Optimise existing footprint to achieve dream configuration!

3 years ago

Cut a long (and painful!) house buying story short, we have purchased a 1980s 4 bed detached property that is original throughout, so EVERYTHING needs updating. The square footage is great, but the existing footprint doesn't offer what we need, which is basically:

decent sized sitting room
study
cloakroom
utility room
open plan kitchen / diner / casual seating

Painting a wall is the extent of our building knowledge so we are genuinely completely clueless to this and are spending hours swotting up online. So we would really appreciate it anyone had any ideas? I have put some pictures to help bring it to life.

My current thinking is the take c2m off the living room and open the entire width of the back of the ground floor up - am I mad?! This would mean making the very dated conservatory work, ideally I would like to change the conservatory into an extension but we have c£80k in the pot for the whole house... The floorplan reflects this option (yellow lines show new walls / red lines show removed walls).

One final plea - other than brilliant hive minds on the internet, who would we approach for this in the real world? Seems a bit basic to get an architect for (plus they are ££), would a builder give a view on it?!

Thank you!

Not sure how clear uploads are, measurements are:

Conservatory - 2.8 x 4.3
Living room - 7.2 x 3.6
Dining room - 3.0 x 2.9
Kitchen - 4.1 x 2.6
Breakfast room - 2.6 x 2.5
Utility room - 2.1 x 2.0

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Comments (3)

Jonathan
3 years ago
I think you need to work backwards in your costings.
So this means if you want to spend £20k on a new kitchen, £10k on a new bathroom, £6 k on a new boiler, £6k on carpets upstairs, £10K on downstairs flooring, £2k on an electrician to update the fuse board and add some spotlights and new sockets you can see how much budget you have left to demolish walls and extend.
Since we know that most single storey extensions cost £1800 per square metre you can work out how much extra you can build with your remaining budget- this might be more modest than your initial plans but at least is achievable. I suspect you are looking at knocking the kitchen and dining together and extending outwards behind them alone.
Our first rennovation
Original Author
3 years ago
Hi Jonathan, thanks for you reply. We’ve actually costed everything up already and have a builder doing a walkthrough tomorrow to ratify these numbers.

That’s why I mention we’ll probably need to utilise the existing conservatory, rather than extend out from the dining room / kitchen... which leads to my suggestion of taking c2m off the living room.

What I was hoping for is some views on whether my suggestion is decent or not, and any others that would be better?

Thanks
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Hello, you have some really good options now. Personally what struck me was how many doors there are in this area/area's. It seems to inhibit flow. As you said you seems to always be going "around" items. In the new proposed design I was wondering why you need a table next to a bench with there also being a table in the dining room? As someone else mentioned the powder and utility room seem overly large in comparison to the kitchen and what you want to achieve. Forgive my crude alterations, I had about 5 minutes to spare, here are some other thoughts to the above, but, the best option will really depend on how you want to live in this new area and the functional flow you are after. You can easily keep the wall between the kitchen and dining in place. Or, you can remove all or part of it. If part is structural and small lintel can easily be added (generally). Opening it up will allow more natural light and help with overall flow, however, retaining some of the wall also maintains a degree of privacy and can allow for hanging of art or positioning of other furniture against the retained wall. You could also add a sliding door between the kitchen and dining if you wished, however, this could be a compromise if you can create a cavity slider. The central island bench has an overhang so can easily accommodate breakfast, family dinners, homework in view (put in lots of USB and power outlets in this island). You could also make the bench a bit wide and drop part of the height to a normal table height, although I believe this would compromise the flow. Options also exist to remove some of the dining wall to the hall. But, not knowing the house dynamics this could impact on required noise control and heat/cooling requirements. Again sliders to the dining room/hall way can increase the effective space in both areas. They could be hung externally on the hall side.. Slot windows above the main kitchen bench can also bring in light. WM and Dryer can be incorporated in the kitchen cupboards. So many options. Good luck! Julie An idea of how slot windows can look.
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Neasa
3 years ago
You have a good-sized overall footprint, so I would agree that you don't necessarily need to extend. When you say 'everything' needs doing - from the pictures you've posted, I can't agree. Obviously the decor and look is dated, but it seems liveable. The thing with doing up a house top to bottom - it is hard to think of everything. It's obviously up to you whether you want to do so or not, but it could be a good idea to do a paint job as a 'pep' up, and then live in it for a while to give yourself time to work out what you really want and need.

I would say, in terms of the plan, you have a utility 'block' at the front left. It seems apparent this space can accommodate a downstairs bathroom, cloakroom and utility. The hall is absolutely massive, at the expense of several other rooms. You could either reconfigure to take space from the hall back into kitchen / dining on right, or flip the kitchen over into the current living room. Depends on what you prioritise.

Optimise existing footprint to achieve dream configuration!

Comments (3)

Jonathan

Our first rennovation
Original Author

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Optimise existing footprint to achieve dream configuration!

Comments (3)

Jonathan

Our first rennovationOriginal Author

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Neasa

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CONNECT WITH US

Our first rennovation
Original Author