Whilst I understand the constraints of budget I think you are approaching the planning wrong. I think the way to do this is to decide on the layout that works best and then work out what you can afford to do now- perhaps you can make economies on purchases such as the kitchen cabinets to get a better Gliw in your home. An architectural designer or a concept planner are worth considering to help with this- they would also help you visualise the finished space too. If this were my house I would be thinking the entrance wasn’t big enough for the size of house and I would be concerned about privacy of the bedrooms at the front, I also don’t like the current kitchen being some distance from a window and being a heavy traffic area. Although I can’t see the layout properly I think I have got the sizes about right to show how I would do it. I have moved the front door to the middle of the house, shown a vaulted hall with stairs to two big upstairs spaces, shown the living space as completely open plan but with the option of using one of the downstairs bedrooms or one of the upstairs rooms as an extra living room. In my opinion there are often houses with long narrow extensions across the back that should have been better considered as invariably people need bigger spaces rather than more small rooms and retrospectively opening up the original house into this space is more difficult that building in the steels originally. So my plan doesn’t change any of the external walls of the original property but a couple of internal brick walls have been removed. I have just shown what is commercial and probably wouldn’t cost the earth but a designer would spend time trying to better understand your needs.

Thanks for your advice both of you. We live in England to answer your question Gabby. Is there a rule in Scotland that the aisles have to be 120cm and if so why ? Jonathan, I was kind of thinking we would want to use the island for eating meals on like we do now with our current kitchen table, but I guess if the DR is open to the kitchen then it wouldn't be a problem to take a few steps more to the dining room table (because we use it so infrequently at the moment I am finding that hard to visualise). I am going to post a better plan of our current kitchen and dining room (with the pantry taken out) and I am also going to post a photo looking out from the window in our dining room. I am wondering if we did turn the DR into our kitchen could we make the window ledge higher and put the units in an L-shape so we could put the sink in the window? (and still have space for an island) I know this goes against some of my earlier points, especially about being worried people would be able to look in at us/and would create a more goldfish bowl feeling but I am just playing around with ideas.

Hi, we wanted to reconfigure the existing extension in the house but are stuck because we don't know what to do with the bathroom/laundry space adjoining it. It's an awkward space overall. The utility leads to the bathroom at the moment. 1. We do want a guest bathroom downstairs, happy to reduce the size of the guest bathroom if we can increase the kitchen area somehow. 2. We plan to build a bathroom upstairs, is this a good idea? Here is the layout:

Hi Alison, I think with such a large project you should definitely be looking for someone to help with the planning phase. A concept planner or interior designer is probably the cheapest way - obviously, I can't talk about everyone's rates. My clients usually then find they have an idea of what they want and what's achievable, from a variety of options - which can then be taken to an architect. This generally cuts the costs of redo's down (and the package you need from an architect). There are a few tweaks I would make to Jonathans but this is definitely a great design to look at in more detail. I especially love upstairs and everything he has managed to get in as well as taking the garage to add a utility room and the office which is a really practical use of the space if you are converting. I am imagining the step-in at the back is a little like the garage and is there due to the boundary lines - so can't be changed. This means that the extension would be going across the existing back of the house. Maybe it is worth looking at if you can add a porch to the front too.