Upstairs Remodelling

somethingcorporate

Thanks for reading, I wanted some thoughts on our remodelling plans if anyone has an opinion.

We live in a 4-bed semi and have spent the last year remodelling downstairs. It is now almost entirely open-plan kitchen/living/dining room and we have just converted 3/4 of a long garage to a family room and have around 60sq mt of space across these two rooms (plus utility room and downstairs shower room).

Upstairs is a different story, we have 1 decent sized double bedroom (master) with en-suite, 2 small doubles (one is a playroom and one my daughters room) and a small single bedroom which we use as our office. Given the size of the bedrooms the house feels quite unbalanced and the playroom under-utilised. It is all quite squeezed up here and have come up with an idea to make the rooms larger and space a bit more efficient (as was originally developed organically as extended twice).

Current and proposed plans on link: https://ibb.co/dEZGfF

- Move from 4 to 3 beds, moving the office into the larger bed 3 (with the 3rd bed being a play/guest/office).
- Move en-suite next to existing bathroom and give floorspace to daughters room. If we are smart with the plumbing this would also allow us to add a small toilet/sink to her room at a later date.
- Move hallway to extend bed 3.
- All walls we plan to move are stud-work so should be relatively straightforward. The solid walls are being left in place.

Whilst this should rebalance the house and roomsizes my concerns are as follows:

- 3 beds, large impact on price/attractiveness even though the bedrooms would be much bigger?
- Hallway would be very small.

For context: we have one child and cannot have any more and plan to stay in this house for at least ten years if not longer - it is ideally located for school, town and the train station. We would have room in bed 3 and the downstairs family room for guests.

All thoughts/criticisms/advice welcome.

SoCo

Doozergirl

A small hallway may not such a big deal.

Reducing from 4 to 3 bedrooms is going to make a difference to the acheivable price. Three bedrooms with a large amount of downstairs living space may also feel unbalbaced, simply because fanilies generally expect upstairs to match down in terms of floorspace.

That said, if this is a long term home then you should do what you want to live with and pay less attention to future residents.

Ideal is to find a compromise that doesn't move walls too much and might allow people to move it about themselves too.

The floorplan looks a bit awkward. The purple room is essentially containing a corridor itself to make the main hallway smaller.

Ultimately, your family set up means always having a spare room.

Personally, I would open up bed 4 to be a dressing room, which automatically gives you more space as it empties your bedroom for just a bed and maintains the position of the ensuite, saving a fortune.

Your little one can have two rooms. You don't need to remodel every single room just to accommodate more space within each room.

You could knock a doorway through between her room and the spare and then she can have that - her demands will change over time and ultimately she will love a double bed in her room and a little lounge area and dressing area. My 12 year old would die for that!

ST1991

Looks good, but the rooms are a little bit oddly shaped...

If it was me i would block off the main bathroom and bedroom 4 from the hallway. Open these up via the master bedroom, to have a walk-in wardrobe following through to an ensuite.

The current ensuite could then become the family bathroom.

Of course this doesn't solve the size of the other bedrooms...

I_have_spoken

With the rise of working from home, losing the 'office' completely seems a step backwards.

Agree with the other posters that shrinking the hallway so drastically will feel strange and the odd shaped rooms may not add much usable space anyway.

>If we are smart with the plumbing this would also allow us to add a small toilet/sink to her room at a later date.<

Hmm....

somethingcorporate

Doozergirl wrote: »

A small hallway may not such a big deal.

Reducing from 4 to 3 bedrooms is going to make a difference to the acheivable price. Three bedrooms with a large amount of downstairs living space may also feel unbalbaced, simply because fanilies generally expect upstairs to match down in terms of floorspace.

That said, if this is a long term home then you should do what you want to live with and pay less attention to future residents.

Ideal is to find a compromise that doesn't move walls too much and might allow people to move it about themselves too.

The floorplan looks a bit awkward. The purple room is essentially containing a corridor itself to make the main hallway smaller.

Ultimately, your family set up means always having a spare room.

Personally, I would open up bed 4 to be a dressing room, which automatically gives you more space as it empties your bedroom for just a bed and maintains the position of the ensuite, saving a fortune.

Your little one can have two rooms. You don't need to remodel every single room just to accommodate more space within each room.

You could knock a doorway through between her room and the spare and then she can have that - her demands will change over time and ultimately she will love a double bed in her room and a little lounge area and dressing area. My 12 year old would die for that!

Thank you, yes, you raise some excellent points.

somethingcorporate

I_have_spoken wrote: »

With the rise of working from home, losing the 'office' completely seems a step backwards.

Agree with the other posters that shrinking the hallway so drastically will feel strange and the odd shaped rooms may not add much usable space anyway.

>If we are smart with the plumbing this would also allow us to add a small toilet/sink to her room at a later date.<

Hmm....

Thanks, I meant add a toilet/wc room to hers like a little "pod" type bathroom. I have stayed in a hotel where there was an open toilet in the middle of the room - bloody weird!?