Should I lose a utility room for a dining area? Floorplan attached

[LuciaInFurs]

I have just bought a small terrace and unfortunately the ground floor is fairly small.

The house comes with planning permission to extend and make a kitchen diner but sadly I don't have a spare £30,000 and the permission will expire long before we can save up for the extension.

I think my two options are to somehow make a joint living and dining room within the fairly small living room or knock down the wall separating the utility and kitchen and make a kitchen diner (The kitchen has units on all the walls expect the wall it shares with the utility room). We don't own a television so the living room would effectively be a dining room with two ceiling height bookcases and a sofa.

We are hoping to have a child soon and I'm not sure what would be more useful for a family with kids, the utility room with cramped joint living room and dining room or the larger kitchen diner? I think we will be staying at this house long term, as I doubt we'll be able to afford a larger home.

We do have a spare 8 x 8 bedroom upstairs that could be turned into a living room, but will guests find that strange?

Thank you!

I would live in it for 6mths then see how you feel.

And if the pp expires, can it be reapplied for later? Most likely. I'd rather save up and do an extension in 5yrs than lose a utility room tbh.

Could you keep a small space in the utility, to house a washing machine and dryer?

Knock the utility through to the kitchen to make a kitchen diner

Living room keep the same

Turn cupboard under stairs into a utility cupboard ( washer and dryer stacked)

Have you an under stair cupboard? You need somewhere for Hoover, mops, brushes etc-that's what I missed. Agree to wait 6 months tho & see if you would be able to save for extension so you do t outgrow the house too quickly

Kitchen diner. Can you put a cupboard in the spare bedroom and make that your utility space?

Definitely lose the utility and, if possible, have the cupboard under the stairs opening from behind into the kitchen-diner rather than into the living room if you decide to have that as your utility area.

How much outside space have you got?

Medium term I'd go for a utility shed with washing machine and dryer.

Short term utility room knock through to create dining room.

Change door access to under stairs from new kitchen dining room to create more useable space in lounge.

If your bashing walls around and seeing it as a long term home with children one out there thought would be to turn the stairs around and medium term have a downstairs cloakroom in the understairs space from your entrance lobby and either turned stairs up from the lounge or from the kitchen diner. Obviously can't see the upstairs and knock ons of that though.

Kitchen diner. A utility is a bit of a luxury in a house that size, a dining area should not be. You will get planning permission again in future, you don't need to worry about it expiring. If you decide to extend in future (perhps when baby #2 comes along? ) you can put in a utility and a downstairs loo then.

Kitchen diner so much the better option when you have a family imo.
Lots of people survive without a utility room - I'd prefer the extra living space.

Kitchen diner. Lose the utility but have a big cupboard built in the new K/D for the washer and Hoover etc.

Upstairs utility? That's what I'd have if I'd thought about it before the builders put up the walls in my house upstairs.

You could renew the planning permission, as long as you did it before the current permission expired.

You would only need to submit a letter along with a fee and would normally get a further 5 years to commence the work.

Thank you all so much for your suggestions!

I know planning permission can be applied for again but I'm convinced paranoid that the planning laws will change at some point in the future and our application rejected. FriedSprout I was told that if you renewed planning permission it could only be extended for two years?

I agree a utility room is a luxury in a house that small, the house was built in the 1920s so it may have been a downstairs bathroom?

The house has a cupboard under the stairs for the hoover etc. and I hadn't thought about having the cupboard as the utility room, that works really well thank you Lalalonglegs.

I've attached the floor plan of the first floor and the second floor is a loft conversion. It's quite strange in its layout as the first floor has five rooms, a good amount of floor space and doesn't feel small. The garden is about 90ft long so there is a good amount of space for an extension.

I agree with all the posters that said we should live in the house for six months to see what will work best, we are long time renters and I'm just so excited!

I would love a utility on the bedroom floor. Can you change one of the bedrooms beside the bathroom into a utility/laundry room easy plumbing. Put a tv in there happy ironing space for your DP.

Apologies, it's been a while - apparently legislation in 2009 changed this!

Have a trainee in today - thought your project would be a fun one to mock up ... This involves removing an internal wall and moving a door - and replacing a window and door with a larger opening glass door - so obviously seek the appropriate actions /permission/etc etc before doing anything !

Just to show you the sort of space you could have ....

The bookshelves would help muffle the sound from the laundry appliances ( have them behind a door - if we drew the door in you wouldn't have seen the appliances there !) there's room for other utilitarian type bits under the stairs too by the look of it ... Quick generic design of a family sized kitchen with 900mm range and family sized FF and a DW and storage etc - as its a family sized home - so just start filling it with children !!!

I'd get rid of the utility wall and have a kitchen diner and buy the quietest washing machine you can. (Going into the understairs space via the kitchen would be a good idea rather than via the living room, then putting the washing machine in there, only issue would be if you want to have a tumble drier you might need to think about ventillation)

Later if you can afford to put an extention on the back, a dining room or just a conservatory that could be a playroom would be handy. (I would love to have a separate room to put all the toys in)

I would have the book shelf on wheels so you can access the low understairs space.

You need to keep the utility room, i would be lost without mine! It stores all my dirty washing, washer/tumbel dryer, cat food, garden stuff, wires, bags, hover, mop, brush etc and a small toilet to the right of it behind another day. its the best use of around 3 meters by 1.5 in my house:-)

Go with OPOH's suggestion. Is exactly what I would have said.

I would lose the utility but not change it into a dining room yet. Having a space with a sofa and rug where a toddler could play behind a long baby gate while you do kitchen stuff will be so helpful. You could have a space saver table and chairs in the living room for now. Then re-assess in a few years.

You could 'implement' your planning permission by doing some small works on the extension now (or before the 3 years runs out) - you would need to dig a trench or lay some underground pipes to it. Have a google around to see what the bare minimum is. Worth doing if you know that you (or the next person you sell your house to) will definitely want the extension/planning permission. Aso worth knowing is that if you start any works covered by the planning notice, then that covers the lot, e.g. we had a porch and an extension on the same planning application. We've built the porch, so our permission to build the extension will never expire, even though we have no intention of building it.

OnePlanOnHouzz That is such a great use of the space and such an improvement on the current space! Thank you for taking the time to draw this up for me. I love the glass door, the ceilings are fairly low and the lighting isn't great so the door would really open up the space.

Neepsandtatties I didn't know that, thank you. I will definitely contact the council to find out what their minimum is.

Thank you all so much for your help and suggestions, I was starting to worry that we'd never make this home work! Now just have to fill it with some babies!