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Design Dilemma Renovating

Small reno for first home owners

5 years ago

I'd love some advice on ways of improving the smallish footprint of this house. Every solution I come up with seems to have a new problem arise.
I'd like to have a master bed and 2 bedrooms, and ideally have a spacious kitchen and living/dining space at the back of the house.
The current bathroom is unnecessarily large and the laundry too small!

I'm not sure if we can manage shuffling things without an expensive whole house reno. Help!?

Comments (2)

Jonathan
5 years ago
In my opinion the change that will make the most impact to this house is putting the living space at the back so assuming you have budget for works you should prioritise this.
If it were mine I would also be looking for extension possibilities- I suspect you can extend the bathroom side in to what I assume is a small veranda. You might also be able to extend on the carport side - it’s great to have future options for when the budget allows.
So I offer this possible plan with a formal entrance, an enlarged study/bedroom 3, an open living kitchen space and two bedrooms at the front.
I have tried to keep the kitchen and bathroom on the same side to make plumbing easier but I suspect if you ever extended in the carport side you might add an extra bathroom there.
I have included a plan to show which original walls have been retained to help visualise the change needed.

I think this exercise highlights the importance of getting a design you like. I would encourage you to then stick to that plan even if your budget does not allow you to do everything at right now.
Rachel C
Original Author
5 years ago
Thanks Jonathan, this is already so different from any ideas I had come up with!
I agree the living space at the back would be ideal.
The carport side would allow 1m extension which would be valuable space down the track but I suspect definitely out of budget at present, despite my husband being a builder!
Unfortunately the bathroom verandah has the metre box which no longer complies with code. If we were to move that wall out we'd be up for $8k immediately:/
I think the plan you propose is a great starting point and I'm very grateful for your suggestions. It is hard to picture on a floor plan that isn't even drafted to scale but including the existing walls in one image is helpful:)
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