Help me design/renovate the downstairs of my house

[DownmarketSellingSunset]

I had a thread on here some time ago where I asked people about opening up the downstairs space in our house a bit more. Someone suggested opening up the back of the house rather than knocking through from the kitchen to the dining room, which is what we're going to go ahead with. But I'm a bit lost as to how to arrange the space.

I want to keep a downstairs loo, but move it so it's out of the way. To complicate matters we need to add in some level access as at the moment we haven't got any way of getting a wheelchair into the back of the house and we need that. We aren't attached to the store, but I had assumed we'd put the loo in the utility room.

We're probably looking at a budget of approx £60k for the whole job.

Anyone got any suggestions to maximise the space and make the most efficient use of it? We currently use the breakfast room as a play room/tv room for the kids so we'd need a sofa and toy space in the new big room.

Moving loos is expensive, so first thing I'd do is work out where the outside drains run so you can work out where the easiest (cheapest) place to move the loo is.

What about under the stairs?
Or make a loo next to the utility in the store space.

Unfortunately we can't put the loo under the stairs as there are stairs there down to the cellar. I assumed it would have to be a loo in the utility room but open to any and all suggestions!

Loo to store by utility if you need to move it, but looks sensible to keep where is with your budget.

I’d probably just open up the other side of both fireplaces and have them open both sides as features. So two large rooms with those in the middle.

You could move your front door.
If you put this at the side of your house so you enter into the side of what is now the lounge you can build a porch onto the front of the utility room and have what is now the lounge as your dining room / hall.
You move the toilet to behind where the front door currently is.
Open the breakfast room through the kitchen.. now no toilet in the way.
And back into the dining room. Extend here if money stretches.
I would probably move the kitchen from the back to the front of the house.
And depending on your longer term plans you could use a small amount of the space in the current dining room, now kitchen which is bigger, to install a lift to come up where the bedroom cupboard currently is.

I don't think there would be enough room behind the front door to fit a loo - the stairs are pretty close to the front door. I think we might need to look at how expensive it would be to knock down the store and rebuild it properly as an extension of the utility room, then there would be plenty of room for a downstairs loo and we could have level access through the utility room. It would be great to have a boot room somewhere, so I did look at moving the front door to incorporate one, but I don't think the budget would go that far.

You mention wheelchair access at back of house so does downstairs loo also need to be wheelchair accessible. Moving a soul pipe is expensive as upstairs and second floor bathrooms are directly above ground floor loo it suggests a single soil pipe. I can see how it's difficult to open plan as removing large fireplaces is also difficult as they are often part of structure I would suggest consulting a structural engineer

The downstairs loo doesn't really need to be disabled accessible - the access is for my parents who live in a bungalow annex but they've got a fully adapted bathroom there so if they're here for long periods of time they can go back there to use the loo. At the moment they can't get in and out of the house without our help though, which isn't ideal and means we need to put out metal ramps for them to use when they come up which are not very useful for the rest of us!

I would open up the kitchen and breakfast room and then get some sliding doors or french doors at the back going out into the garden. Id be tempted to steal some of the rear of dining room to incorporate into the new kitchen/open diner. You could convert the part of the current utility (closest to front of house) into a pantry and the rest of the utility/store into a bootility. You could then have the play room in the smaller dining room and then eventually this could become an office/hang out or work space for eventual teens. You'll have a nice line of sight into the garden once you open the front door.

Its time to call kirstie allsop!!!!