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Layout Advice request

2 years ago

Hello, I have just discovered this incredible wealth of information, and would like to tap into this expansive resource for your inputs please!

We are due to complete on a house fairly soon (fingers and toes crossed its all smooth). I have a few ideas for the layout where it would be very useful to get your advice on. I have included a photo of the floorplan of the ground floor.

1) There is the main door of the house, and a small external wall outside of this (almost like an open porch) - pic included. we would like to break down the internal wall with the current main door (red crosses on floorplan) and close up the external 'porch wall' (green line on floorplan) essentially closing of the current entrance into the house and gaining a few more feet of space.

2) We want to get rid of the WC on the ground floor and reposition the main door of the house from the previous position in 1) above to the wall occupied by the window of the WC. The Main door is repositioned by 90 degrees.

My main questions wrt are:

- will any of these works require Planning permission? This is not a grade listed building, or located in a conversation area.

- Could the above be achieved relatively inexpensively (I am located in Sheffield) or is this a massive undertaking? Would I need to engage an architect or would a contractor be sufficient?

3) we want to get rid of the current dining area to extend the kitchen and make it a kitchen-and-utility area as the house does not have a designated utility. However, this area does not have any plumbing/taps etc., so this will need to be installed. There are also 2 protruding semi-walls (non-load bearing according to the sellers. they also sounded hollow) between the current kitchen and dining, which we would like to tear down to make a more continuous kitchen/utility (marked with purple crosses). In addition, there is currently a doorway between the living room and dining area, which we want to close up (green line). we will also then extend the current island, and add some seating.

- Just wanted to get some general input on the plan or if you had any other suggestions? The reason for removing the dining room is to relocate it to Bedroom 4.

We initially want to relocate it to Bedroom 5, and create a doorway to the bathroom, but its Bedroom 5 is a tight space for a 6-8 seater. Our intention is to use it more as a 'formal' dining area. The ensuite would now be attached to this new dining room - which is not the best idea either! Am open to your ideas and advice.

I have a few other layout questions for other rooms too, and they will be coming up shortly!

Thank you in advance!

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Comments (8)

Jonathan
2 years ago
Any changes to the front appearance of the house will need planning permission. You shouldn’t need an architect to do this but you will need some drawing of what you intend in order to gain planning permission.

Separately you might consider if moving your front door changes the curb appeal and devalued it.

If you want the hallway to feel bigger perhaps moving the stairs may be an option.
Tanaya
Original Author
2 years ago
Thank you Jonathan. Could you please suggest what you would recommend wrt moving the stairs? That may be a great solution as one of the reasons for wanting to relocate the doorway in the first place, is not wanting to see the staircase as soon as we enter the house.
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Jonathan
2 years ago
It would be great to have a bigger hall and to be able to see through glass doors, all the way to the back garden. Long sight lines help a house feel more impressive and bigger.
Tanaya
Original Author
2 years ago
Would be great to have a bigger hall. What do you suggest? Also enclosing a couple of pictures to better enable visualisation. The top pic is taken pretty much from the entryway to the house.
If there was a way to perhaps turn the staircase, so the stairs are not the very first thing we see upon entering, do you think this could be done?
Also, do you mean to change the walls behind the staircase into glass doors for that long line of sight ?
Jonathan
2 years ago
Yes - it might be nice to have glass doors opposite the front door and being able to see right through the house.

If you post a plan of the upstairs then perhaps there is an obvious place to move the stairs to.
Tanaya
Original Author
2 years ago
Here you go! Plan of the upstairs.
Jonathan
2 years ago
Great- it might be possible to put new stairs where the cloakroom is….. or on the same wall as they are now but starting where the lounge door is
Tanaya
Original Author
2 years ago
Thank you! Will certainly consider this and look into the costs. Although in this way, (in my mind) it may be slightly more challenging with a furniture layout in the lounge. Because of the position of the fireplace, I was initially thinking to have a 3-4 seater on the opposite wall (and close up the internal doorway between lounge and dining), a 3 seater on the wall that has the entrance from the hallway and two arm chairs in front of the garden doors. Now with the door on the other end of the same wall, the sofa will need to scoot closer to the wall with the fireplace and May throw the look of the layout off? What do you think?
Attaching the pics of what I mean.

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