Jonathan, thank you for your floorplan. It's made us think about alternative layouts and splitting up the proposed study. I'd ideally like access to the shower room from the right hand side of the house as there isn't enough room on left for an exterior door unless it was sliding. I like the idea of moving the kitchen, but I feel the playroom might feel cut off from the rest of the house, and there would be a lot of spare hall down that end of the hall. It's also a north facing room which gets light through the kitchen at the moment. I wonder if we should go with the plans and just try and make the hallway feel wider (ie. remove radiator & bulky radiator cover etc), good lighting/mirrors etc. However if we have guests over, it will feel like a bit of a long single-file walk to the kitchen. Jen P- I would love to knock down that wall as it would give it more of a wow factor, but I hear it's a massive job and expensive! If we did knock it down, how would you suggest we position the kitchen? Would you run some units down the left hand wall, and then along the back wall? Thanks both for your comments.

Hi Andrew, Here is a quick sketch I came up with. You said that the north bay window doesn't provide a lot of light so that end could become a bedroom. but that does create a very cramped living area and a bathroom which is basically just off the kitchen. But if you have high enough ceilings you might be able to create a clever split height layout for a small, fully enclosed second bedroom (this should work for a 3m ceiling). These split level/low height spaces are becoming popular in the ‘Tiny house movement. By changing the bathroom around a low ceiling could be created over the toilet and bath, and then a bed could be added in the space above this and a wardrobe on the bedroom side. The bed would be reached with a ladder or built-in steps with storage under it. The area over the sink would be normal height with some storage space above. This creates a fully usable bedroom without using as much floor space but it is only really suitable as a guest or kid’s bedroom. It is definitely fair to say it's an even 2 bedroom flat. And because of the expense of the extra walls, floor and custom furniture, it’s usually undertaken by someone planning to live in the space themselves. So this may not be suitable for your case, I just thought it was an interesting and unusual idea. Please let me know what you think? And I wish you all the best with your project!! Phill

I think you have to be realistic about how bad your mobility could be. On paper this sounds like a big house because it’s 5 bedrooms but actually every room is smaller than you would expect in a 5 bed house. If you are future proofing it you need to consider if you need bigger spaces. You should consider if you would ever need wider doorways. You mention a study in a bedroom and I wonder if you couldn’t get upstairs then you wonder if you wouldn’t be able to work and earn an income. You may conclude it’s better to buy a house with fewer but bigger rooms. Alternatively you might plan to spread out into this one.

Much has happened since my initial post! Although we didn't have all of the costings yet, it is clear that they are way higher than initially thought. And there is IS a 2nd chimmey. We have kind of given up on knocking through the wall to make a L shape kitch/dinner/family area due to the huge expense remove the support wall which houses the chimney. Instead we now looking at the revised configuration below. Even with this we are now looking at further ways to reduce costs as we only have about £40k in total. As well as any building work (including associated fees Structural surveyor/Architect/Building Notice Fee, this also needs cover the following: Installation of patio in place of conservatory Clear house of floor coverings, existing bathroom, kitchen, downstairs toilet etc Erect Stud wall in existing living room Kitchen purchase and Installation of new kitchen + purchase of new appliances Purchase and Installation of new bathroom Installation of downstairs new toilet, shower and utility Laying of hard floor to lower ground floor / carpet 1st Floor Painting throughout Full garden (very overgrown) clearance Purcahse of soft /hard furnishings, window curtains / blinds, replace of 1 double glazed window and replacement of sliding patio doors. Purcahse / installation of wood burner As you can see it is quite a list. It has been getting us down recently and yesterday we even considered pulling out of the purchase. We really want to buy this house but we worry that we cannot make it into the house we would like and that we have to compromise so much that it is just not worth it. Any comments would be much appreciated.