Proposed house purchase/remodelling

[itinerant]

Hi all
This is a long-ish post but I thought it might be worth consulting the Mumsnet hive mind. Please bear with me!
We have our eye on this house, currently being used as a B and B but with planning consent to convert back to residential:

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-63442675.html

It ticks plenty of boxes in terms of location (perfect), bedrooms and bathrooms (all teenagers, one off to university soon), and price. However, the kitchen is tiny and pretty unusable (the B and B only provides fruit and croissants for breakfast so it’s just a small unloved space); there is no dining room and the two rooms downstairs are currently being used as bedrooms, complete with en-suites. There is also a small cellar (3.3 x 2.7m) which is more than head height – it’s untanked, but looks like it could be converted into something useful, and a north-facing "store" - which is actually the outside yard. The owners have put a corrugated roof over the yard, laid some sort of industrial-looking concrete floor, and are using it as a store for all the B and B’s bedding, supplies etc. The boiler is also out here.
I have attached the downstairs floorplan to show what this looks like.
In my head, I imagine:

• converting the basement into a small study that can be accessed directly from the kitchen
• knocking through from the kitchen to the adjacent room (having removed the en-suite) to make an open plan kitchen diner. The stairs would be in the middle of this room, magically holding up the floor above (see random internet image which explains things better)
• knocking out the en-suite in the front room to create a lovely separate sitting room
• boxing in the boiler/moving the kitchen wall back and creating a small courtyard garden (I’m not too bothered about a lawn or a large garden)

Before I start talking to architects/planners/builders about a house we haven’t even put an offer on, I wonder if anyone has any thoughts on this in terms of feasibility/logic etc, or any alternative ideas? Thank you!

Hmm - I wouldn't be keen on stairs in the kitchen. Have you looked at the floorplans for similar houses on the same road? It appears the stairs were moved in the one you are interested in, probably when it was converted to a B&B. I'd look at getting drawings based around your current ideas, keeping the stairs where they are with rough costings and for restoring the original layout too. An architect may come up with something else too.

I don't think you can have your stairs open to the kitchen with that many floors (fire risk). Depending on your budget, have you consideRed having the kitchen and converted cellar opened up at the back for your kitchen dining space? Then you could have 2 receptions at the front.

I would look at the possibility of moving the stairs to run in line with the hallway.

Fire risk aside, I’m not sure you could successfully knock through because there are the cellar stairs in the way too.

Just remember if you move the stairs that could be 3 staircases to move and 4 floors to reconfigure!

Useful comments all, thank you. I'm embarrassed to say I hadn't even thought of the fire risk but I can see why this might be an issue - also the knock-on effect on the other staircases. Plenty of food for thought

Bumping for any other thoughts/ideas

TBH I wouldn't bother with basement conversion unless you are going to get a REALLY decent room. It is a very expensive form of extension (excavation, tanking/pump, protecting the house).

Stairs in the middle of your open plan kitchen diner... nope. You'll get into needing not only fire doors but probably a sprinkler system as well. Also nois and smell transfer upstairs would bother me. Also the cellar stairs are in the way aren't they?

You are talking about spending over £100k on what you want to do, well over. If you have that kind of money are there not better suited properties you can just buy?