Opinions on new build layout

Flick85

Hi everyone,

I’m thinking about trying to buy a new build home off plan, and am just hoping for opinions on the upstairs layout and my thoughts for how I’d use the rooms. For info, I live alone, in my late 30s and don’t expect that to change any time soon.

This house is likely to be well within my budget (I can prob go up to 100k more, if needed) but I really like the specific plot and the extra money per month would make it easier for me to justify getting a dog! I’m currently uhm-ing and ah-img about whether to go for this one, or wait and see if something nearer the higher end of my budget (and therefore bigger) comes available. But, I’m not sure I really need bigger, either?!? And extra cash to make it nice, and enjoy life a bit without worrying about finances at all, would be welcome.

My thinking is that I would use bedroom 3 as a dressing room - perhaps even knocking an arch through from bedroom 1 and blocking up the door, though I appreciate that will drop the value as losing a bedroom. I would use bedroom 2 as my office/hobby room as I’ll be working from home a lot and need a space to do jigsaws and crafty things. I’ll probably put a sofa bed in there too. And, then use bedroom 4 as my dedicated guest room. 

My question is… bedroom 4 is listed as having a size of 10’ 5” by 7’ 10”. Do you think that’s big enough for a double bed and bedside tables? If not, it probably won’t work as a guest room. I’m reluctant to use bedroom 2 for guests, because they don’t come that frequently so seems a bit of a waste!

Also, this is the downstairs layout. There’s a slightly odd space between the hall and dining area. I’d plan to turn that store room opposite into a pantry. But, what would you do with that little nook? I’m not sure about the sofa/tv idea they have gone with.



Can you see any other obvious issues with the layout? I’ve never bought off plan before, and am currently in a 2 bed flat where I’ve been for over a decade. So, just the idea of having stairs is a little overwhelming.

thanks in advance

Doozergirl

240cm or 8' is the minimum width really needed for a full double bed and circulating space/side tables. 

If a double bed could go sensibly in that room, believe me when I say that Bellway would have drawn it.   Beds 2 and 4 are decent singles but you will get a double bed into Bed 4 that is perfectly fine for occasional use.  You may have to be creative with your side table plans.    Lamps could hang from the wall to save space.  

Re: your dressing room, You're never really going to devalue a house when the bedroom is clearly there, but I would query knocking through from bed 3 because it actually doesn't give you great options for maximising storage, even if you blocked up the door. 

The best option to me would be to move the door slightly to the right so that you can get a full bank of wardrobes on the left hand wall.  The wall between the bedrooms is potentially the most valuable one.   Whilst it's nice to walk directly into your dressing room, storage space would be more valuable to me.  It's not like you're going to bump into anyone when you're naked.  

Re: downstairs, I'm not sure that the area with the sofa really needs to be anything.  I'd have a longer dining table turned at 90 degrees to theirs, so would assess what fits once I'd planned in the table.    The way they've laid it out, they're trying to maximise options to sell the house, but there's no actual room to really manoeuvre between chairs at the breakfast bar and the dining table, let alone head easily out to the back doors.  

Flick85

Thanks so much @Doozergirl, that's extremely helpful.

An occasional double bedroom is what I'm going for, so I think that could work. 

A larger dining table the other way around sounds like an excellent plan, especially as one of the things i was considering was turning that little corner where they've got a sofa into a sort of 'bar' area for my gin collection so I think that could work nicely.

Thanks again :-)

FreeBear

If the door to bedroom 4 could be moved closer to the left hand wall, that would free up a few more inches to squeeze a double bed in. The door to bedroom 3 would probably need to be shifted over as well - If these are stud walls built in situ, tweaking the door positions shouldn't make for any additional work.

As for inserting doors/openings in walls between bedrooms 1 & 3, you need to ask the builders for conformation that they are not structural. You also need to make sure there are no cables or pipes buried in the walls where you propose to create the openings. Assuming the builders haven't finished the build, now is the time to get the changes made that you want.

Doozergirl

felicityBD15 said:

Thanks so much @Doozergirl, that's extremely helpful.

An occasional double bedroom is what I'm going for, so I think that could work. 

A larger dining table the other way around sounds like an excellent plan, especially as one of the things i was considering was turning that little corner where they've got a sofa into a sort of 'bar' area for my gin collection so I think that could work nicely.

Thanks again :-)

Sorted then.   I'll wait for my house warming invitation and bring some tonic! 

scottishblondie

Is "WS" their code for build in wardrobes?  If so I would ask them to leave them out.  I had the builders leave them out of our new build as IMO they restrict the flexibility of the layout and don't really provide great storage.  I managed to get them to give me £500 towards my extras budget instead (which was well spent on the kitchen and additional sockets/wiring), and bought some nice Pax ones from Ikea that worked much better for us in the rooms where we actually wanted wardrobes.

I don't think I would knock through from 1 to 3, purely because then you've lost a wall that could be used to put a lot of storage on.  If the door could be moved a little over towards the stairs that would make storage on that wall less in your face when you walk in.  I might also consider reversing the swing of the door to open against the short piece of wall.

thegreenone

Do you need a whole dressing room? 

My thoughts are to go with @Doozergirl suggestion of moving the door of Bed 3 to accommodate a large bank of wardrobes but then use the other side as a craft/jigsaw room. 

Use Bed 4 as a dedicated office (perhaps with sofabed) - as it's overlooking the back it should be quieter and less distractions.  You can also close the door on that one at the end of the day and not be in there doing a puzzle and think 'oh, I'll just check my office emails'.  

Keep Bed 2 as a dedicated spare room.  You can use the wardrobe as overspill if necessary.

Downstairs, that nook could be Dog Corner unless he/she will be in the Utility.  And then it'll definitely be Gin Corner!

Whatever you decide, I hope the purchase goes well and you'll be happy in your new home.

Flick85

scottishblondie said:

Is "WS" their code for build in wardrobes?  If so I would ask them to leave them out.  I had the builders leave them out of our new build as IMO they restrict the flexibility of the layout and don't really provide great storage.  I managed to get them to give me £500 towards my extras budget instead (which was well spent on the kitchen and additional sockets/wiring), and bought some nice Pax ones from Ikea that worked much better for us in the rooms where we actually wanted wardrobes.

I don't think I would knock through from 1 to 3, purely because then you've lost a wall that could be used to put a lot of storage on.  If the door could be moved a little over towards the stairs that would make storage on that wall less in your face when you walk in.  I might also consider reversing the swing of the door to open against the short piece of wall.

Thanks for these suggestions. WS is “wardrobe space” - I’d have to check the spec but I don’t think they build them in as standard. Reversing the swing of the door in bedroom 3 is very clever!

Flick85

thegreenone said:

Do you need a whole dressing room? 

My thoughts are to go with @Doozergirl suggestion of moving the door of Bed 3 to accommodate a large bank of wardrobes but then use the other side as a craft/jigsaw room. 

Use Bed 4 as a dedicated office (perhaps with sofabed) - as it's overlooking the back it should be quieter and less distractions.  You can also close the door on that one at the end of the day and not be in there doing a puzzle and think 'oh, I'll just check my office emails'.  

Keep Bed 2 as a dedicated spare room.  You can use the wardrobe as overspill if necessary.

Downstairs, that nook could be Dog Corner unless he/she will be in the Utility.  And then it'll definitely be Gin Corner!

Whatever you decide, I hope the purchase goes well and you'll be happy in your new home.

Do I need one? Probably not. But, makeup is one of my hobbies, so I have a fairly substantial collection and want a fancy big dressing table….

Good points about separation of work from hobbies. Unfortunately my job has a fair amount of crossover into hobbies - “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” is a lie… “do what you love and you’ll always be working” is probably closer to the truth. So, attempts to have more separation could be useful - eg “I’m playing this game for fun” vs “I’m playing this game to analyse for work”. Hmz.

These are excellent ideas though - especially the dog corner! Interesting…

I think what all these comments have shown me, is that the space is prob more flexible than I was thinking, and that really I shouldn’t make decisions about what to do with it just yet. But, it could work well as a layout even though 2 of the bedrooms are pretty small.

thanks so much everyone :-)

Flick85

I’m having 2nd thoughts about this house… in my gut, it doesn’t quite feel right. So, I’m exploring other options and you were all so helpful before, I thought I’d post again. Hope that’s okay!

This will cost more than the other (I believe 375k rather than 320k) but that’s still quite some way within my max budget of 420k.

I know these floor plans don’t include dimensions, but this has 3 good doubles as bedroom 3 is 11’6 by 9’3”. No opportunity for a separate dressing room, but bedroom 1 is big enough for a lot of storage and a dressing table, so that’s okay.

I’d probably use bedroom 4 as an office, and the study downstairs for crafty things and put my piano in it. The only thing I don’t love about this one is the kitchen layout, which has less storage built in and no breakfast bar. But, I guess that could be fixed at a future point. 

Any thoughts on this one? Trying to work out if it’s worth the extra money. It’s also in a location closer to the town centre, which I suspect factors into the price increase. It’s at the end of a cup de sac, which I like. Plus, it’s just bigger. Ho hum.

SaverRate

felicityBD15 said:

I’m having 2nd thoughts about this house… in my gut, it doesn’t quite feel right. So, I’m exploring other options and you were all so helpful before, I thought I’d post again. Hope that’s okay!

This will cost more than the other (I believe 375k rather than 320k) but that’s still quite some way within my max budget of 420k.

I know these floor plans don’t include dimensions, but this has 3 good doubles as bedroom 3 is 11’6 by 9’3”. No opportunity for a separate dressing room, but bedroom 1 is big enough for a lot of storage and a dressing table, so that’s okay.

I’d probably use bedroom 4 as an office, and the study downstairs for crafty things and put my piano in it. The only thing I don’t love about this one is the kitchen layout, which has less storage built in and no breakfast bar. But, I guess that could be fixed at a future point. 

Any thoughts on this one? Trying to work out if it’s worth the extra money. It’s also in a location closer to the town centre, which I suspect factors into the price increase. It’s at the end of a cup de sac, which I like. Plus, it’s just bigger. Ho hum.

Personally, I prefer the layout of House 1. This one (house 2) to me just seems muddled especially with the living room being so far from the kitchen (in terms of access via the corridor). There is also no storeroom on this one. but each to their own...