House Layout

Beckr

Hi all

We’ve had an offer accepted on our first home, just waiting for everything to go through. The property was owned by an older couple and needs a fair bit of work to update it. We are ready to get stuck in and do what we can ourselves but just looking for input on how best to rejig the layout.

It’s a 3/4 bed mid terrace.. the 4th bed is a box room. Currently the main bathroom is downstairs off the back of the kitchen. Upstairs there is a tiny ensuite to the rear 3rd bedroom which doesn’t make much sense. We’d use this as an office so if anythjng an ensuite would be better to the 2nd befroom. We’re trying to decide how best to use the space without spending loads of money. This is not our forever home but more of an investment to help us move up the ladder so we’d like to do what we can to add value. Ideally we’d be able to squeeze in a bathroom upstairs without losing the 4th boxroom but if this isn’t an option would it be better to lose the boxroom to a bathroom or keep the bathroom downstairs and retain 4 beds. The other issue is we suspect the services are at the rear as that’s where the current bathrooms are but the box room is at the front.

Downstairs we’d like to open up the kitchen and diner somehow as the kitchen is fairly small and we wouldn’t make use of a separate dining room and would love w big open plan area. But with the kitchen being sort of diagonal to the dining room not sure how doable this would be. Basically just looking for opinions of what other people would do with the layout. The floor plan is here.. i65.tinypic.com/2nbbr7m.jpg.

franklee

You got room dimensions? They aren't on the floor plan.

Is a downstairs bathroom normal for the area. If so probably not worth moving.

KL0001

All the drainage and water supply appears to be at the back of the house, if you move the bathroom to bedroom 4, I suspect you will have a fair amount of expensive work to get the waste water away and the fresh water to that room.

If downstairs bathrooms are typical of that area I!!!8217;d leave it as it is. An upstairs ensuite is a bonus.

If it were a house to live in forever I!!!8217;d consider making bedroom 3 and upstairs bathroom, loosing the downstairs bathroom to maybe extend the kitchen or change it into a utility and downstairs toilet. But this won!!!8217;t add any value, infant could well decrease it, but would make the house more functional.

getmore4less

What's the ceiling price on the street against what you paid?

Are the bathrooms and kitchen OK or are they definitely replace jobs?

it may be that leaving the layout and just doing a decoration revamp will extract the most extra value for cost/time/disruption.

Depending on sizes, bed three could become bathroom & on suite for bed 2

regig the upstairs to balance the 3 remaining rooms

downstairs bathroom becomes utility/cloak/?shower

if opening up the kitchen to back living room you can grab some of the hall as well.

Doozergirl

Block up the existing dining room door.
Put the new door immediately next to the bottom of the stairs.
Open out the hallway wall (that currently goes to the kitchen) to make the dining room much larger and open out at least some of the kitchen walls into the dining room, with advice from a structural engineer.

I wouldn't move the bathroom from downstairs, I don't think. It's a niche market but a young family on a smaller budget for the area would probably appreciate it.

An ensuite to Bed 1 would balance it. It would need a Saniflo, which isn't ideal but is fine as a second bathroom. We have one and I'd rather that than no ensuite at all.

Door in the middle of the room so the toilet goes under the window and shower is right of the door. It needs at least around 2.4 metres in length. Depending on how long the room is, the existing door to the box room could be a handy cupboard with a stud wall put up for the ensuite, rather than blocking off the door altogether.

Or no ensuite and an upstairs loo and sink in the box room. Take what you need then open up the back of it into the bedroom.

Or just knock out the box room and have a lovely big bedroom.

I think I'd prefer the ensuite and a little cupboard.

ProDave

KL0001 wrote: »

All the drainage and water supply appears to be at the back of the house, if you move the bathroom to bedroom 4, I suspect you will have a fair amount of expensive work to get the waste water away and the fresh water to that room.

I did a similar conversion in a previous house.

It was way too complicated to get a full sizes soil pipe all the way through the house, so what did was put a bathroom where your box room is. JUST a bath shower and basin there, no WC.

The WC I would put where the small en-suite is and make it accessible from the landing not through the bedroom.

That would give you an upstairs bathroom and WC without much difficulty though not everyone will like the WC being separate from the bathroom.

Mardle

I think I'd be inclined to remove the shower from the en-suite and move the door on to the landing thus making the toilet accessible for all bedrooms.

pinklady21

Downstairs, I would agree with Doozergirl, but would add, why not remove the downstairs bathroom, and give that space to the kitchen, and put in a WC cloakroom under the stairs in space that is currently kitchen? Only downside with that, is that if you shift the hall way into the dining room, you then have to pass through it to get to the WC. However..... currently you have to pass through the whole kitchen so might be an improvement.
You could go the whole hog and put on an extension full width of the rear of the house to make a large open plan kitchen / living space - but.....
Agree with others, if this is not a forever home, be mindful of the ceiling price for the area, as you may end up spending money you won't get back when you try and sell. Best of luck.

Beckr

Thanks everyone for the replies, some good options to consider here.

The room sizes are
bedroom 1 -11'5" x 12'5"
bedroom 2 -10'9" x 12'8"
bedroom 3 - 9'9" x 7'2"
box room - 4'4" x 12'6"
kitchen - 9'8" x 12'5"
dining room - 10'8" x 19'10"

The bathroom and kitchen both definitely need replacing (a lovely green suite etc going on!). House prices are going up so quickly in the area that it's hard to judge the ceiling price so we are very mindful of spending money that won't add value.

I think downstairs bathrooms are quite common in the area but currently around 8/10 of the houses are being sold to people from outside the area like us who aren't used to having the bathroom downstairs. We'd prefer to have a bathroom upstairs and thought it would give us the edge when selling but are reluctant to lose a bedroom for it, especially if we'll lose value that way, just wouldn't be worth it. With all services being at the rear we think it could be way too much hassle anyway and it seems several of you have experienced this. I think the best option for us if it is possible, would be to try and take some space from bedroom 2 to make the ensuite into shower room & WC accessed from the landing.. but this might be too tight?

Downstairs moving the door back to take some space form the hall seems to be the best option as several of you have suggested. Then hopefully we can take out most of the wall between the kitchen and dining room to have a nice open space. I'm still not too comfortable having the bathroom next to the kitchen and would love to get rid of it and have one long kitchen but if we're not moving the main bathroom upstairs then that's not going to happen. If it was big enough perhaps we could turn the bath around and block off some of the bathroom to have a little utility area front, making it feel more separate from the kitchen but i might just be getting carried away now!

Hoploz

I think I might lose the ensuite and keep the three good size bedrooms, and convert the box room into a bathroom. Perhaps consider stealing a foot off the corner of bedroom 1 to fit a bath in width wise. That would keep it a family house.

That's if the plumbing can be sorted out of course.

Downstairs I wouldn't bother fiddling with too much. Utilise the bathroom space for a dining area with doors opening onto the garden if you can? Perhaps the front section of existing kitchen turn into a utility room.

pinklady21

If you are unsure, then make a scale drawing of the house, as accurate as you can, and then make same scale drawings of each component you want to fit in - ie bath, toilet, wash basin, kitchen units etc etc.
Cut out the shapes and then place them on your plan to see what configuration works best. Ikea used to have something like this to help you plan your kitchen layout.
It worked a treat when we were planning a remodel in our house to see what would fit and how much circulating space we were left with. That space is important too, it affects how spacious the house "feels".