstairs WC to under the stairs and the entrance to the house would then move to the right side of the house where the WC is currently (also using a little bit of space from the kitchen). This all means no need to extend (other than the garage conversion). Otherwise we leave the WC where it is, put the entrance in the front middle of the house, creating a small study where the dining room is and extending to the right to create the lounge.

Any other thoughts on layout? Is it best to extend? TIA!

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Comments (5)

A B
5 years ago
To me it sounds like you will move as you don’t love the house (this was us a year ago- our home ticked every box but I just didn’t love it. We ended up moving). If you are considering moving then personally I would leave the layout as it is and save your money for your next house. If you are planning on making it your long term home then I’d do a side extension to really maximise its potential. Maybe talk to an estate agent about what would add value to help you development decide?
Becky R thanked A B
Jonathan
5 years ago
Whether or not you eventually move it might be worth extending- check with agents how much you could add to the value versus spend as there may be profit to be had and you might end up falling in love with the house and saving your moving costs.
If it were mine I would want to move the main entrance to the front too.
I enclose one option for extending.
Becky R thanked Jonathan
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Jonathan
5 years ago
I think I prefer this front door position
Becky R thanked Jonathan
Becky R
Original Author
5 years ago
Great ideas, thank you so much!
Jonathan
5 years ago
Possible 1st floor.
Because this is wider that the original roof you would need twin roofs on the side which necessitates a box gulley in between which means a little extra maintenance

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