Home improvement/extension - which option would you go for?

casper_gutman

Slinky said:

1930s doors look like this modern reproduction

That's fairly standard for a 30s door, and similar to a house I lived in as a child, but they don't all look like that. This is an original door in our current house - excuse the low light. Mind you, some aspects of the design are a bit unusual for the decade!

I agree the doors upthread don't look original though.

DRP

SadieO said:

FreeBear said:

SadieO said: I don't think our doors are anything special to be honest, I'm not sure if they're original or how to tell. 

Post a photo - We will soon let you know if they look right.

What do you reckon? 

You may not have to change any of your doors. With our recent loft conversion (semi 1930s), We had linked alarms in every room instead. The new loft bedrooms had to have fire doors though.

Agree that these do not look like original doors and handles.

FreeBear

DRP said: Agree that these do not look like original doors and handles.

Below, a door very similar to what I have here. Slightly more ornate molding around the panels, but close enough to convey the style. The OPs doors may not be original, but the four panel style would be typical for the period.

But if the OP is happy with the doors they have, who are we to say they are wrong.

GrubbyGirl_2

Only you can decide what's important to you.  But from what you've said you are looking for extra bedroom space for "visitors" so you will be investing a lot of money in a loft conversion for a few weeks use a year.  You want your dream kitchen which you will use every day.  I had my dream kitchen, living, dining room created with the thoughts that I would still use the lounge in the evenings - I don't.  I live in the kitchen and it's perfect and I think you'll end up doing the same.  So looking at your plan you have a lounge and a dining room, look at the possibility of changing one of them into a downstairs bedroom, probably the dining room and close off the door into the kitchen.  You don't even need to make ait a full time bedroom you could put a sofa bed in there (which is what I have done).  If you've got a dream then seems a shame not to do it

SadieO

FreeBear said:

DRP said: Agree that these do not look like original doors and handles.

Below, a door very similar to what I have here. Slightly more ornate molding around the panels, but close enough to convey the style. The OPs doors may not be original, but the four panel style would be typical for the period.

But if the OP is happy with the doors they have, who are we to say they are wrong.

I don't have strong feelings about them either way really. We only bought the house before Christmas so we've not got hugely attached to anything in it yet. And a lot of it is quite tatty to be honest so we were expecting to need to replace things. I suppose if we knew for definite that the doors were original (I agree the handles definitely aren't!) we might care a bit more about keeping/restoring them. Being covered in decades of chipped and yellowing gloss paint isn't really endearing them to us at the moment to be honest! 

SadieO

GrubbyGirl_2 said:

Only you can decide what's important to you.  But from what you've said you are looking for extra bedroom space for "visitors" so you will be investing a lot of money in a loft conversion for a few weeks use a year.  You want your dream kitchen which you will use every day.  I had my dream kitchen, living, dining room created with the thoughts that I would still use the lounge in the evenings - I don't.  I live in the kitchen and it's perfect and I think you'll end up doing the same.  So looking at your plan you have a lounge and a dining room, look at the possibility of changing one of them into a downstairs bedroom, probably the dining room and close off the door into the kitchen.  You don't even need to make ait a full time bedroom you could put a sofa bed in there (which is what I have done).  If you've got a dream then seems a shame not to do it

Aaw I'm glad you got your dream! I'm leaning much more towards doing the kitchen now. I think you're totally right - I'll get so much more everyday happiness from having a lovely kitchen, than I would with the loft. And also, as you and others have said, there's other options for finding extra sleeping space for guests. I like the open archway we have through the living and dining room but you've got me thinking that we could get some freestanding room dividing screens or something to occasionally close off the living or dining room. Mainly thinking about BiL and SiL coming to stay, they could have the spare bedroom and we could screen off either of the downstairs "reception" rooms for teenage nephew to sleep...hmm I think this  might be the answer! 

Thank you so much to everyone who has taken the time to share their thoughts. I really appreciate it and you've all given me some great things to think about! Have a nice weekend all 

mi-key

I used to live in a street of identical layout houses. The neighbours over road knocked the kitchen and dining room together, and also put a 4m deep extension onto the back of this across the whole width of the house with french doors at the end and skylights in it. It made a huge kitchen / diner space and was a lot more usable than an extension along the side. 

Doozergirl

Fancy posting up a picture with the view, and one of the back of the house? 🙂