Help with our floorplan and extension!!!
Hey everyone,
My partner and I have been long planning and saving to renovate our 2-bed semi-detached bungalow and turn it into a family home with a social kitchen, a laundry area, better access to the rear garden and a place to store coats/shoes etc as you come in! We look to cook and entertain, and we are keen DIY'ers happy to get stuck in too!
We live in the UK and finally managed to get our extension through planning permission but in the time it has taken to do this, the quotes to do the extension are over double and we can't afford it! We are now trying to come up with alternative ideas! Below, in orange, you can see the shell we have approved and in grey the original house/walls. Originally we were going to knock the current kitchen into the extension to create one big room, with a separate area as you come in for a bench, hidden laundry area, tiny toilet and additional storage but the RSJ's to do this are too much so we are looking for other ideas! We have had one but I would love to hear others first! This has been almost a year of trying to figure out what to do now but have never tried online advice before!
Any help, ideas or advice is SOOOOO appreciated! I have given more details below for more context (if helpful!). Happy to rejig floor plans, or if needed go back to planning! We have a good-sized front garden too (on a slope!)
Thank you <3
Approved shell extending our the front
Current Floor Plan
It is a split-level semi-detached bungalow (attached on the right) with 7 steps between the lounge and bedroom area. We have a garage on the left which is not connected to the house (to the left of the MH cover) and that gap between the garage and the house is the only access to our garden. The garden is on a slope and is already 1.5M higher than the ground floor in the bedrooms and goes up so extending to the rear was never really an option. We don't use the garage (its only 2.4m wide), but we already have separate parking, and a shed for tools etc. The idea was to use this space to make the social kitchen we want then add bedrooms using a loft conversion.
Approved loft conversion:
We are blessed with great views at the front and back and can only have a front dormer due to roof heights at the back (it's too low). This is what we have approved for the loft. Adding two bedrooms, a bathroom, some storage as you come up and then a huge amount of eaves storage. In blue in Bedroom 4 is a little balcony (2.7 x 1.3m).
Comments (9)
- 2 years ago
Thanks for replying!!! Just to note, we have not started any building works and the walls with the orange outline have not been built or anything yet!
House Facing: The house is west-facing. The sun rises behind the back garden, goes around the right of the property and sets at the front of the house.
Going out the back: We have spent the last few years renovating the garden into a split-level design to address the slope, which are still trying to finish in our spare time and I just don't think flipping the extension to the back would work. We don't use the front garden (10m), or the side (3m to fence) where the garage is, which was why we decided to go out the side/front.
I quickly took this photo of the garden just now from Bedroom 2 (as I said we haven't finished and it needs post-winter paint but you get the idea of what we are trying to do!).
We were wondering if there was a way to reorganise the floorplan that we have not seen or keep some of the structural parts of the original kitchen wall so the RSJ's aren't as large. Or if going out the back is best what to do!
We do have a budget to renovate and extend, and we will do stuff ourselves to keep some costs down but the steels to go across that room to support the new loft conversion and roof were around £20k!
Thanks! Related Discussions
Help with floorplan (side and rear extension)
Comments (15)Hello Jonathan. thanks for your post. I have never seen an internal courtyard... but definitely something that would look really amazing if I can get it right. what do people use this courtyard for? any pictures you have that I can see to visualise. I don't see the wall separating the reception room and the passage (where the stairs are). practically, if we walk in the house we will be right in the living room. space wise, it is great. but practically does that work. your thoughts? thanks again....See MoreNew Floorplan Help! Extension Renovation
Comments (10)Hi there, As has been discussed by others above, there are 3 main options for this house: 1. Loft conversion. 2. Double storey extension 3. Single storey extension + rejigging. In my opinion, all three options would require thought about the staircases position. My first bit of advise is that you think about your priorities as these will dictate your decision around primarily whether you are wanting to take on the project and buy the house. Firstly regardless of which option you choose, I would immediately suggest that you move the stairs and try to get a straighter run without the half landing as this will free up more usable space on each level. Accessing the stairs from the current dining room (see sketch) would be a great way to free up space in the current stair area for either storage or even to be used as a desk area. Maintaining the opening between the hallway and stairs and using reinforced glass to enclose the staircase with shoe storage underneath would be a very contemporary look. My proposal would be to do a contemporary refurbishment comprising both a single storey extension and loft conversion (loft conversion could be a later addition should budget not allow for at first) however if you are prioritizing the number of bedrooms then I would say that the priority should be a loft conversion. With two dormers, this could deliver an extra 2 bedrooms (or 1 bedroom and 1 bathroom) in the loft space either side of the new staircase. On the first floor, converting the back bedroom into a bathroom accessed along a new landing through the second bedroom would be beneficial, removal of the chimney breast here would be a good idea too. On the ground floor, making the bathroom into a smaller wetroom/utility with stacked washing machine and tumble dryer and opening up the kitchen and dining room through to provide access out to the garden with rooflights fitted to bring more light into a very bright kitchen living room. Of course the look that you want might be more traditional and this could still be achieved but this open plan space would be a huge improvement to the current layout. Best of luck!...See MoreHelp! Unusual floor plan - kitchen extension advice please
Comments (3)So, has the approach to your property changed at some point? Because I would expect your entrance hall and front door to be at the front and not at the back? Could you turn it around again? If not, maybe move the front door to what is now the kitchen, making the kitchen part entry hall and part utility (dividing wall). Then you could perhaps create one large kitchen/diner/family space from the current utility, office and family room. The current dining room could be an office? Obviously all depending on whether all that would be possible re: load bearing walls and all that....See Morefloor plan / extension help for first home
Comments (6)Don’t actually know measurements but here’s some more pics of the side. I did consider that idea but to be honest I think I’d prefer to keep the kitchen where it is as it’s nice to look out to the garden while cooking! We can still see the view through from the dining room too. Perhaps if money were no object.. but I imagine moving all the piping etc will be a lot more expensive (?!), not sure of budget yet but am thinking through different options and considering the value it will add to our lives and potential added resale value in a few years or so. Also because of dogs it’s quite handy to have separate kitchen - we have it blocked off with a dog gate atm but I love those sliding wooden doors you see on Houzz. Basically am wondering if the cost of an extension is worth the hassle, originally that was our plan but now we’re in it I don’t think we would actually get that much extra space! At the moment the dryer is in the dining room (where the desk is in the photo) and there’s no dishwasher so that’s the main issue. If we could move the sink to RH and add in double/ sliding doors, fit a slimline dishwasher where the bin is in the photo on the LH side and perhaps squeeze in the dryer too somehow then perhaps extension not needed. Unless a conservatory would be a good option... (Alternatively was thinking about getting custom built cupboard around the dryer in dining room and get the washing machine installed on top, to free up space for dishwasher in kitchen...)...See More
2 years ago- 2 years ago
The original design is one big open room and its not possible to do in stages. I didn't attach this initially as its quite hectic to look at with all the lines and colours. But you can see the original walls and garage in orange that have been removed and then the proposed idea.
As the front garden is also on a slope, and with adding the loft conversion above the original footprint at the front (the only place it is possible), if we want to remove all of those original kitchen walls it needs these very large RSJ's. So were looking, hopefully, for some ideas where we can re-jig the layout of the floorplan, or utilise this L shape extension we have approved differently! I do have an idea for a broken plan layout that could work but rather than get feedback on that, I wanted to see if anyone had any other ideas that are different to what we have had without being led by that. We want to create a social cooking space but a large open room is not essential for us! Just somewhere to socialise and cook!
Does that make sense? Basically, can we do anything differently to re-jig the layout or utilise the shell of the extension differently so we are not removing all of that kitchen wall.
Many Thanks!
2 years agoWould leaving these portions of existing structural walls help? (Are end of the peninsula & where the new WC would be) It makes the WC/laundry smaller so could the laundry relocate to the airing cupboard? Or into the kitchen? It should reduce the spans required for steels and thus, I believe, reduce the depth required too resulting in reduced cost 🤞🏼
Rhiannon A thanked pauldrowan- 2 years ago
Interesting idea there Jonathan! Thanks will talk that through with my partner! Although we have great views at the front too so its great if we can still look out and watch the sunsets over the hills!
Dee - We also really liked it! We had 6 quotes and based on house prices falling, and the building costs going up over lockdown etc and not coming down, the cost to do both the loft and downstairs is more than it would probably be worth! We also live in the south-east. We are already looking at doing it in two stages, downstairs now, and then loft when we remortage. So great minds!
pauldrowan - Yeah, this is along the lines of what a builder suggested and what we have been trying to do, another toilet is not essential so it's not the end of the world if we lose this!
This is the idea that I had. Leaning much more into a broken plan idea, and blocking the original lounge off for a private lounge, maybe using under the stairs for a small WC... Then I can still get additional storage in the entrance hall and my bench! Then in the extension, we would create a 'butler pantry' type space. This would mean that the corner of the original house would sit on the upper right corner of this butler's pantry space so we don't need this huge RSJ's as they can sit on the corner of the original footprint (if that makes sense). In here can be a utility come pantry, then we would have a banquet seating type area come off the kitchen peninsula island which had a wonderful outlook out front.
2 years agoSomething different: A 2.5m side extension, an enclosed porch and kitchen moved.
No utility space, but with a second bathroom upstairs, consider removing the bathtub (small shower perhaps?) The hallway storage space in the drawing is 75x115cm and next to the stairs is 90x150cm (wc?). Fire regulations would likely require you adding a kitchen door because of the staircase, so i went ahead and created a hallway, once the loft is on, it's more energy efficient anyway. The kitchen has its corner under the stairs, from left to right: fridge, oven, a 30cm pullout larder unit, corner lemans, sink, dishwasher, carrousel corner, hob on drawers, 30cm pullout for bottles.
Rhiannon A thanked rinked
Jonathan