What would you do with the downstairs of this house?

orangecrush

Opinions on a house needed from people who have more visionary brain cells than me

Vaguely interested in this house, but the downstairs just seems awkward.  The living room is tiny, and the kitchen has no worktop space, morgue-style units and an odd brick enclosure for the cooker... it just doesn't flow as a family space.  Judging from when it last was for sale, the owners have done a lot of work, but not in a way that makes the kitchen work better...

Apart from building an extension (it does look like there is lapsed planning) what else could you do? 

hazyjo

Island in the kitchen instead of a table?

Or change the entire kitchen and bring that wall back a little making the lounge longer and the kitchen smaller.
Wouldn't buy it unless I could afford to extend and lose the conservatory, make the lounge bigger, and make it a massive kitchen diner at the back.

The fact they've spent money on it means they'll prob be looking for top dollar - not realising that they've actually probably devalued it.

That is a very small lounge. I don't mind a small lounge if there's space elsewhere, but the rest doesn't work for me at all.

TBagpuss

Well, it depends what you want and how much you are prepared to spend. You could remove the units in the kitchen - it looks as though the owners  chose more storage rather than lots of counter tops - it would presumably be relatively simple to remove the floor to ceiling cupboards on the wall to the living room, and replace with cupboards and a long work surface.

However, if you feel the living room is too small, you would be looking at fairly major works - the wall between the living room and kitchen looks to be the original wall so may well be structural, and it looks as though they have retained the original chimney breasts hence the 'brick box ' round the cooker) and again that would be fairly substantial work to take out, although you would end up with more space. 
But if you don't like the layout then you may be better looking for a different property.

need_an_answer

TBH....I  would walk away from the house unless you really do intend it to be a forever home and are prepared to start devaluing the property soon after purchase.
Its clearly not been done to your taste but its been done and that will add a certain amount of value to the property.
I would look for something that needs a refurbishment rather than  your desire to refurbish it...it will be cheaper

Owain_Moneysaver

The 'odd brick enclosure' is almost certainly the structural chimney breast holding the chimney up, and can't be removed without major work, which will be why it's been left and prettified up. 

I don't think the floor plan is accurate enough to work from, but I'd move the cooker to the 'sink' end of the kitchen, perhaps one or two of those cupboards or alcove near the door could come out, and repurpose the chimney breast as a feature fireplace making it the dining end leading on to the conservatory. 

sal_III

What a dysfunctional kitchen layout...

I would probably look at knocking down the wall between the kitchen and the lounge, replacing the wall of storage cabinets with with L shaped kitchen top extension joining with the cooker or an island.

Another less painful option is to put a kitchen island where the current sink is, extending towards where the dining table is. 

Or replace the entire wall of storage cabinets with kitchen top, for a continuous work space, only losing small amount of storage space between the lower tier and upper tear of cabinets. Who needs so much storage in the kitchen honestly.... Bonus is ripping out the 2-3 disjointed pieces near the doors to the backyard.

orangecrush

Thanks everyone!  The upstairs is practically perfect for what we need, hence considering this house.  Otherwise I wouldn't... To get that upstairs with the type of downstairs we want pushes us way out of our budget. 

@Owain_Moneysaver Yes I thought that about the brick thing, as there's a chimney breast in the bedroom directly above. Those are really good ideas, thanks! 

We've done an extension on our current house and TBH I'm not sure I want to go there again with major works, but would be happy rejigging a kitchen layout... I just can't visualise it with this house for some reason! 

bouicca21

Is it badly photographed or is that kitchen diner really that dark?  Lack of light would put me off, as would those awful floor to ceiling units.  Personally I would want a more defined demarcaiton beween the cooking/preparation area and the dining area.  Frankly it looks like it has been set up for robots rather than people.

orangecrush

@bouicca21 That's exactly what's putting me off too.  But the upstairs is so good... Sigh.  I think we'll look for something else. 

orangecrush

sal_III said:

What a dysfunctional kitchen layout...

I would probably look at knocking down the wall between the kitchen and the lounge, replacing the wall of storage cabinets with with L shaped kitchen top extension joining with the cooker or an island.

Another less painful option is to put a kitchen island where the current sink is, extending towards where the dining table is. 

Or replace the entire wall of storage cabinets with kitchen top, for a continuous work space, only losing small amount of storage space between the lower tier and upper tear of cabinets. Who needs so much storage in the kitchen honestly.... Bonus is ripping out the 2-3 disjointed pieces near the doors to the backyard.

Sorry Sal I missed your reply!  I wondered about knocking through into the lounge, esp as it seems to have a woodburner, which seems overkill for a small room...

Those are really good ideas, thank you!  Will get the crayons out tonight and see what it might look like on the floorplan.

I do suspect this isn't the right house for us sadly... such a shame as the upstairs looks great!

FreeBear

sal_III said: Bonus is ripping out the 2-3 disjointed pieces near the doors to the backyard.

Depending on the size of the window to the right of the back door, swap the two round. Then brick up the external cupboard, knock down the internal wall and gain more space in the kitchen. Although, I suspect that wall may be structural and will need an RSJ, so is going to be an expensive job. But if we are fitting steelwork and knocking stuff down, remove the remainder of the chimney breast around the cooker and maximise the space.