Thoughts on this house lay out (floor plan included)

[Katie47]

Hi all, we’ve narrowed down our house search to two houses.

The attached floor plan is for the house which is our favoured one.

A few things on my mind:

-Bedroom 2 is narrow..ok for a child is my thinking

-The ‘office’ space isn’t particular private, there are no doors. Eventually we’d probably prefer to knock through and have a big open plan kitchen

-Bedroom 4 is a garage conversion. It means there’s no route to the garden without going through the house (the other side of the house has the neighbours garage attached to it). I would want to potentially create a walkway with a door to garden through this room but I don’t know if plausible.

Any thoughts on the above, or anything else I may have missed/not considered would be appreciated! We would have possibly c. £15-20k available post purchase.

Thanks!

Edited to add I didn’t mean to include a poll!

You wouldn’t use that as an office - you can’t put furniture is as it’s a through way.uou could always block it up.

my issue is the kitchen though, it feels like a wonky galley kitchen. Not my preference at all.

You don't have to use the space as an office, just because that is what it is called on the floorplan.

You could put a door on (though presumably it would be dark if you did both ends.

Depends how many dc you have / how many bedrooms you want - office could be in the garage or one of the upstairs bedrooms.

Like every house purchase, you have to decide what are the most important things for your circumstances and what you are okay to compromise on.

You can live with the smaller bedroom - lots of space saving furniture.

The front to back would bother me -

Are you going to use the 4th bedroom?

Office - you could add doors

That office would be better off blocked up and used as a utility room/walk in pantry. At the moment it’s dead space and no one wants to work in what is essentially a dark corridor. Bed 2 would be fine for a DC in a single bed- if you went with a high sleeper to maximise floor space it would probably feel quite roomy because it’s so long.

Nope - won’t be using that as a bedroom. It’s me, DH and one DC as it stands. We’d likely use bedroom 3 as office space.

If it's your favoured house and it works for you then go for it.

I love this layout! Bedroom 4 clearly isn't a bedroom, except to an estate agent. It's a garden room. Access to the kitchen and garden is perfectly appropriate - but why is this the only garden route? There seems to be a double door out the back of the kitchen?

You already have a huge kitchen/dining area. Just don't use the through space as an office - that was a weird idea anyway.

I'm assuming there's a full-height wall behind the cooking island? It's probably a supporting wall, looking at the parts they've left intact. You could create a space with judicious use of load-bearing beams, but you might have to leave the bits of side wall in place. That can easily be dealt with by treating them as 'pillars'. Consult an architect and a surveyor about this, as there will be a reason that wall's still there and you don't want your upstairs coming downstairs!

I'd put a sofa in the kitchen diner bit by the window and make that a sort of snug space and use the office as a dining room. Agree bedroom 4 is a garden room . Can you in the future extend to make a further bedroom upstairs over the garage. I'd do that and add an en suite when I did it

I always think you shouldn’t do any work til you’ve lived in a house 6-12 months at least to see how you use the space year round and what you need or miss. It looks perfectly fine in the meantime.

If you’ve just got the one DC, the current office space might make a nice playroom/homework space? A long desk along the wall to do crafts or homework, and storage shelves on the opposite wall.

Do you really need a second entry out to the garden? It can be really nice having a double bedroom with doors out to a more private patio e.g. if you wanted to use it as your main bedroom or a guest room.

Upstairs I’d be tempted to get rid of the en-suite in favour of making a bigger bedroom with a built in wardrobe for bedroom 3, but then I value space and wardrobes more than having a toilet per person. (Less toilets to clean!)

if you don’t need private office space, that “office” area would make a nice spot for life business. A good table that can go against the wall as a desk or be pulled out for board games. A comfy chair for reading. Not having that impose on the kitchen table would be nice.

Apologies, I’ve explained the garden thing terribly.

Basically, there is no side access to the garden. Pre garage conversion, this would have been a route through. So any grass clippings etc would need to be walked through the house to be disposed of, bin bags from the kitchen would need to be walked through etc.

I'd have the office as a snug/TV room.

But I have to say, I'm not a massive fan of the layout - looks like a really badly planned extension where the haven't forked out for the necessary steels to open up the kitchen diner properly. The two back bedrooms are long and narrow which is awkward to furnish, there won't be much space to walk around even a double bed in the bigger of the two rooms. Where will coats, shoes and bags go?

I would say the narrow bedroom is the study and the study is a family space

The sitting room will become a corridor between the front door/stairs and the kitchen. If you place your sofa on the long wall to the left everyone coming and going upstairs or outside will pass in front which I would find massively annoying.

The "office" is just a corridor. Yes opening it all up would be a nicer space, but have you costed it out? It could mean you spend more than the house is worth if that is an issue. If there are no doors between the kitchen, office and living room, you don't currently have a way to shut out the noise of the washing machine or cooker hood while relaxing.

Having to take garden stuff through the house would be annoying, but I guess lots.of people have that. Are the bins stored out the front?

What do you plan with the £15-20k? It won’t go very far.

I'd block off the 'office' and make it a utility, use the garage bedroom as a playroom/child's hang out space depending on age and the small square bedroom 3 as the office. That's if you're not planning more DC.

DS has a similar sized bedroom to bedroom 2, it's not ideal but a playroom would mean it's just for sleeping, clothes storage and some books. He does also have a mid sleeper with drawers, cupboards and shelving built underneath.

The layout wouldn’t appeal to me : it’s something (in my opinion) which has been extended too much without making the space flow. If it doesn’t work for you, you’d be better off buying an unextended house and having more money to do what you want with it.

How does it compare price wise to 3 beds in the area? There seem to be lots of compromises in the current layout which if you had 3 bed money but absolutely needed a 4 bed might make sense but if not are there not better options out there?

My absolute No is any property where you can’t get front to back without going through the house. How do you get lawnmowers, mucky bikes etc to the rear.

I'd want to use the garage conversion as a big mudroom/utility and put doors back on the front. That would solve your through issue.

It’s favourable. It has been reduced from £400,000 to £375,000 and now £350,000 so something isn’t appealing.

Funnily enough they paid £315,000 in 2021 and have since converted the garage so they won’t see much of a return on that. I’d have probably preferred the house with the garage as it was!

Thats what I’m thinking too

If it’s a modern house in an area where houses have rear access generally I think it’s always going to be difficult to sell. If it’s a Victorian terrace where many similar properties wouldn’t have rear access then it’s more acceptable. 2021 prices were high - they are possibly trying to recover the costs to convert the garage but actually have devalued far more than they realise.

What about the other house?