To ask what I should do with this room? (with diagram)

[Cruelstepmother]

We're planning to build an extension for our new kitchen so we can turn our current poky little kitchen into a shower room. If we get permission we'll add a front porch too. This leaves a rather dark room in the middle of the house, but I can't think what to use it for. It's nominally the 'dining room', but we don't 'dine', we eat off our laps by the TV and will prob eat in our new kitchen/diner once we have it. We can't knock it through into another room in any useful way, and it's too small for a snooker table. My DH and I are 65 and 57 and may eventually need to make the sitting room into our bedroom as he is disabled with a progressive condition (Parkinsons). It's about 10' by 11'. Any ideas?

I think in due course we will need a stairlift but DH is really anti and unless the front porch is approved I doubt if it would fit.

Ok, that makes more sense now! It would be expensive but could you turn the stairs round & box them in with a corridor then make old study new bedroom leading in to new bathroom? Get rid of old front door. Make kitchen diner bigger & make new room just entrance hall with storage?

I don't think moving the stairs is easy because new building regs mean stairs would have to be different size, but will ask architect.

I think it’s quite a big job, if you could have the bottom step in the room with the new porch that would make more sense as it would then be entrance hall & stairs. They could be in the same place but go up the other way if that makes sense!

Forget a stair lift, keeping that '?' room as a large hallway will give you room to add a small domestic lift in the future.

Just spoke to DH about widening the doors, he agreed it would prob be cheaper to hire someone to lift him through the doorways if it comes to that! A lift in the new extension is possible, but whether we could afford it don't know. Grandkids would think it was well cool tho!

@Cruelstepmother - the reason for the front door being at the side is that it makes the plan most efficient in terms of reducing circulation space - you come in to the original middle of the plan and can go left or right or up the stairs...
So anyway - what you are proposing, by moving the front door, is to actually make your plan much less efficient as will require a lot more circulation space. The front '?' is basically becoming a large hallway in this layout at the moment.
I think what would give you the most flexibility would be to actually have that ? room as your kitchen, so you come straight into it from your porch (but would also be an acceptable 'public' room to enter into if you don't get permission for the porch)
I'd then open up the wall between this room and the extension as much as possible, and the extension contain dining / living.
Then, not knowing the first floor plan - if we assume the stairs have to stay where they are, then i would do what a PP said and take space from your study to create an actual hallway, with storage etc. If I'm reading your photo right the existing kitchen is single storey and i would actually knock this down and extend whatever you need to (could be as little as 1m deep) the full width of that part of the house to allow the former study to become a good sized downstairs bedroom for the future with and en-suite shower room.
I don't know how many bedrooms you have upstairs, and how many you actually NEED, but given your circumstances I'd be tempted to make that ground floor extension bigger to make a more generous bedroom and reduce the 2 storey extension so your new upstairs bedroom is more of a guest room than a main bedroom.
Hope that makes sense!

Make the sitting room the study and the study the bedroom so it's closer to the shower room. Then have the spare room at the front as the sitting room.

Can you put a window in the wall of the room ? that looks into the neighbours (maybe obscure glass) to let in some light?

I'd have the ? as a study/library. Get some built in floor to ceiling shelves, plus storage for coats etc. Alternatively chop it in half and use half as a hall and half as the shower room.

Study becomes bedroom, living room and new kitchen as they are.

Incidentally I think that planners look favourably when a house is being adapted to suit the needs of a disabled owner - cheaper than providing social care, so you might be able to argue for the porch and rest on those grounds (extra storage for wheelchair etc needed).

As this is where your front door is (and your stairs?), I'd make this a nice entrance hall and I'd actually move your WC/shower room to here. I'd put a utility room where the shower room is supposed to be.

Where is your laundry room?

Who has a laundry room?!

The laundry room is in the bit we're going to chop off the old house (see photo on p2). The plan is to include them in the new extension so we can use the same plumbing for the washing machine.

It seems as though you are adding a big extension but that a lot of the space you are gaining isn’t going to be useful. You have a huge amount of the ground floor which is effectively hallway (study and ? Room). If you have no use for the ? room why not just start the kitchen diner there and build the extension half the size?
Sorry this sounds way bitchier written down than in my head - i’m genuinely just a little confused.
Also after having a close relative with Parkinson’s I would strongly agree with pp that wide doorways and one level will allow your dh to maintain independence and let you stay in your house for much longer - worth a huge amount imo. Not just wheelchairs - when a career or relative is trying to help an unsteady person to walk steps are a nightmare.

carer

Op, have the plans been done by an architect? You are going to be spending loads of money & have lots of upheaval, it’s worth getting everything right before you start

Could you put a door or doorway where the green line is to make more access to the new extension?

Not yet, but we will be having plans drawn up by an architect before getting building quotes. I can see the logic to having the kitchen combined with the ? room as has been suggested. I've had a look at prices for domestic lifts and they are about £15,000 which is likely to prove prohibitive given our budget. Having some of the doors widened may be possible. At present my DH is not using a wheelchair but needs a mobility scooter which we hope to get soon. We want to stay as open-minded as possible and consider all options, so thank you all very much for your input. Well, apart from the marijuana plantation idea lol.

Cruelstepmother don’t discount the marijuana plantation - it could pay for the lift!
Good luck with the build

I think it all depends on your lifestyle and how you like to live.

Personally:
I would make the study a real entrance point, room for storage etc, under the stairs?

Make the sitting room your study, which could also work as a spare room/flex space if needed.

Make the ? mark a new sitting room which flows easily into the kitchen and out onto the porch.

If structurally possible, where the old front door is I would open up the wall between the sitting room and the study, and put up a wall between the study and the staircase, so that access to the staircase is from the sitting room, and the study is no longer a through-way. I'd either block off the old front door completely, or flip it so it opens on the other side. Old study becomes future bedroom, with shower room off it.

? room and new extension laid out as kitchen/diner/second seating area as best fits your plumbing and lifestyle needs.

Another alternative would be to split the study into a hallway to the stairs and a shower room, convert the old kitchen to a future bedroom, and configure the ? room and extension as best suits your needs.

I agree with what @hobbes39 has suggested. I'm not generally a fan of completely open plan but in your case it seems like the best use of space and takes into account your husband's future needs better. So ? room opened up to the extension at the back as a large open plan kitchen/diner/living space. Possibly rethinking the need for it to be a 2 storey extention depending on budget and how much you really need that extra bedroom upstairs. In time your current lounge could be converted into a bedroom if needed and you would still have the large open plan living space.

I like the idea of moving access to the stairs into the sitting room and having the study as a bedroom..

If that would be too much work then I would have the current sitting room as future bedroom, put the sitting room into the ? Room so the porch opens straight into the sitting room. Then keep the study where it is.