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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to ask how you'd extend this ground floor..?

59 replies

EmbarrassingMama · 04/02/2021 14:11

Advice welcome and encouraged from all the rightmove and property show addicts!

This is my downstairs floorplan. It's a good size, but my kitchen layout doesn't feel very spacious due to the peninsula cutting the room up. We have the opportunity to extend but I need help. How would you do it? We have a 1m side return we could use and can also go out the back. Our garden is only 11 metres long so the max we'd want to build out is 3m. I'm actually thinking 2.5 m might be better, to preserve more of the garden.

Not that interested in getting a sofa in there (we have a nice sitting room for TV), so it'd really be a kitchen and dining space.

Extra points for: pantry; downstairs loo.

YABU: Bugger off and find an architect
YANBU: Where are my pencils? I live for this stuff.

TIA!

AIBU to ask how you'd extend this ground floor..?
OP posts:
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13
Abitofalark · 04/02/2021 23:31

You have children and it's a family house but have no downstairs wc, which is absolutely essential and something buyers will expect in a family house.
On looking at your kitchen, it's quite a large space and you could try drawing out how to reconfigure it in different layouts. You could do this in the actual space by marking it out on the floor using a powder spray or coloured string, and placing chairs or items of furniture, or buy some squared paper and draw it to scale. When I was doing a kitchen plan I bought some large flipchart sheets to measure out and mark everything on it. Or you may be a whiz at online drawing.

You don't actually need a very large kitchen space once you have those other great facilities, the wc, utility, shower and cloakroom - which don't require a massive space either. You would put them down in the bottom left corner, underneath the bathroom convenient to where all the plumbing already is. You have nearly 20' across the back wall which is more than enough to play with. Ideally you would keep your side door access - it's a great thing to have, especially for a family house, and I would think twice or three, no, ten or twenty times before giving it up - and enter into a small lobby with hanging space or cupboard for coats and boots and brollies, leading to a utility room - big enough for washing machine, sink, clothesline above or airer on floor; if you wish, a tumble drier could be set atop a washing machine - utility room can actually be a small space - leading to a shower, wc and basin room - which again can be fairly compact. Or you can combine laundry and wc and shower in one room as some people do, though I don't think it's ideal. Should also mention you can get compact showers and sanitary ware designed for small spaces.

In the kitchen you just need cupboard and work space, cooking, washing, dishwasher, fridge and table and seating for dining. You have a long wall of 15' down one side in which you could have all the cupboards, fridge, dishwasher sink, cooker and workspace in one run and in the rest of the space a large table and chairs, or perhaps, continue your workspace around the corner to the wall with the living room. Or you could use that wall, along the living room, to put in banquette seating and table and chairs, which would take up less of the space than table and chairs in the middle of the room. That could combine with a smallish island if you want one, out towards the garden. You could have a movable island if you might want at some point to change things around. You would put your larder along the back outside wall so that you can ventilate it to the outside to keep it naturally cool and dry. That's the beauty of it.
I would get drawing, exploring and weighing up possibilities for the existing space before you jump into some massive building project.

GnomeDePlume · 05/02/2021 06:59

We built a 5m wide 4m deep extension in a similar length garden. However the garden is 11m wide as it also goes behind two garages.

The difference this extension made has been enormous. We have a three storey townhouse and the extra room has given us a lot more living space. We havent missed the garden space.

The only major problem was rainwater drainage. The original drainage was to a soakaway buried in the back garden. It has to be a certain number of metres back from the house and it wasnt possible to achieve this with the extension. Eventually we were permitted to direct the rainwater through our garage to the front but it did take a lot of toing & froing with the building inspector.

How much if any of the work will you do yourselves? We had a builder in to do brick work and roof but all other work was done by DH. Obviously this saved an absolute fortune. The builder's work cost £12k. Everything else was material cost only.

At some point we may turn the two windows at the back into a big bifold door but at the moment we are happy with what we have.

The plans I have attached are the ones we submitted for building control and which the builder used. We were within our permitted development rights so didnt need planning permission.

AIBU to ask how you'd extend this ground floor..?
ThisWasMe2021 · 05/02/2021 07:20

If you are thinking of moving on on the next couple of years, don't bother extending out. It's not worth the expense for the relatively little you would gain, and making the garden smaller is not a great thing in this age when people need outdoor space, regardless of the shitty weather. Existing drainage/water mains dependant, I would reconfigure the kitchen to a better layout and build a WC under the stairs, moving the door to the kitchen slightly, but making it fully glazed so that there is a view straight through and out to the garden from the front door. I would do lovely decking and raised beds and put the money into making the garden usable year round.

Pink- WC
Blue- adjusted door position to get access to WC under highest part of stairs
Orange- kitchen units
Green- dismal attempt at drawing table and chairs with my fat fingers

AIBU to ask how you'd extend this ground floor..?
HearMeCry · 05/02/2021 07:54

We have a kitchen slightly smaller than yours and have a table that seats 6 and a small sofa. It’s the location of the kitchen that’s the problem as it takes up most of your room. Ours is round the edge of the other half of the room, we had to move the patio doors slightly more centrally but the layout is great and saved £40k on an extension!

AIBU to ask how you'd extend this ground floor..?
muddledmidget · 05/02/2021 08:04

Just my view, but the kitchen isn't a bad size, it's just badly laid out. I'd put a downstairs loo under the stairs, potentially stealing a bit of space from the kitchen if needed. And then I'd move the kitchen to the other side of the room and have an l shaped kitchen with the dining area where the current kitchen is. If you were set on doing an extension, I'd put a utility room in on the left hand side next to the downstairs loo, but if you're not planning on staying in the house longterm I think that just moving the kitchen would make a big difference (depends on your flooring how easy it is to move water and drainage though)

muddledmidget · 05/02/2021 08:05

Just seen the 2 posters above me have suggested the same thing with diagrams, I'm too slow at this while I'm at work!

FOJN · 05/02/2021 08:20

I have a similar layout to you but do have a downstairs loo to the left of the front door. My garden is east facing so my late afternoon sun is at the bottom of the garden. I think I would move the kitchen to the other side of the room and have a dining area extension where the French doors are now. This would avoid the need for steel reinforcement so might help to keep the cost down. I'd then try to fit it a small utility and downstairs loo in the current kitchen area. It would give you extra space without taking up too much of the garden. Sorry I'm no good at plans.

PurpleFlower1983 · 05/02/2021 08:24

Our layout is very similar to yours and we are having a 3.5m extension on then back to create an open plan kitchen/living/dining area. We are in a similar position with a fairly small garden but the bottom quarter of our garden doesn’t really get used anyway so we are going to make more of that space.

AIBU to ask how you'd extend this ground floor..?
EmbarrassingMama · 05/02/2021 09:41

Oh my word, you have been busy! These plans are fantastic, thank you all so much for looking at this!

I think the consensus is to reconfigure rather than extend based on the garden size. Even if my garden was 15 metres rather than 11 I think I'd go for it, but it isn't massive (though lovely) and I would feel sad to see it go. This is certainly food for thought.

You are all right though - the kitchen is a really poor layout with the majority of it being eaten up by the huge peninsula. To be honest I hadn't considered a straight forward rejig, but at 4.56 x 6.06m it isn't a small room.

One of my major bugbears is that my dining table (not huge, seats 6) sits between the island and the right hand wall, but with six people sitting round it, those closest to the island always have to tuck in to let someone out to leave the table!

In order to get a loo under the stairs I'd have to move the kitchen door forward (probabaly less than a metre), but I do agree that would be worthwhile. When we were on the market that was the only negative feedback we received, so I appreciate it is important to most.

This is all so helpful and I'm in awe of your tech skills.

OP posts:
EmbarrassingMama · 05/02/2021 09:49

Another thought, I have granit worktops which are very nice, assume I could just get them re-cut so that they could be re-used to fit a new kitchen. I seem to recall the worktops being one of the most expensive things in my last house!

OP posts:
EmbarrassingMama · 05/02/2021 10:27

@HearMeCry @ThisWasMe2021 @muddledmidget
Taking your drawings as inspo, I've done this. Do you think this looks good? Very rough of course, but just to get an idea of layout. Where did you manage to get a sofa in here!?

Would you go for larger sliding doors and lose the windows?

@Abitofalark thanks for comments! Looking at the drawing here do you still think there's room for all the rest?!

Note: entrance to kitchen has been moved forward to allow space for downstairs loo.

AIBU to ask how you'd extend this ground floor..?
AIBU to ask how you'd extend this ground floor..?
OP posts:
ChazsBrilliantAttitude · 05/02/2021 10:33

Even if your granite worktops can’t be recut / colour matched to any new pieces (it will depend on length and layout). You can by granite worktops more cheaply directly from suppliers than from kitchen showrooms. You could also sell the old ones to recoup some of the cost.

I would consider bifold doors for the dining area.

RufustheSniggeringReindeer · 05/02/2021 10:36

YABU: Bugger off and find an architect
YANBU: Where are my pencils? I live for this stuff

Ive got no idea, but i love your voting choices. Theyve really tickled my fancy 😀

RufustheSniggeringReindeer · 05/02/2021 10:38

Some fabulous ideas on here, and plans!

Oddbutnotodd · 05/02/2021 10:48

Look at Lioli on Channel 4. They just changed the kitchen layout then moved on to a bigger house. Too many people seem to sacrifice a small garden for more living space.

PattyPan · 05/02/2021 10:55

I would be cautious about extending too far into the garden if you think you might want to sell at some point. People are putting more value on a garden now. When I look at houses I am always wondering how much it would cost to knock down the extension to get the garden back!

SaltyTootsieToes · 05/02/2021 11:01

If you’re extending, you’re going to need an architect and structural engineer anyway.

Go out the back further. Remove the side door as you’ll have doors going to the back.

Swap the sides of window for the French (and make them bifolds) doors Move the kitchen to the other side of the room so you’ll have more wall space. You could put a pantry unit in but you’d get a load more cupboards to you may not need a “pantry”

Lose the understand cupboard entered from the kitchen and make it a downstairs loo access from the hallway.

Catchingfire123 · 05/02/2021 11:04

Potentially could fit a toilet and utility on the side if you wanted to maximise the space. Agree kitchen is badly designed would be better on the rhs and if you extended out you could have a lovely family / dining / kitchen. Toy storage on top left in those big square units with boxes.

AIBU to ask how you'd extend this ground floor..?
Oldraver · 05/02/2021 11:52

I would swap the kitchen to the other side, which will give you more kitchen space and have the dining area (and patio doors) as you walk in through the hall door

ThisWasMe2021 · 05/02/2021 12:00

That's exactly right @EmbarrassingMama. I would probably reconfigure the rear facing windows and knock the piece of wall between them together to create a large sliding/bifold door, but move it more centrally to create a bit more room for kitchen units on the right hand side wall. I would also block up the single door to the side and you could put a seating area here, behind the table. Remember you only need about 1200mm free space in front of your kitchen cabinets, so the large table can probably move over slightly.

(Ps. am actually an architect, though you wouldn't know it from my crappy sketch Blush)

EmbarrassingMama · 05/02/2021 12:43

@ThisWasMe2021 no way?! How much do I owe you..? Grin

Taking the above comments into account, how about these..?

AIBU to ask how you'd extend this ground floor..?
AIBU to ask how you'd extend this ground floor..?
AIBU to ask how you'd extend this ground floor..?
OP posts:
ThisWasMe2021 · 05/02/2021 14:03

Great job @EmbarrassingMama Grin

It looks like it will make best use of the space you have availabe right now at reasonably low cost, make your house more saleable, and still leave scope to future owners to extend should they wish to.

You will need to investigate drainage connections, but a decent builder should be able to advise, looking at where the drainage points are outside.

A large gin will suffice as payment Wink

GnomeDePlume · 05/02/2021 14:07

Does it give you enough worktop space? Also you have a corner at the end of the cupboard wall. What would you do with that. I know in my house a space like that would become the last resting place of forgotten causes!

MyAnacondaMight · 05/02/2021 18:14

Looks really good. You could always use a shallow unit if necessary next to the French doors to avoid reconfiguring the rear doors/windows - not sure you’d make the money back on putting in steels and a massive set of doors.

seven201 · 05/02/2021 18:38

Sorry to not offer anything helpful, but what app are you using for your designs/plans?

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