New build floor plan - any thoughts? (title edited by MNHQ at request of OP)

[Wel]

DH and have bought a piece of development land to build our dream house.

The land currently has planning permission granted but we hate the designs. Far too open plan for my liking. When the oldest is cooking and blaring music I don’t want to hear it.

Here is the downstairs of a house DH and I saw a few years ago. We loved the proportions and layout.

I find a lot of Mumsnetters are practical and sensible.

Please can you share your thoughts on the floorplan? Do you see any issues we may run into?

The house will be occupied by Dh, myself and 3 children (aged 9-13yo). 3 big dogs.

We see the architect next week and want to be able to jump straight in.

We’ve budgeted on the basis of £2500/square metre.

The plan OP has showed as a guide is 350m2 assuming the side extension boot area is single storey.
Her max required size is 279m2
Hardly twice the size.

She needs to reduce by 70m2 approx.
Not a big deal

That’s louds

If you're in the south, that's not a huge budget if you're hoping for a high end finish.

70m represents…. over 1/4 of the entire square footage

not in the SE

I’m southeast. Kent
It’s feasible.
Youre. It going to get grohe etc but you should still get and expect to get an excellent finish.

It depends on if it's self managed, independent PM, main contractor, turnkey etc.

Apologies meant to say. Not going to get Grohe etc.

Our house has a similar(ish) layout to the one you like and measures around 11mx12m (wide by deep). I'm a novice in terms of understanding how that equates to sq ft (I assume it's around 1,400 sq ft if you count all of that footprint). It's a big house.

Ours is over three floors but the upstairs spaces are smaller - around 11mx8m for the first floor. That has three decent doubles, a small double, small single, family bathroom plus separate loo. Actually, ignore the small double as that sits in an L shape that extends beyond the 8m depth that I said. But I'd have thought that the sq ft would be in line with what you're describing overall.

Our downstairs layout has my office space where you show the snug; a utility room and downstairs loo roughly where your plan shows loo/cloaks/plant (our more square footprint allows for this to be a decent space); we have a separate lounge where your plan shows dining room; and we have a kitchen/family/dining space which spans the whole width of the house - effectively incorporating the kitchen and drawing room on your plan. Overall I would say we are very happy with the layout - it gives us that social kitchen dining area where we can spend time together and it also allows for us to have separate living and working spaces when required.

You'd also have to walk through walls to do that! Do you not know what doors look like on a floorplan? There's a sold wall between the boot room and the plant room! You enter through the boot room when you've been doing something outdoorsy and boots, waterproof coats, sports gear etc is all stored there. You then get into the main house through the kitchen. Alternatively you enter through the front door and leave city shoes/boots and coats in the cloak room and that's also where guests coats go when they visit.

I think it looks like a great floorplan OP. My only change would be to make a toilet more accessible from the boot room so that kids don't have to traipse through the house in muddy gear to use the loo, and I'd probably add a shower too for hosing kids and dogs down.

You walk in through the boot room then through the kitchen door.

Absolutely and even though I’m an architect I’d have to say I wouldn’t go to the expense of using an architect or project manager to run it on sight.
Definately not a PM anyway
The cost would go over your budget OP.

There are savings design wise if you use an architect but with a little bit of research on your side it can be avoided.

Architects are always happy to pick up the phone for the odd query and charge just for that call.

I wouldn't want to walk through a cloak to get to the WC and I'd want my utility nearer the kitchen but that's personal preference. I think I'd rather have one big boot/utlity room too.

Dining room is a bit far from the kitchen but if you're keeping that for a formal room rather than an every day dining I don't think that matters, I'd assume every day dining would be in the kitchen?

@Prunesqualler We've managed all our builds starting initially as complete novices so totally doable.

Exactly.
Houses are not that complex.
Perfectly doable plus you’re more likely to actually get what you want.

Personally I’d want my kitchen diner and my living room at the rear and over looking the garden. Rooms like studies and snugs can be at the front as their purpose isn’t about spilling into the garden. Otherwise I like it

This ^^

@Wel we did a renovation/ extension 2 years ago and our layout is very similar. We love the practicality of it! However, the final costs were much nearer £4k/ sq. metre and we are based in the NW so you may need to adjust your budget.

@Prunesqualler

you’re an architect and you don’t think that dropping over 25% of the space is a “big deal”?

I love the boot room (also have mud-collecting dog) and I also think a good entrance hall makes a whole house feel spacious. I like the living room and snug separated a bit. Might rearrange coat-hanging space and downstairs WC so you don't have to go through one to get to the other. A big kitchen/diner/family room needs good layout too - we have bought a house with one which looks good but really isn't functional.

How about adding a dedicated dog shower area in the boot room?

Don't have you boot room the first thing you come into when you come through your back door, it will be so untidy looking. Have a separate hallway (even a tiny one) so that you can close a door over on the muddy boot room.
Kids will knock coats down going past them into.the toilet. I would put the toilet where the cloaks are, move the back door closer to the wall so you have a small back porch/ hallway, wall with a single door leading into boot/utility room with cloak space where the current toilet and plant room is
Relocate plant room to the corner of the utility, preferably with an external door so than there is no chance of oil leaks into the house, or needing plumbers etc traipsing through the house (I'm married to a plumber) this is they way out boiler house is and we also have a hot and cold hose connection in the boiler house which is great for washing cars and dogs too!
Have your hot press with your hot water tank directly above plant room/utility room and then have a laundry chute inside the hot press so you can drop clothes from the bedrooms/ bathroom directly into the awaiting laundry hamper below! Ready to be sorted and washed.

Not read many PPs but is the kitchen south facing or even west facing? It might be too hot in summer. Avoid south facing kitchen is my opinion. Bedrooms on other hand should be south or west facing as much as possible IMO.

There is an Instagrammer I follow who has put a small dog shower (with option for cold and/or hot water) just outside the side door. She cleans the dog before getting in from a pantry/utility/boots room. Could that be an option?