Extension dream shattered - what do I do with this kitchen now?

[Fooferella]

I've had a few threads on here asking for help finding a builder for a small yet tricky extension I have been dreaming about for the last 5 years and this week a couple of builders finally put me out of my misery and gave me quotes ranging from £45,000 to £55,000. This is far and away out of our budget so I'm back to square one.

We still need a new kitchen so we're getting one in the original footprint but I'm totally deflated and uninspired now that my bubble has been so rudely popped. The kitchen is awkwardly shaped and small but I'd like to try and improve it for my own sanity. You can't fit 2 people down the narrow corridor in front of the stove and we have to bring our bikes in from the back door through there too. The oven door has 2 cm clearance between it and the wall when it is open. We hardly ever use the table and chairs, they are normally piled up with crap and we're forever moving them out of the way to get at the washer.

I've included pictures of how it is now. How would you organise it? The two things I insist on are an upright fridge/freezer and a dishwasher. Any ideas? Recommendations for kitchen designers good with rubbish spaces? HELP!

What are the dimensions of the living room? If big enough, I'd go with what reefedsail suggests. Otherwise, can you level up the back a little and move the back door so that it's in a corner? The surround around the door looks very thick and takes up space.

What kind of extension were you after?

You can know through for a small extrntion?

I was going to say the same as Ariela, swap kitchen window to door so you’re taking bikes directly through. Like the idea of moving wall back into living room to allow more kitchen space too.

Turn the sink unit 90 degrees so the drainer is on your left , sink will be against wall instead of a window but if you have a dishwasher that doesn't matter, along that wall put dishwasher and washing machine ( drainage and water supply is handy for that).
Make what was the above sink window into a door so you go straight across kitchen into hall , handier for bikes.
Lounge full length wall cupboard is added to kitchen area, cooker goes where microwave was or at least on that wall. Then have a bank of units along inner wall or along outside wall where now there will be 2windows (one formerly the door) so the small breakfast bar could look out the window (formerly door).

Breakfast bar will be part of bank of units but with space underneath for stools.

I don't know how feasible it is within your budget, but I'd swap the rooms around. Get rid of your second hall door (put a porch on the front instead), change the front door to open against the shared wall, not your internal one for better access. Then you can move the doorway into your front room, so forward from its current position. Take out the front chimney breast. Move the kitchen/dining area into the front, the sitting area into the back overlooking your garden and create a utility space with stacking washer/dryer, coats/extra storage cupboard in line with your stairs. Put in floor to ceiling cupboards to max out the space.Move the back door to where your window is now, over the sink. Get rid of the kitchen door and put one in for your new sitting area. Put a new window/doors looking over the garden from the sitting room. This makes maximum use of your longest walls for built in storage and furniture. You can get a good sized L shaped kitchen on the two longest walls in your front room with space for a table and chairs, possibly using the bay for bench seating (use shutters on the window for privacy) with a drop leaf table, and chairs on the other side.Link isn't working for my version of your plan. Will try it again...
Otherwise you need to go open plan or keep saving

Sorry, your bikes are in a locked/alarmed shed outside your back door.

Agree - I would either knock into one open plan space, OR block up current kitchen door from the hall so you have that squarer end as continous space for worktop whatever then have door, double door or just an opening from the living room

Op, what's the dimensions of the rooms?

Is your living room big enough to give some space to your kitchen?

And what about shortening your hallway and extending your living room into that, so the stairs are in the living room? You only need a small hallway and you can then enter into the living room via it.

The lines are a bit wonky but like this.

Yes!! @Bluntness100

Wow! So many options and good advice.

Back story: The reason I can't get builders to quote and why it's so high is that we are a mid-terrace on a steep hill with no access to the garden except through the house. The back garden has a 1m high retaining wall about 1.5m outside the door so there would be a shedload of excavation before they could even dig for foundations and it would all have to be done manually. Another consideration is that there is a public sewer going down the back gardens and the foundations have to be built deeper and offset so as not to disturb it (not to mention the extra surveys and certification that this entails). The front entrance has a set of stairs up to it straight from the street, no place to park vehicles except on the street. The logistics of even just bringing in the steel for the extension was getting ridiculous as they were talking about hiring a crane and lifting it over the house. There are other circumstances, such as elderly MIL with mid-stage dementia that have made us rethink getting into a complicated extension. Our budget is £30,000 and the estimates that were given didn't even cover buying the new kitchen.

So, we're working within our original footprint. I will have a think about the idea of stealing space from the living room or going open plan. I had already planned to take out the vestibule in the front entrance to open it up and have toyed with the idea of moving the door into the living room closer to the front of the house.
I wouldn't switch the kitchen and living areas around. We have a lovely view out the front of the house and can see all the way across to Fife when sitting in the chair near the window.

If you've been there 5 years or more, could you remortgage to release some equity and pay for the extension?

I'm picturing you in a wee fisherman's cottage sitting at your window with a dram/book/g&t.
We get so used to seeing kitchens now as being enormous things with a big island etc, it is possible for a small kitchen to be perfectly functional and nice. I hope you come up with a good plan (lurking on here in the hope someone happens to have a kitchen design that coincidentally solves my own design problems!)

Have any neighbours in the terrace re-jigged their kitchens? It might give you an idea of what to do... or not.

I agree with a combination of the above! Move the door to the window opening on the left so there’s a straight line from front to back (have a nice glass or stable door), make the existing door and window to the right a nice big window, steal some space from the lounge by moving the wall back a bit, move the kitchen area all to the right hand side either a u shape with a breakfast bar under the window or an L shape with a small table and chairs under the new window. Try to put washing machine etc under stairs or in a bathroom to save space and if you have a door between the kitchen and the hall have a pocket door. No excavation so should be much cheaper!

Don't have your front door opening into your lounge. Build a little hallway round it at the side of the room.. People often really dislike a front door that opens straight into the living room.

Dimensions of the living room are 5.3m x 3.3m currently. Taking space away from the living room would make it very small indeed. I'm not sure if by moving the wall between living and dining rooms if 2 steels would be needed or just one. That would an architect/Structural engineer question.
I've done a mock up of what the space would be like if I moved the wall. That would make the living room about 3.5m by 3.3m but would give almost 1.5m to the kitchen and make it a much more usable space. How would I configure the kitchen within this space?

There are a few houses on our street with extensions which is why I thought it would be a doddle. They were all built decades ago and there is no planning permission documents that I could find and none of the original owners built the extension so no idea how they fared with builders and sewer.

Can you get rid of the hall? So what you lose from moving kitchen wall back you gain from hall? There's a jutting out bit on your back wall - can you level off that wall to gain a bit more space?

There used to be a wonderful architect on these pages called @oneplan I think? I've seen her posts on Houzz too. She has an amazing eye for what is possible - maybe she can see a way make the space work better. I think s straight route through for bikes would be a start.

I think someone said earlier to not spend to much on your existing kitchen so u can save for your dream extention
I'm inclined to agree once I start knocking walls down and getting the fixings in moving pipes etc and a new kitchen it's going to cost a fortune
So I would take a different approach
Why don't u look at some long narrow kitchens on Google
And look at some space saving ideas like fold away breakfast bars etc
Your kitchen looks in really good condition as it is it does seem to be a waste to spend your money on something that your hearts not in to
Or since your hubby isn't wanting to move just keep an eye out a house might come up in the local area that is more practical for you both

Oneplanonhouzz is an independent kitchen designer.

I don't think the living room is big enough to steal from and losing the symmetry of the fire would compromise it a lot. Rooms with offset fireplaces can look discomforting.

I think knock out both cupboards and reclaim them for the kitchen. You might be able to get a bit more than cupboard depth from the area under the stairs, but it's a balance with keeping ceiling height to accommodate tall cupboards. I like your L shaped idea - I think you should be shifting most of the kitchen into that squarer area on the left, with understairs cupboard incorporated.

With the narrow bit where the oven is, You can get 45cm depth units which might work. A curved corner cupboard at the end would help it recede further. Alternatively, if you can get enough worktop in the L shaped bit, how about floor to ceiling 30cm depth cupboards? They are fabulous. Stuff is more accessible than in deeper cupboards and they give the illusion of a bigger kitchen because it looks like you've filled a deeper space with deeper cupboards IYSWIM. Keep doors narrow so they don't swing out too wide. You could have crockery, food, coats, mop all shut away. And it would look modern and aspirational.

Maybe consider a butchers block at the end of the corridor, for a bit of useful workspace that looks intentional rather than bitty.

Consider losing the small window.

Maybe a little breakfast bar top left, turning the L shape into a slight U. Alternatively you can get extra pullout work surfaces that shut away into cabinets, which might work well in that spot.

Ah apologies for all that, I missed your last. What are the dimensions of the enlarged kitchen?

I'd knock through into the lounge, put the hob on the wall to the left & have a seating area at the end of the kitchen where the wall to the lounge has gone