Opinions needed on possible changes

moneysaver1978

Depending on the budget, what you use the garage for (garages these days are mostly for storage!), and planning, you could maybe convert the garage? Easiest is probably moving the kitchen:



The breakfast room is the new dining room and the old dining room could become a study. You could also knock down the wall between the "new" kitchen and "new" dining room to create a nice big airy and bright open plan kitchen/dining room.

But that depends on whether you have easy access to pipes like water waste.

If moving the kitchen isn't an option, although it is probably a bigger project and requires planning:



Opened up the wall between the kitchen and breakfast room so you have a nice island. The dark grey in the now entrance hall could be a cupboard or self-contained storage "room".

In the old entrance hall, a window replaced the front door.

Dalek01

EssexHebridean said:

So the rooms you want to spend most time in daylight hours probably need to be at the back? The people we bought our house from extended some years ago, creating a big kitchen diner at the back with doors on to the garden - in the summer, we spend almost all our time in there. The house also still has its original sitting room at the front - and that is just perfect for cosy winter evenings - it's got a fire, it's a smaller space and the outlook onto the street doesn't matter once the curtains are drawn anyway! 

Of course what we don't have here are the room sizes - or indeed the information about whether the garage is original or whether it is formed from an existing side extension? 

The garage is integrated with a bedroom above. The kitchen is 12x9 and the breakfast room is 10x7. All measurements in feet. I think I like the idea of keeping 1/3 of the garage and turning the other 2/3s into a hallway to the kitchen/office space. We could then knock the breakfast room and kitchen together, keeping the dining room separate. Or knock the wall down and incorporate the dining room too if we wanted a big space (which we probably do).

Dalek01

moneysaver1978 said:

Depending on the budget, what you use the garage for (garages these days are mostly for storage!), and planning, you could maybe convert the garage? Easiest is probably moving the kitchen:



The breakfast room is the new dining room and the old dining room could become a study. You could also knock down the wall between the "new" kitchen and "new" dining room to create a nice big airy and bright open plan kitchen/dining room.

But that depends on whether you have easy access to pipes like water waste.

If moving the kitchen isn't an option, although it is probably a bigger project and requires planning:



Opened up the wall between the kitchen and breakfast room so you have a nice island. The dark grey in the now entrance hall could be a cupboard or self-contained storage "room".

In the old entrance hall, a window replaced the front door.

Thanks for your suggestions. Your floor plans are very useful. I think our best option is to go forward with what I put in my post above. I’m the kind of person who needs a bit of a garage to store junk (!) so I don’t think I want to go for a full conversion. But where you’ve put the door on the plan above is exactly what I think I’d do.

EssexHebridean

We don't have a garage but we do have a huge shed - and that didn't take too long to get filled up with all manner of toot so yes, I can understand your position on the storage thing! 

That the garage is integral is good because it should hopefully mean less additional insulation is needed to bring it to standard for a living area. 

Definitely agree with moving the front door.  I think in the longer term in your shoes I would also spin that WC through  90 degrees to get rid of the "dead end" corridor which will be of limited use. With that in mind, I'd be looking at making the window to replace the current front door a small-ish frosted glass one.