Extension and new kitchen- please help me begin to plan

[shovetheholly]

I am having an awful time at the moment, and I need something to pull me through it.

I am planning a house extension to fit in a new kitchen and dining space. I'm not going to do it right away because of the aforementioned awful time, but I have the money all saved up and ready to go. I want to start planning it to make myself focus on the future in more of a positive way.

My house is a very standard 1930s semi, but I love it and am very happy here. However, the kitchen is the size of a cupboard. So I am planning to extend out right along the back of the house to create a new kitchen/dining space. I want something contemporary. I love my garden but am currently very much cut off from it with the layout of the house (back door at the side) so would very much like a wall of glass folding doors letting in loads of light and plenty of space to cook and eat!

How do I begin planning the space? I will involve an architect at a later point, but I feel like I need to have a better understanding of what I want before I can brief them. Are there any books or magazines that are helpful for this type of thing? What are the first questions I should ask myself?

Following!

Have any of your neighbours done a similar extension? If so, the plans should be on the council website. I have looked at lots of my neighbours plans and it's given me loads of ideas.

I loved the planning stage for my extension and new kitchen. Do lots of research, I found pinterest, houzz, Google images, magazines etc good for this and bookmarked my favourite looks. I drew some simple plans as to where to put stuff. I had a 6m wall of bi-folds in and I love it. Enjoy!

See if you can squeeze in a downstairs loo and utility if you don't have one. Really useful and adds value.

Look at expensive kitchens then look at cheaper ones and work out how to make them look classy. Usually tops,handles, taps etc make the difference.

Look at your budget and ensure it is actually doable. On tv programmes people often want to do x with y budget simply because that's how much they can afford and will not heed advice that it will cost more. And remember a 10% contingency budget. At least.

Go on rightmove - just nosey at other people's houses

Look on a satellite map of your area to identify houses of the same type as yours which have been extended, and drop a note through the door with your contact details asking for a nosey peek.

The Homebase website has a free to use 3d planning tool which you can use to visualise what you want.

Get a big bit of paper and a pencil. Sketch out (roughly) the rooms you currently have, and the size / space of your new extension.
Clear your mind of what the rooms are currently used for - this can change - but mark on where water comes in to your property, where the drains are and if gas/elec pipes are in the way.
Which walls are load bearing and which are not, and could potentially come down.

Look at the space. How do you plan on entering the new extension? Via your current kitchen? Can you consider entrance via another room? It's not too much hassle to make a window into a door.

Do you currently have a downstairs wc? Do you want to try and fit one in? Where is your washing machine going? Where will you dry laundry? Separate utility rooms are very popular now. How will water get in / waste water get out?

Where will you keep your wheelie bins outside / your rubbish and recycling inside? Make this task easy for yourself.

Are you keeping your existing back door, or could you make this a window?
Do you need space for a dog/cat bed?
Do you potentially need to move your boiler / hot water tanks? If so, to where?

If it's a whole rear extension, do you still have natural light coming in to the existing garden facing rooms, and if not, can you fit a velux?

Once you've thought about how the space will work for you, you can think about the kitchen. Do you want an island? Do you want to face the garden when you are cooking / washing up? Do you want a base oven, or inbuilt or even a range cooker? Remember the work triangle of your sink, hob and fridge (although professional kitchen planners will help you with this).

We are building an extension this year and were originally just going to revamp the conservatory off the kitchen, but are now knocking through from the galley bathroom instead and splitting the existing kitchen into a family sized bathroom and utility room. It's cost me £800 extra in drawing fees due to all the changes but is a much better use of the space. Enjoy your planning!

Great idea to focus your mind on something positive !

Lots of great tips posted already ! I'd echo the going on line - researching - enjoying looking at all the things that could make this change really work for your family !

Copy -paste as much as you can into a word doc or pin / collate in an ideabook. Etc as you can then pass these ideas onto the pros you choose to help you with the tricky bits !

Most of all have fun !

Thank you all so, so much for the suggestions! They are really helpful.

I do have one neighbour with an extension but their house was on sale recently and a quick look at the plans on Rightmove revealed that their solution was very unhappy indeed. Which is partly why I want to really think it through.

spend some time on houzz.co.uk. Loads of ideas from real life projects.

Most decent architects will have great ideas, so I'd suggest you just get together you wish list (divide it into "must have" "maybe" "definitely not!") and get images of rooms you like. Don't try to find ones the fits you and your space exactly, just gather things you like, regardless of if they fit together or if they make sense - that what you'll be paying an architect for, to sort out your design thoughts!

Also, do you need an architect, maybe look into using an interior designer. A good one should have decent connections with people who can draw up plans. They should also have good kitchen connections. They are often better at designing a layout as they should be focussed on understanding you and your family lifestyle, not what looks good on paper...

Try Houzz (love it, much better than Pinterest) and pick a magazine that suits your style eg living etc if contemporary, house&garden more traditional etc.....

I think a concept planner might be good to get on board at some stage - as a good one will be your personal kitchen designer and space planner for as much or as little of the space you want to address at one time . If you use a CP with CAD drawings capabilities you can see perspectives of what your finished room could look like - which makes adding colours, if you want to see alternatives, easy too ! Not all concept planners offer interior design ( ie paints and fabrics )

But lots of people have their own ideas by the time it's built re colours and fabrics !

MatildaTheCat
See if you can squeeze in a downstairs loo and utility if you don't have one. Really useful and adds value.

We did this. Same as you had a 30s semi with te usual tiny kitchen. We made split the existing kitchen so 1/3 was a downstairs loo accessed from the old kitchen door in the hall. The other 2/3 was a utility accessed from the new kitchen.

We were on a really tight budget and couldn't afford to get the whole kitchen we wanted in one go so as a compromise we got all of the base units and some shelves. The shelves were intended to be a temporary measure until we could afford high units but they look really good so we're not bothering.

If you've got a paved area in the garden, get some chalk and mark out all of the potential configurations. We abandoned a kitchen island idea after doing this as we realised it'd be just too tight.

Oh and looking round neighbours extensions gave us loads of ideas of what we DIDNT want, so definitely useful

I'm thinking of doing something similar but haven't got a clue who to contact first - architect/designer/building firms? Likely I'll have to do it all in stages over a couple of years for financial reasons but, like op, really need something to look forward to! Anyone know if there a website with advice re: what to do when?

See I think your op is perfect. In that you know what you want, enough to go and chat with some architects. They will then come up with some broad brushstroke ideas, you then pick the one you want to take things further.

We did an extension a couple of years ago thinking we knew what we wanted, we eventually went with the architect who said (very bluntly) 'you know you can't afford what you want, if I were you I would do this...' His idea was great and in budget and we love what we have now.

Again, think about Rightmove. If you see any properties with similar set up - ie already had the extension - phone the estate agent, explain what you are doing and ask if you can have a viewing to see the "dos" and "don'ts". Particulary if see a layout you particularly like - see if you can have a look round (lie if necessary and pretend you are looking to buy). You may then discover a few good ideas - or a few no-nos.

We did this and it helped solidify a few of our plans. We found a few 1930s semis who had blocked off the way into the kitchen by adding in a downstairs loo in the middle of the house - you then could only get to the kitchen by walking into the lounge/dining area. Having no way to walk from the front door to the kitchen would, to me be a total pain.

And yy to the piece of paper. Get graph paper if you can and then cut out scale bits of furniture to place in your scale plan of the house. This helped us realised our dining area of our open plan bit could not go in one part of our L-shaped room as it would not really fit.

Enjoy the planning.

Really? I don't think an estate agent would be overly keen on letting someone view a house they are trying to sellwhen the only intention is to compile a list if do's and dont's when they could have genuine buyers through the door.
We had a load if 'time wasters' through our door when trying to sell whose only point was to look around, totally pi$$ed me off, one even said before she set foot in house she was just looking for interior design ideas, needless to say she never crossed the door.
In terms if advice, we have used Houzz loads to get ideas on the extension we are due to begin

I know too said lie, but being on the receiving end if this approach in the past is simply not fair on the seller especially when you have to out all the effort in to tidy/get the kids out etc

We asked the estate agent we were buying through. He was happy with it (though tbh both houses we viewed were vacant between rentals so we were not putting anyone to any effort iyswim). Estate Agent also knew we had a lot of work to do on the one we were buying. He asked me for honest feedback on the houses we viewed. He also gave his views on what people like/dislike about room layout etc.

To be honest, I think I would have felt uncomfortable viewing with a vendor and/or if the vendor had still been living there - so you have a fair point.

Still maybe worth a phone call to a tame-ish Estate Agent if you know one even just to get their opinions. They see a lot of houses. And get feedback on them so know what doesn't work.

Shamelessly lurking. Yes, who do you contact first - architect or builder?

We know a good local builder - do I ask him for architect recommendations?

Do builders work with any architect, or do they come as a package?

Have fun, OP!

The builder - architect relationship can come from either party. If you choose them independently then they may not end up working well together so suggest you have a chat with the builder (as you have a relationship of sorts already there) and see if he has worked with anyone that he could recommend. Likewise if he says 'no you don't need an architect, I can do all that for you', check that he can, ask to see examples of his design work as well as build work, and check that the clients were happy - have seen a lot of builders try to control the build even against the wishes of the client.... And they'll probably work as a team, not as a package.

"Interview" 3 or 4, in my opinion.....& don't be afraid to ask difficult questions.

Great, thanks.

This is ancient - but OOOooo so good. I used it when planning my kitchen/extension a couple of years ago. It is long, and some bits do repeat but it made me really think out some dull bits which have resulted in me now having a open plan kitchen/dining/family area that is pretty perfect (for us).

Space wise wrt the layout/room plan - think about your wish list. What do you want from your house? How do you want to live. We wanted a separate sitting room for relaxing in away from the noise/mess of the kitchen and a separate utility for laundry, coats, boots. The downstairs loo is also in the same area. Rest of the space we left open plan but zoned.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property/a1554664-The-MN-lessons-learnt-kitchen-thread