Time to revive this! Having had consultations with not one but two architects (Karin & Groveraxle were both right; not very costly and money well spent) who both offered up good suggestions and helped me come up with a plan of work for the house. I have had building contractors tendering for the work and have just this morning settled on the firm I am going to use. Work on the house will begin before the end of the month and is scheduled to take 6 weeks. There will be no structural changes to the outside but a little bit inside which will give me a bigger kitchen and will open up the living space somewhat. Also master bedroom is being reworked to add an en-suite, structural reworking of hallway and cloakroom - it will look so different and yet quite evidently the same house which is what I wanted :) Lots of cosmetic changes to take place externally and internally which is the bit I have been looking forward to. You are all invited back to help me make firm decisions about paint colours, wood varnishes, light fittings, flooring type, worktop choice et al! The journey continues :)

Hi new house It looks like you are doing a really nice project and definitely as OnePlan has suggested you really need to see a professional kitchen designer. To be honest it looks like you have left it rather late! As a professional kitchen designer I suggest you go and visit 2 or 3 independent kitchen specialists, have a chat with them, see if this is the sort of project they often do. Now this is the important bit - be honest with them, tell them you want the space designed properly then get the design costed by 2 or 3 other suppliers. If they are sensible then they will suggest you pay a reasonable fee to cover their time and advice, and you get a design that's right for you and can get like for like costings - well as much as you can. You will also save a lot of time and repeating processes. In fact I had a customer in last week, they are building a beautiful German timber frame home, very modern, and they said money is tight for the internals so want to get several costings for the kitchen and other rooms. I suggested we design the space for them for a reasonable fee, they get all the alternative costs they want and then hopefully they will come back to us in the end so they will get their design fee back on the order. They emailed me yesterday and are coming in this afternoon with their house plans to discuss their requirements! New house where abouts are you in the UK? I might be able to suggest / recommend someone or company. CK

We have just completed a similar project on our home in North London. Personally, I started with our local council - are you in a conservation area? this will impact the permissions that you need etc., You can also carry out searches of past planning applications to see what neighbouring properties had approved or not. A chat with your local planning officer normally costs nothing plus he/she will def know of other properties in the road/area that have had a similar project completed. I would try and do this before you commit fully to the house. You might be surprised, there are some roads/areas that will not allow side returns. You could also book an architect for a short session say 1 hour - more to discuss ideas and approach. Your research will tell you about permitted development, so you might not need full planning permission. In our case, due to the fact we are in a conservation area we needed full planning permission for a side return, party wall, structural calcs, building control etc., We viewed a number of projects completed by architects and turnkey co's specialising in side returns and decided that we could achieve the same if not better for a lower price. We used a builder that had done work for us before and we are very happy with the results. We paid for a couple of visits from our structural engineer at key stages of the project, which saved money and helped to manage risk. You could consider this route but it depends on your level of building experience. The best advice is not to be in too much of a hurry - take your time and really get the planning stages of your project right - especially the budget and end result you want to achieve before engaging any professionals.

Thanks for the reply, don't think I'm quit at that stage yet though. Was more looking for general ideas on where cooking/dining areas could be located and how to fit in the utility and loo. Hoping that others who have done similar projects could share ideas on how to get the best layout for the space.