The kitchen diner dilemma: Extend, just knock through or do nothing at all!

[KernowJim]

Hello,
First time post here, so please be gentle 😊

Just looking to get a range of thoughts, advice and wisdom regarding a kitchen diner dilemma me and my partner are trying to get our heads around.

Just to give you a brief background without wittering on too much. We have a 1930’s semi with a decent sized back garden. We’re not sure how long we plan to live here - it’s certainly not our ‘forever home’ but it could be anything between 2 and 5 years before we move. We would like to knock down the wall between the kitchen and the dining room to create a kitchen-diner. In an ideal world, we would also like to extend out into the garden to make a bigger space again.
So, bearing in mind that we’re not sure how long we intend to be in this house. What advice would people offer on what to do.

1. Extend
   Pros: more space, allows us to install additional features (e.g. larder/utility room), could make the house more sellable?
   Cons: expensive, disruptive, more stressful!

2. Just knock through
   Pros: Give us enough space for a kitchen diner, not as expensive as extending, not so disruptive
   Cons: The fact we’ve not extended when creating a kitchen diner could put buyers off when we come to sell the house.

3. Do nothing at all
   Pros: No disruption, not having to spend any money
   Cons: Having to live with a kitchen we really dislike and a dining room we don’t use

I have been wondering if we go with the ‘just knock through’ option, then perhaps we can do it in a way that would allow someone else (or even us) to extend without being too disruptive to the work which had already taken place (e.g. not having to refit the kitchen or move services etc..)

Anyway, sorry for the waffle. It’s actually very useful for me to scribble my thoughts down in this manner.

Thanks in advance.

I would not remove the chimney breast as it could be supporting the chimney in the bedroom above, not to mention your next door neighbours. It can be done but is costly and may require party wall consent etc.

I would consider blocking up one of the doors. If you block up the door into the dining room it could create a nice office area. You can leave the door in situ on the hall side and block it up from the dining area. Or you could block the door going into the kitchen. This may give a better option for the kitchen layout as you are going to be losing the wall into the dining room. However you would have to think about brining shopping in etc. If you move the back door to the side this would make access easier but again you will lose part of a wall.

You may want to move the back door and put in a big window at worktop height.

Also think about moving the entire kitchen into the dining area and keeping boiler, washing machine, fridge freezer and dishwasher in the existing kitchen. Google butlers pantry. I would still open up the old kitchen but maybe keep a bit of wall. I would put the table in front of the French windows and maybe think about using the chimney breast to fit a range style cooker.

Love Bristol and Cornwall!

Careful Bubbles, I may be abroad, but Cornwall is home! Depends if you're from Pensilva or not as to whether you should be shut away! (Apologies to those from Pensilva of course).

I think the chimney breast is between the kitchen and the dining room so the Party Wall Act is not relevant. OP - our layout was pretty much the same apart from the extra kitchen bit I mentioned and the chimney breast was in the bit where the door into the dining room is. We took out the chimney breast throughout the house (so in bedroom above too and loft). It was really really dusty (thick black soot as well as dust), it was grim. Just bear in mind that there may be hidden expenses, our ceilings and floors weren't level between the 2 rooms once we'd knocked through.

In a similar situation, we just knocked through. Our house is a 1920s terrace, so we blocked the entry to the galley kitchen and took down the wall between the kitchen and dining room. We haven't actually ended up with more space - if anything, we have less kitchen storage, but we have a lovely bright room (the back wall of the dining room was replaced with bifold doors). But gaining space wasn't our priority - using space meaningfuly was (we hardly ever used the dining room).

Budget also played a huge part in the decision: extending would have cost 10 times what the knock-through did.

When we come to sell, we hope to use the lack of extension as a selling point (ie, there's plenty of room to extend, how exciting!).