Which renovation would you do? Your chance to vote ;)

[YokoUhOh]

Background: 3 bed detached house rural Oxfordshire, 2 DC under 5, family friendly cul de sac location, about £200,000 equity were we to sell right now.

Plan A

We are going to tender with this plan currently. Loft conversion with ensuite, plus garage loft conversion (no staircase, just new doorway). Slight jiggling around of bathrooms. So we'll end up with 5 bedrooms, 2 ensuite and 1 family bathroom. No renovations downstairs.

Plan B

This has just come to me today. JUST the Garage loft conversion, leave the 'big' loft conversion. So four beds, one ensuite, one family bathroom. PLUS knock-through downstairs (no RSJ needed) to make a large kitchen diner (we currently have separate dining room).

Which would you do? With Plan B, we'd still have enough rooms for everyone upstairs plus a guest room, it just won't be as 'nice'. Plus we'd be able to do the downstairs, too. Current kitchen is looking a bit sad (17 years old we think).

Thank you!

Bump! Should I summon PigletJohn and his sage advice?

Plan B.

How much do you want a more open kitchen? Personally I would hate feeling locked away in the kitchen-cell.

B

Plan B if it will still leave you with guest room. With money left sounds like you could massively improve living area which will surely have more impact on your quality of life?

The current kitchen does need changing, but I'm minded to 'go the whole hog' and knock through to make it a kitchen-diner.

On the basis that you live downstairs and sleep upstairs I would want to make sure that downstairs was the best I could make it.

Plan A if you have the funds. It adds rooms and directly affects the value of the house. Gives you more room to live in.
Unless i misunderstood you would be later redecorating downstairs.

In any case get architect drawings etc for the whole house so you can plan things like utility, boiler location, mega flo etc for the house as a whole even if you do it in steps.

Are you planning more children? I wouldn't do a loft conversion (to use as a guest bedroom) in a four bedrooms house; while you're stretched for cash to do the living areas the way you'd like...

It's a resounding 'B' isn't it?

I just can't believe it didn't occur to me before.

Plan B. As long as you still have a separate living room. Open plan is great with small children, but once your children grow older separate living areas are invaluable.

Molly no, we won't be having DC3. So I should be looking at improving the living area, really.

viktoria actually, the living room is knocked through to dining room, so there would be no private room downstairs

Ah, I was going to say plan B too, but agree that separate living area is very nice. Could you knock through kitchen diner and then reinstate separate living room at all? Stud wall? With 2 young children I think downstairs space is more important than upstairs if you have sufficient bedrooms already.

Either way you need to make sure that the space is balanced so 5 beds with small or non friendly downstairs is not a good idea.

Another vote for Plan B. Far more important to have a living area you are happy with as that is where you spend most of your waking hours.

stg Yep I was thinking along those lines. Stud wall would be straightforward.

5am now agreed.

Now to tell the architect/builders there's been a change of plan!!!

Are you intending to put a bedroom above the garage ? As that's going to be quite a serious upgrade and will need substantial fire regs approval too ? (So don't assume it's a smaller job. )

Will knocking the kitchen into the dining room open stairs into that living space ? As if it does, and if you decide on a loft conversion too, further down the line, this will cause fire regs red flags too - and you might need a sprinkler system or close the stairs up ...

Sorry that was a bit gloomy wasn't it !
Happy planning ! I'd get both options quoted for if possible if I were you !

oneplan we already have all the relevant approval/regs checked out for the build above the garage (including fire doors etc) - and the plans have been drawn up and sent off to the builders, alongside the plan for the loft conversion. So it wouldn't need rejigging.

The downstairs work wouldn't involve stairs. I actually asked the engineer when he visited whether IT would be possible to knock through without an RSJ and he seemed to think we'd just have to check through the floor above for something or other (I forget what) and can then go ahead.

All sounds good then !! Phew !!

( IME in general a supporting wall has a wall above it too upstairs -in same place /same format if not just straight ... it's not always easy to tell just but looking at it ! Tapping it can help determine if it's a stud wall or not - stud walls aren't supporting )

Definitely B. Sounds like that combo will give you the most well balanced nice-all-over house and the best result in terms of day to day life.

Thank you everyone I shall speak to the architect tomorrow and see what can be salvaged!

I guess I was talking rubbish... enjoy your build! It's tough but so worth it if you get it right!