Side return design in semi Victorian. 2 doors or one?
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3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
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Victorian side-return extension help needed!
Comments (14)Sorry I can't see the photos you are referring to - my comments are limited without pictures/plans. I agree with Man about the House - pricing seems to be top end. We live in Highgate, North London (not a cheap area) and our house is approx. 3,000 sq ft. Prices for work on period homes are not in this range unless you have opted for a very high end fit out. Our side return costs £55k and that included all professional fees, lighting, underfloor heating, bi-fold doors, domestic appliances and lovely leather sofa from Habitat. Admittedly, we kept our existing Britannia range cooker and dining table and chairs. Yes we got many quotes for £140-£200k+ but decided to use professionals for planning and some visits during key stages only. The rest of the project was managed by us. There are many ways to create value in a project - Ikea Voxtorp handleless kitchens are great with a quartz worktop. You can even get the doors sprayed with a F&B colour, it's a fraction of the price and visually compares well to Roundhouse kitchens - which I love but simply can't afford. We got endless quotes for quartz worktops - the costs varied by more than 50% for exactly the same material. We needed 13 steels in total and paid a total £4.8k inclu vat and £3k installation costs. Remember you should be negotiating on all elements of your project. I can also compare to a similar house/project in a nearby road, not a high end finish but inexperienced home owners who paid £140k for a pretty average side return turnkey solution. Keep researching and talking to home owners that have actually completed projects on their homes to get a really good view about the costs and where you want to spend your budget....See MoreFloor plan redesign ideas for G.F of my semi-detached Victorian home?
Comments (19)Hi Kate. We have three children under 8 so are in a similar position to you. If it was my house I would..... In response to your first question, a 33ft x 14ft open plan room would not necessarily be too big, but it would leave you without a downstairs utility or WC. As tamp75 has commented, a hallway is good for isolating noise to upstairs bedrooms, and you need somewhere for coats, bags, shoes etc. With three storeys, having the kitchen open to the hall may create problems with building regulations (fire safety). I'm not an expert in this area but it should be considered. 2. I would definitely reposition the cloakroom. It looks like the drainage to your house will be on the right hand side of the plan, so I would not put the WC under the stairs. Something like Jonathan's second suggestion would work well. 3. I would create a utility room, but only a small one. Large enough to hold a washing machine and tumble drier (stacked to save space), sink and some storage. If you can get hold of a copy of George Clarke's Home Bible he has a whole chapter devoted to utility rooms - it is well worth a read. 4. I would reconfigure the property in a similar manner to Jonathan's second suggestion. The only minor changes would be to move shorten the hall slightly by bringing the entrance to the kitchen level with the stairs, and possibly reconfigure the area for utility/WC/cloaks. I recommend retaining the first floor living room as it stops the house feeling too 'top heavy' and could be a really good family space. 5. It's hard to answer this without knowing more about you. I think it might be possible to have a kitchen, seating area and dining area but I suspect that you might have to make some compromises. You have the potential to create two lounges elsewhere in the house, so I would compromise on the seating area. Given the scale of this project I would take my time to consider all of the options. I think it is definitely worth spending a few £100s on a concept planner as they could save you £1000s in the long run. Good luck....See MoreFTB victorian semi advice please!
Comments (6)A bathroom over the kitchen.- firstly you should get the opinion of an expert if the kitchen would bear the load- it might do. If not you can strengthen the walls, you can put a room above on stilts or you could investigate lighter options such as a prefabricated low weight box extension. As far as the loft conversion goes I think it depends on where the stairs will come up in the available space- I suspect they will come up in the middle and make the space unusable. Other houses in the street may well have a different stair position. As far as extending goes I think I would be considering a full width rear two story extension - is it possible to extend on the side where the front door is?...See MoreKitchen Victorian terrace - without building into side return
Comments (9)Thanks both! We’ve had the ‘small extensions aren’t worth it’ comment too - but still exploring whether it might be worth it to us if just grabbing a 1.5 metre by 2.72 metre bit of extra space at the end of the kitchen means we can run our kitchen table either (a) parallel to the new end wall patio doors with the kitchen units fitted galley style down both sides of the remaining kitchen or (b) parallel to the side return wall with kitchen units down the full length of the opposite side… Since our house is split level with steps down to our kitchen it’s not so feasible for us to build into the side return to any great extent since this then means the steel of the new roof over the side return slices through the middle of the window in the back living room… hence the only feasible alternative might be to build into half of the side return leaving a very small 1 metre by 1 metre courtyard adjoining that back living room window (or not building into the side return at all). Could we fit a kitchen table seating 6 people into a 2 metre by 2.72 metre space?...See MoreUser
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