To ask for your opinion on floor plan?

[apurplecar]

White one is the house we're buying. Purple is what Nextdoor have done.

Which would you choose and why?

I love the idea of having two living rooms, but I also love the idea of the huge dressing room!

Other ideas would also be really helpful!

So is that an extension built on to accommodate the kitchen area?

Knocking down walls etc is noisy, dusty work. Would you be living there while it happened?

Probably purple as I think it has a far better family bathroom. The one on the white plan seems very small. The dressing room on the purple plan is ridiculous though (IMO!)

My own extension boringly basic, but I would think about:

Move utility to next to kitchen, so you can have an extension/conservatory.

Knock down wall between Dining Room and Kitchen to make it open plan.

Build conservatory.

Bedroom 3 should be bathroom, it's the smallest bedroom. Otherwise it's a waste of a bedroom.

Two living rooms is very helpful as the children get older.

@Mischance

Two living rooms is very helpful as the children get older.

Yes wondered that.

To add: the garden is a typical York walled garden ie small! So we don't particularly want to extend the kitchen but we will convert the loft.

I'm more confused about what to make living rooms/dressing rooms/bathrooms

Personally, if all of the bedrooms will be occupied by people, I would keep the plans for the first floor as they are in the house you're buying. The drawing room would make for an excellent office/playroom.

@Aquamarine1029

Personally, if all of the bedrooms will be occupied by people, I would keep the plans for the first floor as they are in the house you're buying. The drawing room would make for an excellent office/playroom.

There's only three of us. Two adults and a 3 year old

I would choose to have two living rooms but have the open plan kitchen / diner. Toys and eventually PlayStations are useful in a separate room unless you can turn your basement into the kids playroom?

Then I would go for open plan and dressing room.

I don't like houses where you have proper bedrooms on a floor with no bathroom, like the first pic...

You don't need a family room, a drawing room and a sitting room for just three people.

I wouldn't change the first floor of the one in white but would probably add a bathroom on the second floor (layout probably depends on if you add stairs to the loft).

@dancemom

You don't need a family room, a drawing room and a sitting room for just three people.

People don't need a lot of things, yet they're nice to have.

So far;

I would like to open plan the downstairs.

Keep a living room on the first floor

Figure out a bathroom solution for the second floor

Definitely the purple one. The first floor plan has no bathroom on the either of the top two floors. The kitchen also looks very small.

the purple one has a much bigger kitchen/dining area and I like that all the living space is on the ground floor. I would change it slightly though and put a wall up around to separate the living room. I'm not a fan of completely open plan, I like a cosy living room. An open plan kitchen/dining/family area sounds nice though if there is a separate living room too.

Although just seen it's a WC/utility on the purple one. Definitely keep the separate downstairs toilet, toilet in with washing machine is a huge no.

The top floor needs a bathroom.
Massive dressing room is a waste in my opinion.

I agree with the above poster, or maybe some doors to be able to separate the living room.

I'd knock through the kitchen/diner to make that feel like one room. Potentially moving the kitchen into the existing dining room, making the current kitchen a big utility and store room.

I'd look at folding or pocket doors to separate that room from the living room, maybe even making that room smaller so you can close it off as a den/adult space.

Top floor the smallest bedroom needs to become a family loo. With some general hall rejiggery there as I think that looks a bit weird.

Existing drawing room - becomes another bedroom if you still need 4 bedrooms. If not then that becomes main adult sitting room and the den I talk about above becomes a playroom.

Is that existing dining room quite dark? You could possibly knock down the existing kitchen and do a very small extension across that current dead U shape, which would mean you could put in glass doors/big windows to get some light into the back.

The first one doesn't have a bath in the family bathroom, only a shower. The "dressing room" is just a little lobby with room for a wardrobe - I'd rather have the space opened up more usefully.

think you need at least a toilet on the same floor as the bedrooms.

Personally I don't like open plan, but that may be because my washing machine is in the kitchen and is loud enough through a door.

As you have a 3 year old will you have more children?

That basement will be an excellent den when you have a teenager who wants sleep overs, you can sleep in peace while they giggle.

I don’t think the first plan looks very user friendly, no bathroom on the top floor and would you use the first floor living room much? Would carrying cups of tea etc up the stairs be a pain?

@NeedToGetOuttaHere

I don’t think the first plan looks very user friendly, no bathroom on the top floor and would you use the first floor living room much? Would carrying cups of tea etc up the stairs be a pain?

The first floor living room would be for child free evenings

Known through the dining room and kitchen, leave the front room separate as it's great to have a child free space.
First floor - use the sitting room as the child's bedroom until they grow up a bit - it's good to have them close.
Second floor - turn one of the bedroom's into a bathroom.
What we have found with our 2 DC (now adults) is that rooms have had different roles as they have grown up. So having flexibility is really important.
The only thing that is actually wrong with the current layout is the lack of a bathroom on the second floor.

Knock through