@Victoria, Well, now that you've asked... We got planning permission for the project back in November but the first builder we asked for a quote suggested that we were wasting a lot of potential by not putting another room up there (at the top/back of the first picture). So, I revised the drawing by adding another bedroom to the rear and putting another bathroom/en-suite where the void and resubmitting for planning. After some time, the structural engineer came up with drawings and calculations for the project and the builder's quote came in @ £125k. With VAT on top of that, we just can't justify spending that much and was expecting it to be less. So, the whole project is on hold while we consider our options... Thanks for your interest.

Houzz competition I know the deadline has passed but I would like for you to see this. (The photos are not uploading properly) As embarrassing as it has been for myself and my mum; over the course of my life, I have lived in such a beautiful neighbourhood in the Blackfriars area for over 22 years and the only renovation or decoration that was done was in our kitchen by the council which was lovely. We also got a really nice gentleman to fix our blinds in the kitchen for us however only one side was done because he mentioned that the measurement was not accurate for the other window area so for months one side has been an open view which at times I don't mind, but everyone loves privacy from time to time. When it comes to the rest of the house - 1. The corridor - the walls are damaged by paint and mould so the walls feel quite rough with cracks which at times Ive hurt myself with small scratches... the corridor is sky blue but I also imagined my corridor in a yellow/magnolia colour with white borders and my mum even bought the paint but till now it was not done. 2. The doors in the corridor that lead to each room are off white and the doors don't shut properly anymore. 3. The toilet is separate to the bathroom it's really old and green colour is very boring, the toilet itself is faulty, the wall between the toilet and bathroom by the window is quite thin so it has ripped a little bit. The pipes are cracked and the mould is showing and I was thinking to get the council to wrap it up in some kind of polystyrene wrap. 4. The bathroom has ABESTOS around the window area as the ventilation is so bad and because the window is high up it is quite hard to reach to always open and close it. The bathroom was repainted white at one point but the colour didn't stay for long. Now it's mouldy and black. The pipes are bad and mouldy and the sink area is cracked around. I had an idea of painting it with the theme white and gold accessories or blue white and gold (which my mum purchased blue paint) but we never got around to doing anything. The bath itself sounds like it's about to fall through and many times there have been leaks downstairs into my neighbours flat. The council just used a cardboard/wooden barriers to cover the bath. 5. The front room had wallpaper before and was painted over. Now, on one side of the room a little bit of the wall paper is coming off very randomly as if it's shrinking (I don't remember taking off anything). The carpet was taken off completely but nothing was done to it. This area has become store space too (due to clutter and books). We have some nice brown/gold curtains which I visualised my living room to have a boutique type elegant brown/gold/cream theme. 6. Bedroom no. 1 has not been dealt with for years and so it has become a clutter room for clothes as well as the corridor. The room colour is sky blue but would love for this room to be an elegant green theme something classy for a mother. 7. Bedroom no. 2 is a baby pink room with the intention of painting the room white with splashes of colour. I started taking some things out and taking out my bed area but it's not complete as you can see by the photos. Overall this interior design is definitely needed because of how long it has taken for the decor process to be done. This is the conundrum that is needed to be solved.

Hi Natalie, This is actually a hard one. I know this was posted some time ago, but in case you are still in a conundrum about this, a radical possibility is as follows: My intial idea was to open up your back area with the following extension (detailed below), so that your family could live facing your garden. But given that you are on a busy road (unless you want to reconsider using the front reception as a bedroom which you can test by pulling your mattress in there and sleeping in it for a couple of nights), this may do the trick, if you are willing to change your garden differently than you had intially considered. Here is how to get what you want - 3 bedrooms & open plan reception space to plan a kitchen with an island / breakfast bar, lounge & dining area. Knock all the walls through from your front reception room & your first bedroom area. This will give you one huge open-plan reception space to take advantage of and configure just the way you want to include kit - dining - living. Extend the hallway through the current kitchen - dining area to the back of the flat (and slightly beyond into the extension (detailed below). Out of the rest of the kitchen dining space, you can create another bedroom that can either retain the current window or have double doors opening up onto the garden. On the left side of the garden - all the way down the length of the garden - do a 1 room extension (13'6" long x 9' wide) with large windows or sliding doors onto the courtyard garden. This will give you the 3rd bedroom you desire and also with planning permission approvals or under permitted development (must find out what applies in your area), possibly give you enough space for a small ensuite shower room too. The extended hallway into the new left-side extension should be used to create access & a door into the courtyard garden. Your court-yard garden will still then be about 13'6" x 10' (rather than 19'9 x 10' as you suggested with a 1m back extension across the rear of your house) and you can still use your side return for light. Not doing the side extension will reduce the cost significantly - and as you know getting the 3rd bedroom out of the size of the side return extension was very difficult. If you do what to also do the side return extension, you can enlarge the kit - diner converted to a bedroom, and also add a small ensuite to that room behind the other bedroom (if you retain the courtyard area on the side from the current large bedroom, past the bathroom & 2nd bedroom windows, upto the fireplace). If you do decide to use the front reception as a bedroom: You can create a lovely open-plan living - dining - kitchen in the garden extension I suggested above & the current kitchen dining area - putting in all glass (sliding or concertina) in both areas facing your courtyard garden. You can configure your kitchen - diner in one side and the living area in the other. Both areas will have full light and exposure to the courtyard, and offer indoor-outdoor living when weather is nice and doors are all fully opened - giving you an L-shaped open plan living around your courtyard. Also if you do the side extension as well, this will extend this reception area even more across the back of the house, give you more options for skylights & allow you to add a small ensuite or w/c in the side return too. The rest of the blue-print of your home would remain the same & you would use your front reception room as a bedroom. Well, hope this helps and best of luck! Best wishes,

Thanks for the advise Kate! We are blessed with great proportions and height in the hallway so the staircase will not take from room space. My husband works in construction so we are confident that is the case. We are share of freehold. Great relationship with other share so permission should be straight forward with legals, party walls etc naturally written to support. Our Nextdoor neighbour/ same flat layout as us just had planing approved for front loft conversion and moving kitchen to front bedroom. Big job 😬 for all of us neighbours but we are all pretty easy going. The finances is a major consideration. Will we be happy living here with 2 young girls in 5-10 years time. We paid top ££ for a turnkey flat. That was 6 years ago. We have since had 2 girls. Tiny kitchen and so much lost space is not ideal. Moving to a new house in this area will cost us £35-£45k stamp, moving and legal. Also the house will need work to get within our budget - likely £40k minimum. The mortgage will also be bigger…with children in the mix I find making these decisions so much harder! The project in flat will probably cost £100k.