Is this houses’ floorplan too cursed to buy?

[Proie]

We have a found a house we like in an amazing location. It definitely needs modernisation but it’s not too bad that we couldn’t do it over the course of a year or so. We really would be left with a dream house. The interiors are ugly and outdated but not minging.

It’s a period home with nice bright rooms, high ceilings. But the layout is just insane to me. I am normally good with being able to figure out a design but I’m stumped on this one.

Do you think the floorplan is too far gone?

I was thinking of converting the garage into an amazing kitchen?

Is there an upstairs floor plan? The stairs seem to be in an odd place but you could work round that. Depends what leads to what before you start knocking through though, and how the upstairs is laid out. Would you want a massive kitchen diner where everyone was in and out of if your bedroom was up there and there was no other access to it? Or would you want the stairs to be straight into your room?

Need the big picture.

The house faces west

I'd try and look how similar houses are laid out nearby. My first thoughts are build a new kitchen over on the right where the sitting room is now, downstairs bathroom can become a utility and put in a loo that side as well. I'm assuming it's an original staircase so ideally keep it? You could do away with the pantry but then again if you keep it you could have a fabulous uncluttered kitchen?

I’m intrigued by shifting the kitchen/dining to the right. And making the bedroom a utility/boot room. We have muddy dogs so that would be an ideal/dream set up

I think it's difficult to think about how you would change the layout without the input from an expert who knows what's structurally possible. You can knock walls down wherever you like on paper but it will probably be trickier in reality.

The wall thickness suggests this might have been a two up, two down cottage which has been extended twice on the right hand side and had a garage added on the left. They built a conservatory at the back so why not extend the house in that direction? With the location of the stairs it would have made a more coherent layout possible.

Agree with pp get a structural engineer to look at which walls would have to stay and work from there.
The layout is indeed cursed but no reason it has to stay that way.

You need to move the kitchen either to the dining room or the sitting room

Rather than rearranging everything, which sounds tedious and expensive, could you build a new entrance running along the front creating a passageway from which the kitchen, dining room and living room would be accessible?

Oh, this is tough. There’s no hallway, all rooms lead into each other, is that right?

we had a house like this., in fact, some rooms had three doorways in them! Never could get it to flow correctly.

Hang on - why do you want to buy a house needing a lot of work when you can’t afford the one you’ve got without your daughter’s contribution?

www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5294361-daughter-wont-let-her-bil-come-to-the-family-home?

Downsizing maybe @HellDorado Affordability is relative.

Do you need 5 bedrooms? I would turn the existing kitchen into a snug/bedroom 5, and the existing bedroom 5 I would knock through into the storage room to make a big kitchen diner. The existing dining room I would keep as a dining hall for anything more formal/ Christmas etc.

What’s your budget for doing up and changing layout?

is this you downsizing so your daughter no longer has to pay half the bills?

Given the sacrifices your daughter has made to keep the family home is she aware of this plan?

assume it will just be you and your youngest son living here?

Oh, I definitely think downsizing would be a good idea based on the OP’s other thread. In fact it could be a practical solution to both her main problems.

But oddly enough, she doesn’t even mention it’s a possibility on that thread. Yet on this one she’s not only actively looking at properties, but also talking about how “we” will have a dream house - even though she’s single and hoping her adult child will be in a position to move out on the other one.

Curious and curiouser, said Alice…

I have to say that I formed my reply on this thread on the basis of a family looking for a home for years to come as a unit, not as a project for a single parent looking to be done with a mortgage and talking about a home suitable for retirement years in the future.

If I needed contributions from an adult child in order to keep running the house I have now and my youngest child was 15, I'd be looking at a more modern house, energy efficient and little work to make it suit, not a period property that had lots of unsuitable rooms and needed a lot of alterations. We only have a ground floor plan, but I'd imagine the property would be expensive to maintain and run on a monthly basis on top of the outlay for updating and remodelling.

This looks very expensive to do!! Are you sure it would be worth it? You’d have to take chimneys out, a lot of structural support on the load bearing walls. Unless you have a lot of cash and aren’t worried about resale value, I wouldn’t touch it!!

Would it not have an impact on any remodelling plans with it being Grade 2 listed? Not that I have any idea how easy it is to get permission in that situation, just wondering!

Amazing potential, as long as you can afford to remove some walls.

I would add a hall at the front, take the edge off the living room and turn the pantry into a cloakroom.
I would also extend the space next to the conservatory and kitchen, stick a proper roof/doors on the lot and remove walls so the dining room and kitchen spaces both flow through to the back, ideally with a retractable wall to choose when to open up or close off the two spaces. The extra space is enough for a pantry and utility room though where you would put them depends on your light.
Edit to say: keep the garage!

Design is OK to me. You could have the dining room as an ''entrance room'' just off the main door but have a table with fold down leaves and chairs against walls if not in use. Can you eat in kitchen mostly and keep ''dining room'' for occasions?
I would widen the door way that leads out of dining room to the living room to open up area.

Just employ an architect rather than asking random bobs on Mumsnet.

It's very "bitty" and it looks as though there are two really deep walls which are chimney breasts. It would be difficult/expensive to remove them if you want to open up the rooms to make a better layout. And why a downstairs bathroom? It looks like a sizeable house so there should be enough rooms for bathrooms upstairs. Someone has made a real pigs ear of adding odds and ends of rooms to it, including that big storage room which is presumably taking up room in the garden without providing an actual room you can live in.
It's probably redeemable but why would you bother? I'd buy something with a better layout, you'll have to do a lot of expensive work spend to make it practical.

Yes, my views exactly.

There’s masses of potential there , without converting the garage ,
it really about your budget for Renovation
and about your needs ,
I would start will a list of all works needed ie windows , roof , heating, bathrooms etc
then you will know what you have to work with
Think about where the soil pipes etc are
no point taking it on if your budget is to tight