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.

I think perhaps it may be best to be pragmatic with the flooring based on the actual space. For instance, we've had Amtico flooring in wide planks put down in our kitchen. The perfect choice would have been to run them vertically from the door. However, being an older house, the walls aren't all at right angles to each other and it would have been highlighted by the planks. So we decided on diagonally, moving away from the door to draw the eye into the room, however, because of some odd shaped steps on an angle, it would have meant that once again there would be odd slivers of plank. In the end, we had the planks running diagonally towards the steps, so there were no awkward slivers of plank anywhere. Personally, I think it's resulted in a much more interesting floor. So I would opt for the first option - diagonally, which may prove to be easier in the smaller spaces like the bathroom, which may be difficult to lay at right angles to the walls and make a much more interesting floor..

It will cost the same to put new water pipes to the extension as the existing bedroom to the right. The difference is the cost of digging drains and I suspect that if a new bathroom follows your plan and sits in the top left hand corner you will have to have a new drain across the back of the house. I think you need to establish where the drains are so that you are sure that your “practical and financial” argument for putting an extra bathroom in the extension is actually true. From experience I know there is a good chance they go down the right side of the house in which case you could save thousands. Your deeds might include a plan or you can look for outside clues such as inspection covers

Hi, funnily enough, we did originally consider that and my husband wanted to do it that way. But... the front lounge has 3m high decorative ceiling and is v large and grand and as the neighbours lounge is next to us (and they are noisy) and also the common hall entrance door to all the flats (which we would hear at all times of the day and night) we decided it would not make a very good bedroom at all, haha. By having one internally, it means it's not connected to anyone (as we are terraced house with 3 flats above ours) . I also considered putting the kitchen in there at one point and having a guest bedroom at the end of the house but it was too dark and not ideal for the fire regs (when we holiday let it out in future when we travel) Honestly, I've been through a ton of different layout ideas and this seems the least amount of work. It's not ideal the bathroom being at the other side and i would have preferred it in the middle of the two bedrooms but due to the entrance into the lounge, it's not like we can even move our bedroom back a bit to get a larger bathroom out of it. It is an awkward flat. LOL