AIBU to pick your brains for floor plan/renovation ideas

[MakingPlans21]

If you had this floor plan and needed to create two decent sized bedrooms (one is currently a box room) and a more workable layout for the kitchen and living room for a family with a young child what would you do? The flat is ground floor and so it’s fine to convert windows to doors etc to access front and back gardens. No extensions allowed. Walls can be knocked down. The living room and main bedroom face the shaded side while the kitchen and bathroom are very sunny. So:

1. if anything were possible what would you do? (Just to get the owners thinking out of the box)

2. if the budget were around 10k what would you do?

Excited to hear other people’s ideas...

How's the conversation going with the friend who's moving in? What do they like?

@MahMahMahMahCorona I have just posed her questions from here. I won’t see her until Sunday (changed from tomorrow) and will show her the thread and we can chat about it over a glass of wine. I am really enjoying this and am wondering what I can change in my own home so I can post for Mumsnet tips. It’s so interesting.

@MahMahMahMahCorona thank you very much for all of your help. She will be very pleased.

I love watching house renovation programs as you get a whole host of ideas for free. There is an American one with twins / two brothers who do massive renovations for home owners (who all look about 18 yet own great stonking houses) - nothing is impossible but it all comes at a cost.

Moving kitchens and bathrooms is a huge price to pay - yes it's frustrating, but that's just the way it is. Equally, natural light in a "living room" is really quite important - and I think my second idea of making the box room the living area would really become too oppressive in time - a bedroom without a window however is "manageable" (particularly with a baby) as you tend to sleep in a bedroom. Taking out the cupboard with pipes and opening up the wall into the current living area, opening the window from that "space" into the garden could absolutely work albeit it's going to be a really long room - but at least with dual aspect they'll have light from both ends. The wall separating bedroom one and the box room could then be moved to extend the box room into bedroom 1 (corridor effect as you enter bedroom 1). And again the windows could be turned into doors to get even more light into the room.

@MahMahMahMahCorona you’re a fountain of knowledge. I’m getting the bug now! How much to get rid of the walls and cupboard in the kitchen do you think? And how much would it cost to swap the bathroom and box room round and move the wall between them so the second bedroom (currently the bathroom) was more spacious. And my third, hopefully final for you right now, question is what would you recommend for a smallest bathroom size? I know she wants a claw foot bath but doesn’t mind what sink and toilet are like. I have a feeling she will want to sign up here when she sees this thread and you have played a large part in making it great.

Don't ask me about costs! I'm simply adding to the imaginative / creative side of things: you'll need to ask actual professionals to give quotes 🤣🤣🤣

@MahMahMahMahCorona how unreasonable! 🤣 you seemed to know everything renovation-related. You have made me slightly nervous for my friend and her wish to move the bathroom too 🤣

I'd swap the sitting room and bedroom, and move the bathroom and make it smaller.

Thank you @zurala

Any more suggestions from other Mumsnetters? This is incredibly enjoyable.

I have received notifications about mew postings on here but can’t see them. A glitch?

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Meeting my friend for a walk and drink tomorrow afternoon. Will show her this thread. If there are anymore suggestions please post them. Thank you.

@zurala has drawn exactly what I was trying to explain, but made it much clearer .

I think the bathroom is really the only room which can afford to be without a window, as long as the plumbing/ extraction can be made to work (perhaps with a false wall in the newly-created bedroom to hide the pipe work). Macerators are not ideal , would avoid this if at all possible.

Saw my friend and she was so thrilled about the generous replies. She is opting for the kitchen living room (from bedroom) all in one.