To not want a house with this floor plan (pic included)

[Raymond1989]

In the area I want and with my budget I'm only going to get a terraced house. All the terraced houses I've seen a tiny and I feel like I'm in a prison cell.

I've found a house that's within budget and I love it! Feels spacious and is end terrace with a big park next to it. I love the area.

It feels cosy and there's still a yard for own use eventhough it's small. It's big enough to have a washing line and an outdoor table and chairs. I'm moving from a semi detached house with front and back garden but it's worth it to live in a better location.

My issue is the floor plan (see pic)

An extension has been added but to preserve some yard space it's been added in a long rectangle. This then leaves a large dining room but another lounge with no use to it!

My friend has th exact same floor plan and her living room is redundant!

I only have my daughter and I but family stay a lot so I could make the 'lounge' into a multi use room with a guest bed,computer desk etc.

Would this floor plan put you off? Is it a disaster?

Any ideas on how to make it work?

I would knock down the wall between the front and middle rooms (under/behind the stairs) to make it more easily accessible. I'd also make the front lounge multipurpose with a small desk (home office?) and sofa bed for guests. You might not use the front room so much in early days but as your daughter grows you'll really appreciate having an extra room.

Not sure how the kitchen is laid out, but if it's galley style and units are only down one wall, I'd consider putting in bifold doors down one side so that in nice weather you can extend your living space and eat/relax in the courtyard. I'd also turn the end of the kitchen into a utility area.

I have two friends who have adapted houses with this layout in the same way - and it is beautiful.
they have changed the roof on the kitchen to an apex and extended it over the other half of the yard as the other downward slope of the apex - but in glass
and then taken out the walls between the now huge kitchen diner and the room previously marked as a dining room
like the picture - but smaller and more glass- it is relatively inexpensive as it is pretty much a conservatory - and gives a huge living space and a cosy lounge
(they are both designers FWIW)

actually to be fair they look more like this.
and that would leave the old dining room behind the photographer as a versatile family space.

If you have a small child, a separate kitchen like this makes it so much easier to keep a toddler away from hot stuff by using a gate.
As many have said, this is a standard terrace layout with rear addition and seemed to work ok for about 100 years

where does the idea that terraces don't have kitchen diners and are all long and narrow come from? That's not true!

I think there's some confusion here between 'terraces' and 'two up two down'. I currently live in a terrace with a kitchen-diner, but I agree that I've never seen a two-up-two-down with a layout where you could make one work.

Thats an incredibly common layout, and my first house was a smaller version of it.
As others have said - put your living area in the 'dining room' and eat at a table in the 'living room'. Sorted.

I do find it incredible that you've only even been in houses with kitchen/diners!

All the Victorian houses round our way have this layout. You will need to buy something newer and possibly smaller to get a kitchen diner (my old 2 bed kitchen diner setup house was built in the late 80s).

This is the same as my house really (some walls knocked through).

But we use the middle room as a dining room. We eat in the dining room every day. And the front in living room. Nothing redundant

I don't get the problem. Keep the front room as the adult lounge. Once she has gone to bed you have a nice toy free zone to relax in. Open plan is very over rated. Mess spreads into different zones and if ypu want to get away/keep a surprise hidden/have a guest sleep in a living area it is harder.

@665TheNeighbourOfTheBeast you are talking about over £100k to do a side return like that.

I don't think the OP has a 'spare' £100k available in addition to the house purchase price.

Also you have to watch your cealing price - side returns often take you over the road area ceiling price as they are super tricky to do an usually involve moving drains, down pipes, lots of steels, two party wall agreements etc

I can't see why it's a problem... we only considered houses with 2 reception rooms!

Keep the dining room (depending on size) as somewhere to eat/play. Small child then you can keep away from kitchen but they can play while you cook. As they get older it gives them somewhere to do homework, and a separate space to sit with computer/iPad, you could put a small desk in...
ikea kallax for storage along one wall
It gives you so many more options

Lounge for TV + sofas + no toys!

I was expecting a layout like some of the terraces I've viewed lately that have the bathroom off a bedroom or another bedroom off a bedroom which I think would be tricky to work if the rooms are all in use.

One dining room and one living room - perfect

@hipsterhunter I appreciate this could be a problem if there are too many constraints - yet this was not the case in either of my friends extensions and the costs were nothing like what you have stated.
I also think it shows the OP future potential - which , whilst she may not be able to afford it right now - might be something to aim for later if she wishes to "grow" the house and stay in the area.

Standard layout for our Victorian terrace. Our house is the only one that has the hall and dividing walls between sitting and dining rooms removed, so we have one large open place space and then the long kitchen extension at the back.

turn the kitchen in to a bathroom
bathroom in to study/ guest room
back yard in to bed 1 with tents
dining room to kitchen diner
bed 1 to lounge
bed 2- remove roof and use as back yard
lounge in to bed 2

job done

Isn't it kind of like a kitchen diner already though? You don't have to go into the hallway to access the dining room from the kitchen so if you removed the door they would be the same room!

I don't know where you are but it's quite common where I live and depending on which area you live, it'll be £100k-£250K for terraced houses with a layout like yours. I think it's called off-shot or galley kitchen. What's the size of your kitchen and dining room?

Option 1:
Convert kitchen to a utility room and the dining room to be a kitchen diner where the stove tends to be placed in the chimney breast. You still maintain the separation of the two rooms.

Option 2:
Convert kitchen to a utility room with dining table. The kitchen will be relocated to the dining room as above. I've seen some have converted their lounge and diner/kitchen to open plan if you don't mind the cooking smell wafting.

Option 3:
Install an RSJ by knocking through the wall separating the kitchen and dining room. Add in skylight if you can stretch your budget. Part of the kitchen worktops will be extend a bit into the dining room depending on how long you want it to be. You'll need a structural surveyor, builder and maybe builiding regulations/planning permission.

Are u serious? It is what it is. Kitchen. Dining room. Lounge. Each room should have its own use and not become dumping grounds.

Use kitchen as a scullery/boot room, and turn dining room into kitchen-diner.

If you can't do that use your imagination! Just because the rooms are labelled in the plan, doesn't mean yo have to use them like that. Use the 'lounge' as a spare bedroom, or study or (what I would want) library, and the dining room as a sitting room. The possibiities are endless. Imagination!!!!!

If you convert the current dining room into a kitchen/diner its going to be quite cramped if its the usual 12-13 foot square. Add in cooker, worktops, sink, fridge, etc, enough space to work and I expect you'd barely have much room for a table and chairs. Depending on where you put the sink, it could be quick awkward to run drains, possibly requiring excavations to put in new pipe work.
Frankly, OP, if you don't like the layout of these sort of houses, maybe look at others?

This is a regular lay out of terraced houses in my town

I wouldn't chose it to be honest but It depends on your circumstances, but in my own experience of living in houses with separate dining room - I would always prefer a multi user room like a kitchen/diner or less favorably a lounge / diner which get utilized better in my family

In my experience, separate dining rooms don't really get utilized as much but like I say it depends on your family and requirements

The only way would live there is to knock the lounge and dining room into one - I have seen this done and it can look great but still I would prefer a kitchen diner - as it makes cooking and eating a more social experience which you wont get in those long galley kitchens as they are really only suitable for cooking and very isolating whilst in there on your own

Could you move kitchen into dining room with a table in, make kitchen a utility room then use the front room as a front room?

• sorry pressed the button too soon - To be honest I wouldn't be prepared to buy it without being 100% happy, as any reconfiguration work is going to cost a fortune and you seem to need to stick to a budget - so could end up stuck in a house you aren't happy with

any chance of saving up for something you really want, or thinking of an apartment?

Isn't a kitchen attached to a dining room pretty much a kitchen diner but you have the advantage that you can shut the door if you burn the toast.