Looks like you have lots of potential. I’m sure the brilliant bods on here will come up with some great suggestions. Do you know which internal walls are structural and which not structural?

Hi Steph,

That looks like a beautiful large house, off the plan. Do you have the plan for the first floor above as this will help ascertain which walls are structural. Please also upload some pictures if you get the chance.

You mentioned (and I can see on the plan) that the walls between the front and rear reception rooms has been removed. Is there a steel beam there that you know off? This will help indicate which walls are structural.

Now for ideas...

You're right that the entrance hall seems excessive and to me it would seem logical to move the wall of the kitchen back in line with the old wall of the living room. Removing that strange pier in the kitchen shouldn't be too problematic, but again, would need to see what is happening above. The wall between the kitchen and the rear reception could then be opened up giving you an incredible kitchen/dining open plan space and you could use the leftover space under the stairs as a small utility room or pantry (again depending on what's going on upstairs). Perhaps that existing strange room was an old boiler room or a small pantry. It may also be worth checking that there isn't a cellar below and this isn't a closed off access down. I would consider making the ground floor WC smaller and removing the shower if possible. This would give a little bit more room for a cloak room perhaps, or boots and bags cupboard. This would mean removing that entrance hall fireplace.

The front reception room is traditionally the least used room in homes. Indeed, the Victorian house designers would dress up these front rooms to show off their homes from the street, but they were never used as "life is in the kitchen". This is often why these are often living rooms in the UK whereas in other countries the whole house dynamic is often reversed. In my opinion the nicest option would be to introduce glazed sliding or french doors (crittal style perhaps) between the two rooms allowing you to maintain a sense of the space and light penetrating through the house. This would then also allow you to close off the front room, making it a more formal living/dining room.

You also mentioned that you have children. Perhaps you are in need of a play room or summer room extending out from the kitchen/at the rear. There is a lot that you can achieve under permitted development that can give you the extra living space needed in houses that are often imbalanced between living and sleeping quarters - especially when planning for future teenagers, art spaces, toys, homework or otherwise over the next 20 years!

There are many ideas which could get more precise with some more information. Importantly, an idea of budget for these works needs to be set as to whether you are wanting to carryout light refurbishment or a full redesign.

I hope these thoughts can help and if you post some more info I would be more than happy to give you a few more.

Best of luck with your purchase and your new home,

Olivier Jauniaux

Thank you for your suggestions so for encouragement with this. We started off our house hunt saying that we absolutely did not want a project and have ended up with what needs a full redesign and refurb... Taken on board the suggestions to plan and spend more now so as to "futureproof". Planning to do the full works (electrics, plumbing, heating, insulation, kitchen) so moving walls doesn't really phase me.

Plan of first floor attached. Also needs a redesign (main bedroom is far too big / circulation area again feels too generous) so I was keeping it for a further post. But feel free to make suggestions here!

Extension - wasn't planning on doing one. The garden is generous but with two ball-mad children would rather not lose active play space. Would rather go into the loft in next project (say 5-8 years time) to create bigger bedrooms for teenagers and/or a games room.

Plan of first floor didn't stick to your comment. Wait for it to go from opaque to full color.

The column seams rather large, what's in it? Soil pipe? Or just wood? It must be there for a reason.. Which direction do your ceiling joists go? Sideways?

Thanks for letting me know rinq. Second attempt at uploading first floor... No idea about what's in the column or the direction of ceiling joists am afraid. All I know is that the column was there in 1988 when the current owners moved in.

Here's an overlay of both floors:

Could be the kitchen was extended somewhere in the past? Might even be a full side extension. Or there was a chimney somehow? Doesn't really matter now (except for where beams were already put in), only knowing what is loadbearing and what is not.

Do make some floorplans that incorporate future makeovers, for it might save money in the long run. Are these floorplans drawn correctly or just quick impressions?

Lots of people also advise to live in the house for a while... so you can get a better feel for it, as it can help you potentially to work out what you want to do with the space and what would be most useful.

I'd definitely agree as when we first moved in we had ideas etc of conservatory or whatever, kinda didn't get round to doing any of it.. and instead decided like you, we're gonna be here for a while so it's worth spending more to make it right for us and are currently in the middle of quite a massive extension/reconfiguration of the rooms!

Also looking at that overlay, I suspect the 2 little bits of wall that jut out between the living room and diner, are supporting the RSJ they presumably installed. So it probably isn't cost effective to move that such a small distance! You could look at pocket doors (we're planning on having 2 sets to allow us to have more flexibly open plan living) you can get telescopic sets that take up less wall space.

Definitely think trying to find some sort of planner would be useful for you... as they can work out loads of ideas. OnePlan on here is highly recommended and lots of people have used her services.

Thanks for the overlay @rinq. Very interesting!

The plans are estate agent plans. Definitely not accurate. For example, the cupboard under the stairs is much larger in reality than on plans and there is door to it from the outside side return. Perhaps was a cellar once as a @OLJ Design suggested. Will have to investigate when we get keys. And obviously commission someone to measure up properly.

The adjacent house is the same width so I don't think they did a full kitchen extension. A few mysteries in this house I would love to solve...

@Gabby I think you are right about the RSJ and not worth moving it. Our builder is not available until next spring/summer so we have no choice but to live in it this winter. Treating it as an opportunity to plan and budget properly. Just hoping the existing heating, electrics and kitchen don't let us down in the middle of a freezing patch!

Hi Steph,

I agree with Gabby, it’s important that you live in the house to find out what works and doesn’t work for you. There is definitely space on the first floor landing for a new stair case up into a loft and moving things on the ground floor seems fairly straightforward from rinq‘s overlay pending a proper survey. It’s worth knocking on neighbours doors and asking a few questions, they may know more about the houses and their secrets!

If you need any further professional help or design and survey services please feel free to call or email once you have the keys. Ideally you would do the survey before furniture is in for accuracy.

I wish you the best of luck with your project

Olivier

Haven't been looking at your downstairs layout yet, but.. Here's an 'update' of the second floor:

Placed a huge closet in the master bedroom. Removed the toilet and downsized the landing (to create more bedroom space). Created two bathrooms and added the location of the loft staircase.

Works well! To throw in my pinch of salt I would add that in all likelihood you would be able to continue the stairs over the existing ones and get more bathroom space instead of the stairs to the side as drawn. Depending on the pitch of the roof (and the type of loft extension, (hip to gable/dormers etc) the stairs might need to go in another direction however, so this would change the plan. In my opinion, The landing is still rather large and changing the whole stair case is a lot of work to make better use of the space so instead you could open part of that up with some walk on glass or a balcony and get a double or even triple height space once the loft is done. It’s a big house, so many options! Here is some walk on glass I got installed on a project for precisely that purpose.

Minimalist Modern Loft · More Info

Really helpful. Thanks @rinq. Hadn't thought about getting rid of the small toilet but makes perfect sense.

The walk on glass photo looks stunning @OLJ. Not sure it would entirely work here if it was installed between the ground and first floor. Have images of people running out of the shower wrapped in a towel and having to make a dash across the landing to preserve their modesty from any onlookers in the lobby area!

And of course we don't even know if we have the budget for a loft conversion given everything else we have to do in the existing two floors

Sidenote: I did continue the stairs over the existing one.

And the location (indeed if the roof allows) doesn't necessarily mean you need to build the loft any time soon. It would be a waste of time and money if somewhere in the future something (like a bathroom) would need to be cut into because of your loft. Planning ahead.

What does your roof look like?

Yep totally get the point about planning ahead. Makes perfect sense. Not quite sure how to describe the roof. Attaching photos of front and (most of the) back. Estate agent's sales chat mentioned you could fit three rooms in the loft... whatever that means.

And thank you for making me look at the roof carefully as I've noticed the chimney stack at the back of the house. That must be what the column in the middle of the kitchen is, right? Any views about what that would mean about removing it?

Removing all of it might mean patching the roof. Great option as the column in the kitchen could be removed and there would be a thinner wall between the smaller bedrooms. Downside would be the floors will require healing too.

Removing part of it involves heavy brackets to support the chimney.

And the loft stairs' location would require a dormer on the side. A staircase on the left would not (master bed or the one top left). A dormer would be needed anyhow to have some space to stand up straight and let in daylight, but I'm not sure if you're allowed to add a window on the side.

I've had some fun with your first floor layout:

Smaller wc. Utility and cloakroom. Kitchen with plenty of storage space (darker blue=tall). Countertop against the wall is about 300cm long. Table approximately 250x190cm.

Tried to keep 'knocking out loadbearing walls' to a minimum.

And some more :)

Wow! Thanks again rinq. Lots of food for thought here... Good to know what can be done without knocking down too much (first option). And interesting idea about placing the kitchen in the top corner. That would definitely suit me on one level - but then again no place to hide from the kids? Hmmm.

In my opinion option 1 of rinqs designs is the best and most original. Well done!

Thanks for the mention Gabby !

Wow you have been busy Rinq !
I do wish I had more ‘houzz’ time - but I have to squeeze it in before and after work ! And it’s busy, so have some long work days !

Lots of scope in a house like this ... generally on a project of this type we’d ask loads of questions about how the space needs to work for you as a family and then adapt to improve from there. Having a SE report of which walls can safely be tweaked if required is useful, before getting too carried away with any particular ideas etc too.

Wish I studied harder and could do what you do, Karen ;)

I wasn't (still am not) very ambitious, but I love my job (being the only employee in a small kitchen company), a happy customer is very rewarding. And so is being a mom. Furniture making and interior building sounds nice, but actually making cabinets was wearing me out physically and the other stuff I learned was more about calculating and planning. And restoration is not really a big thing here in the Netherlands.. Perhaps when the kid is older I'll think of starting a business (and/or some study). Right now I have no inspiration on what to do next.

Houzz is my hobby and practice, lol. It's the way of thinking I like a lot. Function, flow, etcetera.

Thank you, OLJ!

What I like most is how the kitchen has 'the long victorian effect'. I envision it to look a bit like these cute old stores, with a small stockroom on the side.

What's your kitchen/interior style, Steph?

And hiding from the kids? With some glass doors between dining and living area you can at least keep an eye on them ;) And then there's the spare bedroom upstairs. (And I thought long hot baths were the perfect way to have some alone time?)

Ha! Thanks again Rinq. You definitely have the talent and appetite for layout designs. And sufficient knowledge to work out the stairs for the loft extension. Maybe Karen from OnePlan can train you up to be their associate in the Netherlands?

I completely forgot about the sliding doors into the front living room. At the moment (aged 3 and 1) we can't escape from the kids but I know I will be sad in 10 years time when all they will want to do is hide in their rooms...

Again, what's your kitchen style? I can draw blocks in a floorplan, but having a visual of what could be is even better!

Kitchen styles... Would love something blending midcentury or other wooden cabinets into the style. Like the attached photos. I like pattern and colour but know I need to balance all of that, say on the floor or the splashback.

Before we started house hunting I would have said dark blue shaker style cabinets with white marble quartz worktop. Now I have seen so many kitchens like that in London, I've gone off it.

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Hello Steph,

I would reduce the size of the stairs and add the extra space gained to the kitchen area.

Add some glass doors between the hall and kitchen so that you can see right through when walking through the front door.

Similarly use glass internal doors between the living room and the rear seating area. This allows some formality to the living room to be retained.

Remove the chimney breast. at the rear.

Downstairs showers are rarely used so that front bathroom could be modified to incorporate a small utility room and cloakroom. Washers and dryers can be stacked.

My children shared and were happy with that until they were 10 and 8 so allow for that. There seems to be a lot more washing when they are young so a bedroom could be used for drying for a few years.

I had one client with teenagers who lived in their bedrooms before work started. she commened after the house was opened up that they were now happy to be downstairs and enjoy the company although whilst still on their laptops.

Re future loft conversion, you can currently do quite a lot using permitted development rights, including a hip to gable extension, subject to adding no more than 50m cubed to the roof volume.

Love your style preference! (slowly turning my home into a similar eclectic mix, but for now it's mostly toys and stuff everywhere, since our footprint is 6x6m and we need a lot of sorting out)

Steph if you look up a Houzzer called Resh your 4th style pic I believe is his kitchen! whilst I appreciate you aren't just going to copy it, he's got a few really detailed (and long) posts about loads of different aspects of his house renovation that you may find interesting

https://www.houzz.co.uk/discussions/4802325/victorian-house-inspiration-please#n=229 

An ikea kitchen visualisation of the first floorplan:

Wow thanks again Rinq. It would take me hours to work out how to do that. Should really get the laptop out at home and play around with the IKEA visualiser...

Some great ideas and tips here. The link to Resh's is so interesting - cheers for that Gabby.

The main thing I'm taking away is that the first step is to get a structural engineer in.

The space under the stairs I think is going to be key. There is actually a stained glass window along that staircase (I don't have a decent photo). I'm glad we will able to live in the house to get feeling of how much light comes through and what we would lose if we moved the kitchen wall back or put a utility room somewhere there.