Converting a 1 bed flat into a 2 bed.

anewloginapparently

Hi all,

I currently own a 1 bed tenement flat in a reasonably nice part of Glasgow (Southside) that I bought a few years ago before the market went crazy. 

Recently my partner moved in and we're thinking of having a child.

The only trouble is that property has gone crazy around here, with a 2 bed tenement flat now going for well over £200k, out of our budget, and usually for way above home report (for those not familiar with the Scottish system that's the amount a mortgage company will lend you so you'll need to find the extra yourself). 

I'm really not ready for a move to the far flung suburbs so the other option is to rejig the layout of my flat so that it becomes liveable for the next decade, even if a child does come along. 

I've attached a floor plan of the flat and have had a couple of ideas so far and was wondering about both the difficulties in doing so, any pitfalls, and the likely costs. 

Just for additional information it's a ground floor flat with a large subfloor basement (that's not floored). This is approximately 6 foot deep at the back of the property. And being a tenements it's the equivalent of a flying freehold so no leaseholder to ask permission (albeit would need building regs for any structural work obviously). 

The flat is 54 sq m.

The ideas I have had are:

a) - move kitchen into living room recess, knock kitchen and bathroom together into second bedroom, create smaller bathroom from chunk of one of the two bedrooms. 

b) - subdivide the front room into 2 bedrooms - although these would either be very narrow, or the second bedroom would be internal and not have any natural light (aside from glass bricks). 

c) - there's a lot of hall in my flat - could this be better utilised?

Grateful for anyone with any advice, or experience of doing similar. 

Doozergirl

Do you have the ability to get waste water out of the other side of the flat? 

Any option to get a window in the bathroom?   I presume not.  

That is a very difficult layout to work with.  

Have you had your flat valued?How much equity do you have?  Presumably you got your mortgage on one income - surely your partner moving in will increase your mortgage power?  Rates are low, perhaps a long fix and longer term mortgage is an option to help keep costs down.  

The work you're looking at isn't going to be cheap and I'm not convinced that either is a particularly saleable version of a two bed flat - with option 1 being outright dangerous for a child.  

GDB2222

Looking at the bottom plan, Bedroom 2 would need a window. Apart from that, it is probably not a great deal of work to create some partition walls, although there’s always more work than you expect by the time you add electrics and changes to the heating.

anewloginapparently

Doozergirl said:

Do you have the ability to get waste water out of the other side of the flat? 

Any option to get a window in the bathroom?   I presume not.  

That is a very difficult layout to work with.  

Have you had your flat valued?How much equity do you have?  Presumably you got your mortgage on one income - surely your partner moving in will increase your mortgage power?  Rates are low, perhaps a long fix and longer term mortgage is an option to help keep costs down.  

The work you're looking at isn't going to be cheap and I'm not convinced that either is a particularly saleable version of a two bed flat - with option 1 being outright dangerous for a child.  

Hi,

Yeah no issue getting waste water to the front. There's enough of a slope to the outlet at the back as the tenement was not built on level land and so there is a big subfloor cellar. I just had the washing machine moved to the hall off the cupboard actually. 

How about something like this... Seems to be a better layout but could involve more moving walls. 

anewloginapparently

Doozergirl said:

Have you had your flat valued?How much equity do you have?  Presumably you got your mortgage on one income - surely your partner moving in will increase your mortgage power?  Rates are low, perhaps a long fix and longer term mortgage is an option to help keep costs down.  

The work you're looking at isn't going to be cheap and I'm not convinced that either is a particularly saleable version of a two bed flat - with option 1 being outright dangerous for a child.  

The flat is worth about £125,000 as it is. I have about £45000 equity in it. 

2 years ago you could get a 2 bed around here for £135,000 to £150,000. Now they're going for well over £200k but the main issue is they're often going for £30 to £45k over the home report value. 

My partner just finished her masters so is still looking for work and doesn't have any equity/savings of her own. 

Doozergirl

anewloginapparently said:

Doozergirl said:

Do you have the ability to get waste water out of the other side of the flat? 

Any option to get a window in the bathroom?   I presume not.  

That is a very difficult layout to work with.  

Have you had your flat valued?How much equity do you have?  Presumably you got your mortgage on one income - surely your partner moving in will increase your mortgage power?  Rates are low, perhaps a long fix and longer term mortgage is an option to help keep costs down.  

The work you're looking at isn't going to be cheap and I'm not convinced that either is a particularly saleable version of a two bed flat - with option 1 being outright dangerous for a child.  

Hi,

Yeah no issue getting waste water to the front. There's enough of a slope to the outlet at the back as the tenement was not built on level land and so there is a big subfloor cellar. I just had the washing machine moved to the hall off the cupboard actually. 

How about something like this... Seems to be a better layout but could involve more moving walls. 

Absolutely not!! 

Apart from it being a ridiculous use of the space and horrendous to live in 😬, the more work you do, the more it costs - you're going to head towards the cost of the two bed flat with that.  Everything needs doing - the whole flat gutted, basically - rewiring, blah...  and for this work you need cold hard cash or a loan that will be far more expensive than a new mortgage.  

I think you should probably have a chat with a mortgage broker once your other half has a job.   A small child can sleep in with you for a couple of years and given that this baby is yet to be conceived, we're talking three years before you get desperate.  

If you are desperate beyond that point then I would swap the lounge to the front room with an open plan kitchen, sleep in what is now the lounge and convert the kitchen into a mini bedroom off yours - with a window.  Someone else can use it as a dressing room in future.  

I suspect that the room with the bay would actually make the better day room anyway.  

Priorities change when you have kids too - gardens become important, as do catchment areas and being close to family sometimes.  

theoretica

anewloginapparently said:

Something like this option - with a temporary room divider - would tide you over for a year or three. 

rach_k

You say you're not really ready for a move to the suburbs, but have you considered how having a child might change that?  

It could take a year to have the baby and then sharing a bedroom for a year would be a perfectly normal thing to do (and positively recommended for at least 6 months). Your bedroom is a nice size to have a nursery area, then toddler space.  You could use suitable furniture or room partitions if you wanted.  By the time you've been parents for a year, suburbia may seem more appealing.  If you give yourselves a year before trying for a child, to make sure it's really what you want and you're happy living together, you're looking at 3 years+ before you'd need another bedroom.  

We ended up living in a one bedroom flat until our first child was 2 (we got stuck after the financial crisis).  The layout and size was very similar to yours and it was fine, but by the time she was properly running around we were definitely ready for more space - not more rooms, more space.  Moving a bit further out was a good move.

weeg

You'll need a building warrant whatever you do. And I'm not seeing any options I could bring for much under £20k, and that £20k wouldn't necessarily make your flat worth any more than it is now.

A 1m wide bathroom is too narrow, you'd be constantly bumping yourself off the loo.

Subdividing the front room makes most sense financially, and I'd be putting the kitchen there if you can run the pipes reasonably easily. Kitchens in recesses are pretty common in tenements and not massively off putting to buyers. People tend to hate and be put off by 'rooms' without natural light.

On the plus side, none of your thought look particularly onerous from a structural point of view. Most tenement joists run front to back, but yours might be one of the unusual ones judging by the floor plan.

There's rather a lot of compromise to be had between suburbia and Shawlands. And I say this as someone who lives in a 3 bed flat worth about £150k and walks to work in the city centre.

TELLIT01

Moving the kitchen and bathroom from one side of the flat to the other would be the most expensive, and potentially difficult option.  I assume you would have to get permission from the freeholder.

Rosa_Damascena

rach_k said:

You say you're not really ready for a move to the suburbs, but have you considered how having a child might change that?  

It could take a year to have the baby and then sharing a bedroom for a year would be a perfectly normal thing to do (and positively recommended for at least 6 months). Your bedroom is a nice size to have a nursery area, then toddler space.  You could use suitable furniture or room partitions if you wanted.  By the time you've been parents for a year, suburbia may seem more appealing.  If you give yourselves a year before trying for a child, to make sure it's really what you want and you're happy living together, you're looking at 3 years+ before you'd need another bedroom.  

We ended up living in a one bedroom flat until our first child was 2 (we got stuck after the financial crisis).  The layout and size was very similar to yours and it was fine, but by the time she was properly running around we were definitely ready for more space - not more rooms, more space.  Moving a bit further out was a good move.

Agreed. Or put the flat up for rent and rent a bigger place yourselves.