What can I do with this terrace layout?

[TiddleTaddleTat]

I've had some useful feedback from this board and decided to buy a small terrace mortgage free rather than stretching ourselves and getting a large mortgage for a semi. Unfortunately in my area it's either £210k for a 3 bed terrace or £300k for a doer-upper 2/3 bed semi, with nothing in between.

This is the layout of one terrace I've seen in a particularly good location. In addition to the offshot kitchen there is a small outhouse (complete with original plumbing). I'm wondering about how I could remodel this space to create a utility area, downstairs toilet and/or coats and shoes space.

The dining area is apt 12x12ft and the kitchen is 8 x 7ft.

Budget is £30k for the whole project (which needs to include replastering throughout and probably new windows).

Any ideas or links to similar projects?

Should add the outhouse is attached to the back of the kitchen and currently accessed from the outside.

Could you make the current dining room into a kitchen diner and make the existing kitchen your utility?

is the offshoot kitchen single storey?

@Finfintytint That could be a good plan, I wonder if I could get a toilet in too?

@madmum5811 Yes the kitchen is single storey, I have pondered making this into a two storey extension but not sure how useful the additional space would be upstairs. It's already a 3 double bedroom (3 storey) house

Is there any scope for a porch? Coats and shoes sorted. With the added bonus that the front door doesn't open onto the living room.

Where's the outhouse?

You should have 2 doors between a toilet and the kitchen, so it could be tricky to attach the outhouse if it's immediately behind the kitchen.

I saw a Love It or List It where Kirsty knocked the kitchen & dining room together, and switched the kitchen & dining areas around. The family loved it, but I thought it made a narrow, awkward dining area right where people wanted to walk through to get to the garden.

@TwoGinScentedTears I wondered that too, but It would have to be at the front of the house rather than the back because of the angle of the neighbour's back garden fence. None of the other houses in the area have amended their front doors and everyone accessed via the back.

If budget allows then you could knock through from new utility to your outhouse which would become a wc/spare shower. Ive no idea about budgets though!

@KickAssAngel I suppose that could work here - using the current kitchen as the dining area, although it would be very small.

If the outhouse was converted into a modern toilet, I'd probably switch the current kitchen into a utility - allowing there to be 2 doors

I think the two door rule doesn’t apply any more.

@Finfintytint thanks, that could definitely work. Budget is flexible - we probably have about £30k for the whole house but it involves other work

I would get an architect in to be honest, get some quotes. You will then have a much better idea what will work for you. My son demolished the one storey kitchen then built right across the back of the property. It made the courtyard smaller but they then had a good sized kitchen diner.

@madmum5811 that looks great, yes I am open to involving an architect. At this stage I'm just trying to get some ideas about what's possible before for put an offer in, fingers crossed!

Haha are you buying my house?!

We have the exact same layout. We’re not extending as our garden is very precious and we are not sure we’ll make the money back due to location.

We’re knocking down the wall between the kitchen and diner and bricking up the current door and making the large window in our dining room into narrow French doors out to the garden. We too have outhouses but ours aren’t in great nick.

I agree with previous posters - be careful what you change that end room into. Our neighbours have made theirs into a utility/ boot room and made the dining room into one kitchen diner and to me it feels like a criminal waste of space!

I’ve just been looking at kitchen designs today actually, I’ll attach an image!

What do you know about the cellar? Is it a usable space or a spidery swamp?

I lived in a house with a similar kitchen and dining room set up, complete with almost identical dimensions and an outhouse bolted on the back. I did keep the washer and dishwasher in there, but to be honest, it was single skin brick and so poorly insulated that the pipes often froze. It would have needed complete rebuilding to be incorporated into the house.

I would try and extend teh kitchen accross the back of teh dniing room and knock through into a kitchn diner.
then brick up the door to the outside loo from the outside but knock a door in from the kitchen and convert it to a utility/loo space...

alternatively if it is sound or maybe even if its not extend out to the boundary line of the outside room and just incorporate it?

is teh celler any use? as another option if you extended out would be to take a slice of the current dinning room and put a loo there and create a bit of a hall it would only need to be a bit wider than a door ...could you access cellar from the living room?

(I did the sort of the first version my neighbour did the 2nd both work :)

Lots of great ideas here , thank you!
I don't know if extending across the back or building a porch could work due to the odd shape of the garden - essentially doing so might remove direct access to the garden (useful for wheelie bins etc)

@KateAlexander I saw a house with this layout yesterday, and quite liked it. I'm probably just trying to be too ambitious with quite a small plot though. I would really like space for a utility area.

the cellar is quite a good space with no signs of damp. Interesting idea about the hallway, I will ponder how we could fit that in...

@averythinline could you give me a rough idea of how much your extension cost?

Has anyone got any ideas about how the cellar might be incorporated?

If outhouse is in good insulation and doesn't freeze, make it into utility.

The cellar can take the strain off your kitchen storage eg for dishes and pans you don't use frequently or multipacks of tinned food, even veg if it's fairly cool. You could possibly get a tumble dryer and chest freezer down there. Basically, use it as a larder with drying facilities.

@mum2015 I think the outhouse is just single brick construction , so I'd need to insulate it

Ok. But it might be cheaper to insulate and make utility in outhouse if it already has electric and plumbing than extending the current house and using part of house as utility.

Good point. I think I need to think carefully about the ceiling value of a property like this l - it's probably about £235k. The vendor wants £208k so I might not make back what I spend on it if I do a proper extension, better to adapt what's already there as you say.

Ours was approx 6*4m with internal work as well and in London probably double your budget but some tricky structural work...
We did get an architect first. We just keep our weely bins in the front garden.
I think if the cellar is usable i would definitely get power down there for freezer etc