How to plan our side extension in Victorian flat

[steffyjane]

Hi

Just wondering if anyone has any ideas on how we could extend out to the side! We are thinking of just leaving everything where it is and just pushing out 2m into the side - but that wouldn't add another bedroom, just a bigger living space. Or is it silly not to add another bedroom... Also, a concern is that it would make the existing middle bedroom very dark. One thought is to leave a tiny outside area/courtyard behind the kitchen, and just extend the lounge.
We are expecting in January and anticipating needing more space very soon!

What would you do?!
Any thoughts greatly appreciated! x

[steffyjane]

PS. The ceiling in the middle bedroom is actually about 2 feet higher than the kitchen/diner, so potentially we could put some kind of light in the wall where the difference of height is.

[lalalonglegs]

It might not add a room but it could make the space much more liveable. You could leave the wall behind the kitchen and just extend across the living area - that gap would create a lightwell for the second bedroom. If you wanted to have a smaller lightwell, then you could create a small utility room behind the kitchen area that takes up half the lightwell and is accessed by a door in the newly-widened living room. Leaving a lightwell would probably also be useful wrt your upstairs neighbours' drains as the bath/loo is usually above where your kitchen is and rerouting the soil pipe etc is a pain.

[JoeOLondon]

Definitely leave a light well/ sheltered court yard with plants will make the bedroom much nicer. Also will make the Living space feel less long and narrow. I would leave the kitchen where is and just extend across after that. You could then designate the living room as a bedroom. Then its a two bed flat with large rear living space.

[steffyjane]

Hi - Thank you so much for your replies.

We would like to extend out into the side return but a proper extension is too expensive, so we're thinking a Lean to conservatory. We'd like to knock the walls down so to make one big open lounge/kitchen/diner.

Issues are:

• the whole of the back of the house has been underpinned on piled foundations due to subsidence about 5years ago.
  
• theres a thames water shared drain is in the way towards the potential extenion area (just by the main garden). which we need to divert or build around?
  
• we'd leave a very small lightwell in the middle to allow bedroom window to stay and saves rerouting some drains.
  
• theres an existing steel rsj across the lounge, which means we either need to leave a pillar in the middle of the wall on the side, or get a new steele rsj!
  
• We would need a new steele post that can run ovedr the existing piles on the corners of the lounge. Hope that makes sense!?
  

See pic!
Any thoughts greatly appreciated!