Its hard to give a full breakdown of options without studying the full plans, your requirements and budgets. This is something you need to do with your chosen Architect. However, there are many options for adding windows and ways of making light bounce around the house, but if your architect has said you can't add more glazing you should ask why. I would suggest it is because it will start to impact the thermal efficiency of your house. North facing windows get no solar gain so by adding too much you could end up with a house that is difficult to keep warm especially if your house is older. You could upgarde to super energy effiecient glazing but of course that will come at a cost. Having looked at your existing plans it looks like your house has already had extensive work done. Unfortunately it doesn't appear like an architect was involved. A lot of the cost of your renovation will be in correcting previous mistakes and even then you will end up with columns in ever room unless you are willing to pay to have that corrected too. The cost could make the option of moving more viable? Did the previous owners also extend upstairs?

You could move the stairs, reconfigure, and build a smaller extension- which resolves your stated problems……… But instead of this plan I think you should not reconfigure, not move the stairs and instead spend the money building bigger. Roof lights, well planned electric lighting and a pale floor will all help with light. And you perhaps you should splash out on an amazing extractor (or two) to help with cooking smells.

First of all, congratulations. We worked on quite a few renovations. For inspiration, visit our website or book a call with our design team, we’d be happy to help!

Hi, thanks for your comment. Unfortunately we are unable to extend into the roof as it’s very shallow. We like the idea of a double extension to gain another bedroom or at least turn them into 3 double bedrooms. However, we are finding it hard to change the floor plan of the upstairs to allow for a hallway to enter the extension. If we extend to the side we would need to go through the bathroom or create a walkway in one of our double bedrooms which then turns this into a smaller room. But this would allow us to create a downstairs bathroom, utility and either have an office or make the kitchen bigger. Alternatively, if we extended out the back we could move the internal wall between the small bedroom and double to make the small room bigger and we could potentially create a nook for a desk and have an ensuite. Downstairs we could move the lounge into the extension and open up the current lounge and kitchen to make a bigger kitchen and dining area. Do you have any ideas/suggestions on this?