1970s Bungalow Renovation - First Project - Ideas Welcome

ApartmentPrincess23

Good Afternoon. This is my first post and first project. I would love to hear people's ideas of how to adjust the layout of this bungalow to create a more open plan living space and maximise the bedroom sizes. I think it is a good idea to perhaps turn the WC into an ensuite to keep 2 bathrooms but this could also be turned into a dressing area. We are a family of two hopefully 3 in the near future. We would like ideas using the existing walls but also ideas for moving and shifting things in cost effective ways, perhaps extending the Kitchen out to meet the Conservatory and interconnecting these spaces. We want to keep the budget under £100k but want all new insides, flooring, plastering, electrics, bathrooms, kitchen. Any thoughts, advice and ideas are very welcome. Thanks all :-) 

FreeBear

Forget any idea of opening up any room in to the conservatory. You need exterior grade doors between the two to comply with building regulations. In addition, without proper doors, the conservatory will suck heat out during the winter, and may well make the house unbearably hot during the summer.

Knocking the conservatory down and replacing it with a proper extension would get over the heat issues.

Albermarle

The layout seems pretty OK as it is. If you want more space you will have to build some.
As above knocking the conservatory down and building a proper extension, so you could have a big kitchen diner open area. With all the other work planned you would have to be careful not to go over the £100K budget though.
If you did a full width extension, you could also make Bedrooms one and two a lot bigger, but that would cost a lot more than £100K .

fluffymuffy

What is the roof like? Is it needing to become master bedroom & ensuite with access stair in bedroom 3 which becomes a study?

gzoom

Looks like you have plenty of space to play with, I bet the area between the living room and dinning room is darker than a Scottish winter even in summer!! 

Unless you need space I would resist extending the foot print as all your do is reduce light in the other rooms even more. 

£100k is a decent budget for interior decorating/new kitchen/bathroom but if you are wanting to move internal load baring walls cost will quickly escalate. We started off with a similar budget but ended up spending multiple folds of that to essentially add a new dormer bedroom and remodel the interior of the bungalow. 

We totally went over the top with focusing on getting light every where in the bungalow, the cost was ridiculous but for us the change in the feel of the bungalow is transformation. These are the before/after pictures of the same corridor in the bungalow.

Rather than going out, you could go up with a dormer bedroom, with velux windows for light, and it should leave you with enough budget for a new kitchen/bathroom......Just don't make the mistake we did, and hire an architect who will come up with a 'vision' that's become very hard to ignore

Doozergirl

The WC could be an ensuite to Bed 3 - it needs to be a bit longer to fit a shower in, so I'd look to move Bed 2's door onto a 45 degree angle so it doesn't prevent the WC from becoming longer. 

Knock kitchen, utility and dining room together.  

The storage in the hall is nice but I'd like to have a separate lounge and get separate access to the kitchen/dining room, so I'd consider what could be done to get that access.  

Convert garage to a utility room, if that's what you want.  I'd be after an office to wfh so it could potentially be both.  

Buy a fancy shed for storage instead.  

If the loft is an option then that's an obvious choice.  Bathroom could move upstairs to accommodate the new staircase.  

ApartmentPrincess23

ApartmentPrincess23 said:

Good Afternoon. This is my first post and first project. I would love to hear people's ideas of how to adjust the layout of this bungalow to create a more open plan living space and maximise the bedroom sizes. I think it is a good idea to perhaps turn the WC into an ensuite to keep 2 bathrooms but this could also be turned into a dressing area. We are a family of two hopefully 3 in the near future. We would like ideas using the existing walls but also ideas for moving and shifting things in cost effective ways, perhaps extending the Kitchen out to meet the Conservatory and interconnecting these spaces. We want to keep the budget under £100k but want all new insides, flooring, plastering, electrics, bathrooms, kitchen. Any thoughts, advice and ideas are very welcome. Thanks all :-) 

Thank you all so much! Really helpful advice. We had a second viewing with a builder yesterday. We can't go into the roof as it is not pitched very high so it would use up most of our budget. We are thinking that we extend out the kitchen and remove the conservatory to replace it with a small extension. Then we change the WC to an ensuite. We are going to up our budget to get the finish we want. Just working out what to offer and if we should go for it. Thanks for all your help! :-) 

Cyclamen

We live in a bungalow with lounge/diner with a conservatory over patio doors it means the room is quite dark.  I think it would be the same for your dining room area?  
We have just saved up and are waiting to have a roof window put in.. cant review if its right thing but very excited as the room is quite dark and optimistic.

The other thing with friends who live in bungalows is widening doors for 'future proofing' or making accessible.. but im looking at this as a diabled person who uses wheelchairs/ mobility aids. 

Without the garage section this si very similar to my home and i took the wall out between hall and my kitchen (which is in same place as your living room) to amke a bigger space and get rid of dark corridor... whilst i miss the hall its so much easier for access, answering door getting deliveries etc

Mutton_Geoff

How long have you lived there? If less than a year, sit tight for now to get a better, year round, feel on how you use your home.

kipsterno1

How does the current building sit within the whole site and what is the N - S axis?

badger09

Mutton_Geoff said:

How long have you lived there? If less than a year, sit tight for now to get a better, year round, feel on how you use your home.

OP hasn’t even offered on this property yet

Thank you all so much! Really helpful advice. We had a second viewing with a builder yesterday.