Converting a 1 bed flat into a 2 bed.

weeg

TELLIT01 said:

 I assume you would have to get permission from the freeholder.

Not in Scotland. We buy the freehold with the property here.

anewloginapparently

Thanks for the feedback, especially Weeg. Very helpful to know that it would be around £20,000 for the refurb needed to completely rejig the flat - agree that it wouldn't be a good investment but it's good to know the options. 

Agree the best solution is to remain where we are, maybe moving the kitchen and creating a nursery room from the current kitchen - off the bedroom. Will look into the cost of that. 

Maybe down the line a 2 to 3 bed place within inner Glasgow will be more affordable. I still don't want to move to the wilds of Pollok or East Kilbride come what may though (no offence to those that do, but it's not for me having grown up somewhere similar). 

Doozergirl

anewloginapparently said:

Thanks for the feedback, especially Weeg. Very helpful to know that it would be around £20,000 for the refurb needed to completely rejig the flat - agree that it wouldn't be a good investment but it's good to know the options. 

Agree the best solution is to remain where we are, maybe moving the kitchen and creating a nursery room from the current kitchen - off the bedroom. Will look into the cost of that. 

Maybe down the line a 2 to 3 bed place within inner Glasgow will be more affordable. I still don't want to move to the wilds of Pollok or East Kilbride come what may though (no offence to those that do, but it's not for me having grown up somewhere similar). 

That isn't what weeg said though, weeg said they couldn't see an option that would cost much less than £20k  😬  

I'm minded to agree.  

Bendy_House

anewloginapparently said:

As others have said, for the sake of a - what? - 4 or 5 year change in circumstances (and longer would also be quite manageable), sectioning off part of your gloriously-large bedroom to provide a nursery-come-single bedroom would be minimal cost, and easily reversible. 

I would, however, make the main partition wall translucent in some way - clear or textured glass, windows or glass blocks.

You are clearly unlikely to be staying in this flat longer term than that, so this is all you need to do.

All the other options are far too compromising, and/or far too costly.

anewloginapparently

Bendy_House said:

anewloginapparently said:

As others have said, for the sake of a - what? - 4 or 5 year change in circumstances (and longer would also be quite manageable), sectioning off part of your gloriously-large bedroom to provide a nursery-come-single bedroom would be minimal cost, and easily reversible. 

I would, however, make the main partition wall translucent in some way - clear or textured glass, windows or glass blocks.

You are clearly unlikely to be staying in this flat longer term than that, so this is all you need to do.

All the other options are far too compromising, and/or far too costly.

Good call thanks. 

Bendy_House

You may even decide to leave it like that when it comes to sale time, suggesting it could be a walk-in wardrobe, or pretty much anything else. Whilst also making it clear it's easily removable - self-supporting walls.

(I'd factor in ventilation too as it'll be a nursery - eg an adjustable vent grille high and low. Also useful as a wardrobe - helps keep things aired.)

Doozergirl

Bendy_House said:

You may even decide to leave it like that when it comes to sale time, suggesting it could be a walk-in wardrobe, or pretty much anything else. Whilst also making it clear it's easily removable - self-supporting walls.

(I'd factor in ventilation too as it'll be a nursery - eg an adjustable vent grille high and low. Also useful as a wardrobe - helps keep things aired.)

Do not put a door on it.  There's no way anyone should be putting a baby in what is effectively a cupboard. It's against building regulations.  The 'ventilation' should be a blatantly open side.  

All of this chat, but children stay in parent's bedrooms all of the time.  It doesn't even need the wall, the OP and partner should really just focus on the plan to get them out of the flat in about three years time.  

warby68

You also have a living room which could be slept in if needed some of the time for illness/poor sleep etc

I really wouldn't bother with much - I'm with Doozergirl, direct your resources to a next move in about 3 years. 

Sometimes you just can't fit a square peg in a round hole. None of the options are particularly cost effective or improve your living space and what IS possible is expensive without adding much value

Section62

warby68 said:

I really wouldn't bother with much - I'm with Doozergirl, direct your resources to a next move in about 3 years. 

With that in mind it is worth considering the difference between getting a mortgage as a professional couple (no children) vs getting a mortgage as a couple (or single parent) with 1 (or more) dependent children.

I also agree with the various comments about that floorplan not being suitable for the proposed conversion - and particularly with the comments about the inherent risks/unsuitability of some of the suggested plans.  No child should ever sleep in a windowless cupboard.

phoebe1989seb

If you really want to make changes (and can afford to do so), the most obvious one imho, is putting the kitchen at the far end of the living room to free up the existing kitchen as a small bedroom/nursery. But, having moved the kitchen into a different space (and reconfigured much of the remaining property) in our current very old house, I can speak for it not being a cheap or easy process....and that was with builder DH doing majority of the work 🙄

Our first - owned - Victorian semi-basement flat, many years ago was a similarly challenging space to yours OP, purchased before we had DS. The humongous living room had the only bedroom leading off the rear, through an arched entrance with double wrought iron gates 😮 This was a windowless 'room' with space only for a double bed and wardrobe at one end. You literally had to squeeze around the bed to get into it, space was so tight!

Once DS was born, we had his changing unit outside the bedroom behind a screen separating the space from the main living area. His moses basket just fitted along one side of our bed, virtually touching bed and wall, but for the most part he slept in the bed with us.

Although we could have reconfigured the whole flat to make it work better for us as a family of three, while I was pregnant we instead made the decision to move and purchased a three bed house which we moved into when DS was just six weeks old.

However, the price difference between a one bed flat and three bed terraced house (also Victorian) was huge. The flat sold for around £35k, the house was £65k. We were extremely fortunate in having the bank of mum and dad to help us out 😉

The work (and cost) involved to alter the space, in our case wasn't worth it as - whilst the square footage itself was enough - the existing floorplan with the windowless bedroom needing swapped with the small kitchen, still wouldn't have given us a second bedroom. 

Tbh, with hindsight I'm surprised it was even able to be marketed/sold as a one bed with no window in the bedroom 🙄