Really small galley kitchen - would you?

[AngryFeet]

We are thinking about putting in an offer on a house and the only thing putting me off is the tiny kitchen. Here is the link www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-40161755.html

Too small or workable?

Too small.
Could you move to the dining room?

It's about the same size as my kitchen TBH. The worktops are always piled high with stuff and I have to keep some of my baking gear in the dining room instead. My tumble drier is in the garage. I would think carefully, it may drive you mad.

Very similar to my kitchen-definitely workable. Looks as though there's space for a table in the next door room for food prep etc. do you love the rest of the house?

Having said that my fridge is currently in the dining room...

The layout of the house is very odd. Such a teeny kitchen and relatively small living room but two large dining areas.

Can you afford to do something to the house - I would be looking at moving the kitchen. Tricky without knowing which walls are load bearing, but if you could open it up, make the living room larger and use part of the dining room as the kitchen?

There is room in the conservatory just past the doorway of kitchen on both sides so could fit a fridge/freezer on one side and either a pantry type cupboard or a cupboard with washing machine and tumble dryer in on the other side (tall cupboards to reach the ceiling). I am not much of a cook but I keep looking at the worksurfaces thinking where will I fit kettle/microwave/toaster etc.

The rest of the house is great (if very dated but we are happy to do work) and a very good size for the money we have... Plus just around the corner from a very good secondary which is very important to us.

Yes I think we would be looking to do that MmeLindor (or extending to the side) but I think we would want to get other bits sorted first so would have to live with it like this for at least 2/3 years.

Saying that, if you had money to do up the house then you could just go for slightly more expensive like this one, so presumably that is top of your budget?

Yes it is really - we could go a bit more (up to £310k) but DH is keen to spend less, do our own thing and have some equity in the house. He is able to do lots of work himself which would save a lot and hopefully increase the value a fair bit.

I would knock through into the dining room from the kitchen, leave the conservatory as at is and have a bigger kitchen/family room.

Could you cook in kitchen and use conservatory for eating? Might work intil you can knock through to dining room?

We had a galley kitchen and it drove me insane.

How old are your children? Part of why I got so frustrated was that I couldn't make our tea and feed Dd at the same time

Yes, I thought so.

Although, I reckon it would cost you more than £20k to get the first house to the standard that the second house already is at.

If you go for the 3 bed, then I would put in a lower offer. Compared to the other house, I would say it is overpriced.

that looks just like my kitchen
we have spread into the dining room - fridge freezer is there, and some other kitchenware

we have a Grand Plan to knock through when dd2 goes to school and we stop paying nursery fees, but until then it's absolutely fine. In fact it's encouraged us to declutter a lot of kitchenware that we never used. the only real PITA is that until we do remodel there's nowhere we can put a dishwasher, but it looks like your prospective house has one in situ.

by the way, even if the dividing wall is load bearing, an getting an RSJ put it is not too ££££

Similar to our kitchen - you'll live .

You just have to be organised and not fill it up with big mixers and 67 different kinds of dish.

The house looks great, it looks like it could have a lot of potential if you spend a bit of money on it.

I would get a structural bod to take a look at the wall btw the kitchen and the dining room and see if it could be taken down. If you could open up the kitchen into the dining area and sort out that conservatory you could end up with a great family kitchen.

I think it looks quite pokey for the money and much prefer the look of the house which MmeLindor linked to, it looks much airier inside and you would avoid the hassle, time and expense of doing the work needed to bring the first house up to scratch..

Hm. I find it so irritating that our kitchen is just a touch too small for a family sized dining table, and that, as a result we move our table between conservatory and living room according to the season, each of which are adjacent to the kitchen, and carry dishes and condiments to the table for every mealtime (I refuse to "plate up" in the kitchen...). We are not in a position to extend for another few years, and it quietly grates at me every day that we don't have the large family kitchen I would love. Do think carefully. But the garden looks great! Good luck.

Yes DH said we should offer £295k as properties move fast around here but I think we should start lower. The man is definitely wanting to shift it fast. He nearly sold at the end of last year but said the chain fell apart at both ends but he has somewhere to go now and most of his stuff is already packed up. We are first time buyers and are pretty much ready to go so I think he would accept a lower offer from us.

Yes NotGood - to be honest I am a shit cook and more of a buy something and bung in the oven type so apart from xmas it is not too big a deal. I would need a serious clean out of the tonnes of kitchen stuff I own and never use!

Redwelly my children are 8 and 6 so can fend for themselves. If we have a table in the conservatory (I think the floor plan says breakfast room) it will seem like an extension of the kitchen anyway. The conservatory in our current house is a bit of a nightmare as it is so cold in winter but this one has better radiators and seemed really warm when we were in it.

What about this house

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-35974288.html?showcase=true

3 beds, 2 reception, huge kitchen garden iffy though!

I would knock though to the conservatory. But saying that the secon house seems a better price. ATM many are accepting 10% less or more so you might be about to bring it down to the £300k mark or more all depending on time it's been on the market

Yes pannacotta but the house MmeLindor linked is out of our budget. This house is actually a very good size for the area it is just very very badly decorated. The hallway has hessian wallpaper in a lovely brown colour

Nice mini but we need a driveway and garage (DH has 2 motorbikes plus we have a car) and that is near very crappy secondary schools. We want to be near either Warlingham High School or Riddlesdown.

Are you kidding? you want your first offer rejected so you know you are definitely not offering too much. I'd offer £270 maximum to start with. They must know anyone buying it would want to knock through something to make the kitchen bigger. Decide your maximum price, then offer no more than 90% of that first time and be available to haggle. Emphasise your excellent position, no chain etc.

You could always put a couple of freestanding kitchen units in the conservatory too, and think of the kitchen more as a prep/cleaning up area. Looks great!