can anyone help with renovation ideas?

twopointfour1980

Hi all

First post to the forum so please be gentle! And I'm sorry it's a bit lengthy but I've seen so many good posts and help on here I wanted to see if anyone could help us.

My partner and I have lived in our house for 4 years with a 3 year old daughter and 4 year old son. We always said that by year 10 we would renovate or move.
There are things we love about the house and things we don't. The area we live in is a big plus and we have good neighbours and friends and kids friends are walk away.

We have some ideas of what we could do to renovate on the ground floor and top but really need some perspective and thoughts about economics also. If we come up with a viable plan then we know we have something to save towards, otherwise money goes towards new house savings

I'll start with the ground floor. We would love an open plan kitchen diner. The kitchen is a walkway really with nowhere to sit and the dining room is a converted garage. The Gym and utility room areas are an extension. 

In an ideal world, we would like to knock through the wall between the dining room and gym/utility room and move the cloakroom to under the stairs (next door have done that so we know there is room but would need to run a waste pipe from the front to back of the house). This wall is the original external wall of the house. Can we even do this? We are prepared to accept that there might be columns required but appreciate it's one whole side of the outside wall.
Effectively, we would like the kitchen space, cloakroom, inner lobby, gym and dining room to be open plan. The utility room will remain as just that and pantry.  

I'm open to other ideas including the idea of moving the stairs to gain more space. 

The wall between the living room and study is a stud wall partition from the old owners. It was all part of the living room originally so could knock that down and bring the living room forward to recover space at the back. The study space is currently used as a playroom which is a good space for the kids. The bit at the top of the living room is an extension.

See floor plan below and then i'll follow up with 1st floor




So, top floor. We currently occupy the top right bedroom at the back of the house. The kids share the bottom left bedroom (their choice) with bottom right bedroom being a guest room and top left bedroom being another playroom (I know, the kids get way too much space!) We know they will need their own rooms at some point. 

 In an ideal world we would like an en-suite bathroom so this would mean sacrificing a bedroom (would do this only if staying long term) to re-work the upstairs. I guess this links in with the idea of potentially moving the stairs to make some room - although I do like a good landing in a house, if for no other reason than it's good to hang towels! 

We are in a detached house. The idea of extending up on the 1st floor at the back could be an option to get space for an en-suite. We wouldn't want to lose ground floor space in the garden as it's where our patio is before it drops down to the rest of the garden so I like the idea of a stilted extension.  Other option would be a 2 storey extension but keep the bottom really open with glass and same flooring in and out so you can 'feel' like you're outside.






I appreciate that's lots to digest and i really appreciate any feedback or ideas anyone may have as there could be something really obvious we have missed!

Many thanks

sugar-walsh

Hi!
If it were my space I would look into knocking the wall from the kitchen to the living space out, and removing the stud to the study. I'd extend my kitchen into the living space and make one lovely big family space. You could then remove some doors to allow for more wall space. I'd probably make a pantry in part if the original kitchen and use the dining space as a lounge/snug/playroom. (Whatever suits you). I'd not bother moving the loo.  I'd consider having a spare room set up in the gym space if that's not used as a gym, if you need another room. 

Upstairs I'd take part of the room you're in and create an ensuite (next to exsiting bathroom) and provably add laundry facilities (far easier to have washing upstairs in my opinion). I'd knock through to the front room and create a lovely dressing area, making a master suite. I wouldn't extend, you have plenty of space. I know plenty of people would keep the extra bedroom, but I say do what's best for you.

Hope that helps.

twopointfour1980

Thanks sugar-walsh

That's not an idea that I'd thought of before. Moving the kitchen in to the living space would certainly be easier from a renovation perspective and would create a good space. Do you have any ideas as to how you would arrange that space? The black box icon in the living room is a wood burner that could be nice for the space.
We'd like to open up the current kitchen back wall with doors that lead straight out on to the patio. 

Regarding the upstairs, I like the idea of moving into the other room but only issue would be that the top left bedroom is quite small so wouldn't be suitable as a kids room. We could split the other two rooms more evenly but the only issue would be moving the door down on the bottom left bedroom as it would be over the stair void.

I'd like to think that the kids had enough space growing up into teenagers if we stayed. One idea was that we put a new bathroom in where the top left bedroom is and then convert the current bathroom in to an ensuite for our bedroom.  

markin

If its used as a gym and utility room i can't think why you would want them opened up, Both are noisy places.

Its the kitchen, living room and study that would seem the obvious choice.

sugar-walsh

Sorry, terrible drawing, and oce not worked sizes etc out, but something like this.

Kitchen in extension end. I don't like corner units, but if you do, you could have a u shaped kitchen. Dining table and seating area could be swapped, or dining table could go in current kitchen if you have space to access your new doors. 

Kids in 2 front rooms, back room for you, top left corner for family bathroom, existing as your ensuite.

twopointfour1980

markin said:

If its used as a gym and utility room i can't think why you would want them opened up, Both are noisy places.

Its the kitchen, living room and study that would seem the obvious choice.

Thanks markin. Another option for living room and study then. We would lose a bit of width compared to the other option is one thought.

I should have been clearer on this drawing as it's the floor plan from when we bought the place. We don't use the gym as a gym. We put extra kitchen units in there for storage and also has our fridge in it. 
The utility room is used as my toolroom at the moment for storage until we get a better shed. 

twopointfour1980

Thanks sugar-walsh. Can't quite make it out - are you keeping the kitchen where it is currently or is it an island in the living room? 

sugar-walsh

Sorry, my poor husband has.to interpret my scrappy drawings all the time.

Move the kitchen to the extension in the living room. Either as a u shape or galley.  Put some storage/pantry in the existing kitchen, opposite the space you want doors to the garden.

Does that make sense?

twopointfour1980

sugar-walsh said:

Sorry, my poor husband has.to interpret my scrappy drawings all the time.

Move the kitchen to the extension in the living room. Either as a u shape or galley.  Put some storage/pantry in the existing kitchen, opposite the space you want doors to the garden.

Does that make sense?

Makes sense perfectly. I still rate your drawing skills well above mine -  i think i've just about mastered how to draw round my hand!

sugar-walsh

Hahaa. I'm honestly so shocking at it, which is annoying as I'm actually pretty good at imagining spaces, how they work, and how they will look design wise. 

I hope it helps to consider that side instead of the other.