Ground floor remodel

4 år sedan

Hi. We’re in the process of buying a house which needs a fair bit of work. It is unusual in that the current kitchen is in the middle of the house. We’d love to get a kitchen/diner into the back of the house, plus some sort of utility area. But struggling to see how that could work with the floorplan. Any ideas? Our original thought was to knock through the kitchen into the front living room - but it seems a huge shame to lose out on access to the garden from the kitchen/diner. Plus the light at the back of the house is great (south east facing).

Floorplan attached!

Thanks, Jane

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PRO

User

4 år sedan

Thanks for the post!

What a lovely large space you could have!

As an idea we would concentrate on the wrap a round or side infill extension at rear! they are a really popular choice,

have a look at some examples:

Nuhous Team

www.nuhous.co.uk

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Kommentarer (36)

Jonathan
4 år sedan
I would move the kitchen into the back room and divide the bathroom to create an upstairs utility/ laundry room
Jane thanked Jonathan
Maths Wife
4 år sedan
Yes, you're right it's not the best layout. The kitchen would have originally been the dining room, and the kitchen out the back in the first little square.

I worked purely on the dining / kitchen area, so have left your lounge off the plan. I'd go for something like this:-

If you want a little living area at the rear, then you need to be creative with the dining area, and this is a popular arrangement at present:-

You can also make the Utility larger or smaller depending on whether or not you fancy a full bathroom or just a downstairs toilet.
Jane thanked Maths Wife
AMB
4 år sedan
Have you considered a courtyard design? You move the kitchen into the back room (the existing dining room) and extend across to the party wall. This leaves you with a courtyard and lightwell for the middle room (you would need to get rid of that shed thing currently on the floorplan).

You could keep a utility/laundry room in the middle.

Make sure you know where your drains are as moving services and pipework can be expensive.
Jane thanked AMB
PRO
OnePlan
4 år sedan
Please remember that any options posted on this type of anonymous forum are simply starting points, for talking about and taking to the next level, with an appropriate professional - they are not cast in stone ‘this will work’ options.
I do sometimes worry that people miss out this important step ! Especially if they are avid DIYers for example ... please get things checked before you proceed with any changes .

Houzz is great as a starting point and lots of great ideas start here ! But just remember it’s just the first step !
Jane thanked OnePlan
PRO
Studio O+U Architects
4 år sedan
Ändrades senast: 4 år sedan
Jane Hello

I’m not sure if this is what you were thinking about but due to the width and length of these types of houses the arrangement can be a variation of the attached ?

With either a living and dining area next to the garden with an open plan kitchen to the rear lit from above by roof lights.

The front room can either be a second lounge, playroom or study with a utility area in-between with a separate toilet

To achieve this type of layout would imply a side extension which may be more than you were planning for but its worth bearing mind for a future consideration?

You may also be able to extend further out into the garden but this would need a review of the planning issues

Hope this helps and happy to discuss this with you

Best David
rinked
4 år sedan
Your first idea would most likely involve the least breaking through loadbearing walls. And with nice light, a lounge in the back would be lovely too, facing the garden. Added a downstairs loo and open utility. Kitchen would not be spacious enough for an island, but a peninsula with a few seats will fit just fine. Row of tall units on the left with fridge, ovens, a little bit of countertop for a coffeemachine. And I played a bit with the upstairs bathroom, but nothing too serious without knowing the measurements. ;)
Jane thanked rinked
Maths Wife
4 år sedan
Love that Studio O+U
cyqi
4 år sedan
there are plenty of ideas but at the end of the day it will still be limited how much money you want to spend... what is your budget? do you have a budget for an extension?
Jane thanked cyqi
PRO
Studio O+U Architects
4 år sedan
Yes, I was thinking that as well.

You may want to do a light touch or go all the way

Some of the things we ask our clients to consider is/ are :

1. Do you see this as your home for the next ten to 15 years or longer?

2. or is this a shorter term venture?

3. or Do you see this as a short term venture for you but your intention would be to keep and let the property when you move on?

If it's the first it often influences the quality and willingness to invest soundly and a take a long term view on the works .

Best

David
Jane thanked Studio O+U Architects
PRO
Croydon Window Company Ltd
4 år sedan
Hi, I agree with the comments above and move the kitchen to the back and create a kitchen - dining area onto the garden...
Jane
Författare
4 år sedan
Hi everyone and thank you so much for all your ideas and feedback. Yes ultimately, our budget is "only" £50k so we're definitely not looking to do a side return - but that would be lovely! Really good advice to think about how long we see ourselves there. It's not THE house but I think we'll be there at least 5-10 years. We have two small boys so we'd like it to be a good family house for these primary/secondary school years. Hence thinking of having kitchen/diner at the back with access to the garden.

Other considerations are that we (probably) need to do a full rewire and replumb, plus new bathroom, some reflooring, and there's a bit of work involved to sort some damp in a few places. So I'm not even sure what we can really achieve with the 50k - perhaps we have to do the original option of keeping kitchen in the middle/front as it involves less moving of services/removing walls etc.
Maths Wife
4 år sedan
Although the Architects have come up with some wonderful designs, they may be a bit costly for you.

Both mine and Jonathan's ground floors should only involve taking down to non-load bearing internal walls, then the building up of a new one to divide the downstairs toilet / bath from the Utility. So, it's the cheapest option. The moving of the water supply to the kitchen and connecting to mains drain should also be relatively easy as they are both very close by.
PRO
Studio O+U Architects
4 år sedan
Maths

Given Jane's current budget and scope of the other items I would agree whole heartedly.

I think the rewire and re-plumbing will also be a fair percentage of a budget in that order, so a more frugal approach is advisable in this case.

Architects hey:) what dreamers:)

Still I'm sure the input has been useful to Jane.

A tutor of mine at Bath University once said " Sometimes by exploring the improbable we arrive at the plausible"
rinked
4 år sedan
Oh my.. 50K is gone before you know it.. We've spent €30k just on all diy (insulation in floors-walls-ceiling, plasterboard+plaster, full bathroom, wiring, some structural changes, 5 pvc windows, some tools, loads of screws, caulk and paint)

My advice with kids is to tackle the bathroom, bedrooms and moist first.
cyqi
4 år sedan
with your budget and fare bit of DIY, you can still move the kitchen to the back. knock down the wall at the dinning room as they are not load bearing. add downstairs loo and utility at where the side door is. possibly combine them to save space. position the kitçhen next to the utility, then you will have all you plumbing together and not far from the existing soil pipe. dinning table at the end open to the garden. to save you do need a lot of diy. plumbing is actually the easiest to do. just spend a bit more on push fittings. fitting kitchen is easy too. we bought ours bespoke kitchen on eBay with all appliances for less than £1000, spent a weekend to fit. you do need a bit of imagination and planning skills if going through this route though. maybe difficult timewise if you have young kids.
cyqi
4 år sedan
you can also opt for not knocking any wall but just add a loo and utility to the downstair middle room next to the dinning, but I will prefer to reposition to get a large kitchen dinner and a smaller utility and loo. upstairs you can borrow some space from the existing large family bathroom to create ensuite if you fancy. both won't cost too much to do. if you are not planning to replaster the whole place, just dry line the new walls and pitched up the ceiling. not difficult to do on DIY and save loads. I did it with my extension when I was 40 months pregnant, lol. you won't notice the difference from plastering. cost 1/10 while not even builders can tell the difference
rinked
4 år sedan
That must have been one massive baby, cyqi ;)
cyqi
4 år sedan
haha, almost 10lb!
PRO
OnePlan
4 år sedan
ouch !
cyqi
4 år sedan
yesterday's old house new home very similar to yours. but that was £100k.
rinked
4 år sedan
LOL, so was mine (9.8lb, a little over 22"). But 40 months pregnant? ;) ;)
cyqi
4 år sedan
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><md>hahahaha, did not even notice, should be weeks
Jane
Författare
4 år sedan
Hi all. Thanks again for the further posts on this. Yes, with 50k we'll have to be a bit cunning. Guess it all comes down to getting quotes on the two options of knocking either middle to front or middle to back, and seeing how we can best make it work. Just out of interest - do you think it matters one way or the other, whether you go for putting the dining table at the rear by the doors, or further in as per Jonathan's drawing? (My husband has "a thing" about not wanting to put a dining table too close to the back doors onto the garden as he feels it will block access, but there's not much you can do about that, I feel!). Also, Maths Wife, you mention two non-load bearing walls but I would have thought the one between current dining and "breakfast room" area would be load bearing?
PRO
Go Glass Design Ltd
4 år sedan
Hi Jane, Glass is a great product to use to get light and space into property's and we have a lot of frame less glass systems to achieve this. On our website we do have some nice images of projects that we have worked on with clients, and they may give you some ideas that could work on your home. www.goglass.co.uk.
Jonathan
4 år sedan
Personally I prefer the kitchen near the garden. I think it’s a nicer place to cook and it is safer as it moves cooking away from a through fare
Jane
Författare
4 år sedan
Thanks. Food for thought (!).
PRO
OnePlan
4 år sedan
Move in - live with it for a few months - maybe even a full year so you can see how the light changes in winter too - then - start to consider and plan a revamp ... by then you might have saved a bit more too ???
Jane thanked OnePlan
cyqi
4 år sedan
Jane, the wall looks no load bearing to me. to be sure check the direction of the floor joists or floor board. if the joists are in the short length direction (from left end wall to the right end wall), they are not load bearing. if you can not look at the floor joists but have floor board, they are perpendicular to the joists.

whether to put dinning table at the end of the room I think is more than personal preference. it will also depends on how you are going to layout your kitchen, whether you want an island, size and direction of the island, size and shape of the table, etc. your current back room is just about to squeeze 900mm width island is the long direction, only leave 830mm walking space. a lot of things to think about.
Jane
Författare
4 år sedan
Thanks OnePlan, I know you're right. Just getting excited! And yes Cyqi, lots to think about! I've come up with a new idea today which is feeling feasible. Any thoughts welcome! (Fridge is at No. 9, just a small one as could put a bigger one in the utility...). Doesn't give 1.2m between facing units though, only 1m. Still gives plenty of room for access to garden.
PRO
OnePlan
4 år sedan
Ahh a it’s good to be excited about a new home ! And great to get planning too - but it’s good to see how the home changes over the seasons and that way you can make changes that make the most of the things you can’t change !
It’s probably your biggest asset and need updating in the most effective way to be a long term improvement!
Max M
4 år sedan
Hello

A bit late to the party, congrats on your new home. I noticed it’s very close to me - I’m SE23 - and very similar footprint. Thought I’d share the floor plan of our house as it includes kitchen (with dining space) at the rear & it’s lovely to eat with garden doors open in summer. We also have shower room downstairs, but you could omit shower & include washing machine (continent all seem to have the machine in the bathroom but not sure if there are regs against that in UK - I am no expert). We have used the second, smaller reception as TV / snug & the front room (will be!) a sitting room.

Hope helpful!
Jane thanked Max M
Jane
Författare
4 år sedan
Hi Max, this is really interesting, you have exactly the same layout (pretty much). Thanks for posting! We've come to the conclusion that we're going to put the kitchen at the back, in a ver similar layout to yours. But I think we'll need the area you have as a downstairs shower to be part of the kitchen too. I'm impressed that you've fitted it all in to a room 5.5m in length - does it feel cramped at all? I didn't know there were houses with this same footprint in SE23, I've been trying to find others like it in my area but not having much luck so this is great to see - I'd love to know which road if you don't mind letting me know? Thanks, Jane
Max M
4 år sedan
Hi Jane, no problem. Against my better judgement, I have taken photos of our very untidy kitchen for you to see. It doesn’t feel overly cramped to me, it’s a decent sized table but I wouldn’t say it’s as roomy as a stand alone dining space. The house was newly renovated when we bought it which was a blessing & a curse. If I were designing it now, I would lay it out differently & choose different materials for everything (from the white pvc windows to the engineered wood floor, black granite workshop & cream gloss cupboards!). But that is another challenge & I intend to write my own post at some point to consult the interiors experts on how to make it feel more homely!

We are one of only a handful houses of this style and size on Cranston Road. I’m so curious to know what the others look like inside & how they have used the second reception space. I think several have knocked them through which in my opinion creates a corridor that is slightly tricky to use. Anyhow, leave you with these pics for now - please excuse the mess!
Max M
4 år sedan
PS having a nightmare figuring out where to store coats & shoes in the super narrow hallway so if you come up with any bright ideas let me know!! I would love to put organised storage under the stairs but we have our meters & fuse boxes there which I’m not planning to move...
Jane
Författare
4 år sedan
Hi again. Now that we're in the house and can see what we might want to do, we've realised we really like having a family living area at the back of the house with access to the garden, but would love to open up to the kitchen. We feel like we have two options:

1. Knock through 2 walls to open the current breakfast area into the back room and create a kitchen diner, which would mean less family space at the back of the kitchen than at the moment. Then block off the current kitchen from the current breakfast area to create a separate utility area and downstairs toilet. (Pic 1). This option means blocking up the current side door in the breakfast area, and moving it to where the window is in the current kitchen. Not sure if this would be a problem.

OR

2. Keep the kitchen where it is, knock through the same two walls and then have one huge long space. But no option for separate utility here. (Pic 2).

Anyone have any thoughts? It feels like option 2 would mean the kitchen might feel a bit far away from "the action" - and yet would mean a really big family area at the back past the dining table. But no separate utility to keep washing machine noise down, hang washing up etc. I guess we need to work out priorities - family space versus ease of washing etc!! I realise what a ridiculous first world problem this sounds like!