New window on link detached house

[vivimimi]

Hi - ours is a linked detached/ detached house (see pic). We are planning to have rear kitchen/diner extension. On doing that our current dining room will become a room in the middle between the front reception and rear kitchen/diner. This room in the middle will be without a window.

I wonder if we can open up Window on the detached left side of the house. Do we need any permissions? There's no shared wall with neighbours. Although it's a narrow alley, at least there will be some window opening for that room.

Keen to hear views. Thank you.

Skylights?

OK, I just thought that through - ignore me!!

You can probably put a window there, you’ll likely need planning, but it probably won’t get much light. Have you considered putting the kitchen into the current dining room? That’s what we did and it worked really well. The kitchen is the room that you’re most likely to want artificial light in

Is the alley shared?

Even if you own the alley it'd be a grim outlook. Presumably you are knocking through a wall from front room or towards the back to allow light through. if not - then that is the usual approach.

Hi @Rollercoaster1920 - yes the alley is shared. There is covenant to "right to way". I have a feeling we may not be allowed to construct a window. I'm checking the legal stance on this from my solicitor.

As a shared right of way any future owner of next door could stand there looking in your window. So I wouldn't put a window in there. You'll get very little light anyway, and put off future buyers.

Have you looked to see what planning applications to extend have been made locally - they're in the public domain on the council's website. It would be worth seeing what others have done for ideas to prevent having a windowless room and what has and hasn't been permitted.

You could apply for planning to put in a very high up horizontal window or maybe an obscured glass like you get in bathrooms. But as your neighbour there is no way I would want you to do that.

There are lots of issues around ground floor windows especially to the side of a property.

I will tell you that your landlocked room will be very dark. My friend did this and used the landlocked room as a tv "nook" due to the lack of light. They didn't want to sit in it in the day due to having to have lights on. But then they did have another reception room with a massive bay window like yours which they used in the day.

Thanks for the inputs folks.
@MontysOarlock, the land locked room will not be deprived of light entirely. We have a SW facing garden, and with rear extension we are planning to having large folding doors and then another sliding door at the middle room leading to the extension. So the middle room will get ample ambient light from the extension.

Pls see the rough plan attached here.

Are you keeping the original window in the living room? My friend did that, 2 years later they knocked out the wall with the window and re-did their kitchen, but they had fitted the kitchen themselves.

How many of these extensions have you actually been in though? I have been in 3. Plus in a previous house we had a lounge then a dining room and the previous owners had put a glass conservatory on the back of the house. The dining room still had full width glass doors separating it from the conservatory and you would think that would allow a lot of light in but it doesn't.

Do you not want to just open up the entire back of the house? You already have a reception room at the front and a study. What are you intending the living room to be used for?

I extended my own kitchen here 7 years ago, but instead of having the brick pillar nub that is the support for the load bearing steel I instead embedded a vertical steel support in the wall so that there is nothing sticking out, just a long smooth wall.

I know this probably comes down to cost, but me if I had your house - I would keep the living room door, and then draw a line vertically down the living room to line up with the right hand wall of the cloakroom. I would use that cut off living room space to have floor to ceiling storage for anything and everything, then knock the existing back wall of your house out and have one giant open plan back of the house.

You could, if you wanted install a door inline with the right hand wall of the cloakroom. It is just a thought. My friend is an architect and she says people don't always consider all the possibilities when extending their houses. They tend to just add a box on the back rather than re-jigging what is already there too.

Sorry, I meant to tag you, @vivimimi

Have a look at Your Home made Perfect on BBC iplayer. Series 2 episode 2. Scroll to the last 20 minutes.
They had a landlocked room just like your dining room. It became a TV room but had pocket doors to rear extension and front room. And i think one to the kitchen area. It was flexible.

I have exactly similar thoughts. To make that a Media room.
Thanks so much for your inputs.

@MontysOarlock wonderful thoughts, Thank you.

Particularly thinking of the door to the cloakroom on the right side. That will mean the entrance to the toilet will be from the kitchen. Here is how our kitchen plan looks.
Pls note this is long term plan, we will reach this state in prob 2yrs time. All due to budget and amount of disruption we could afford.

Pls note the Kitchen/ Garden is SW, and we have a requirement to keep east/SE facing hob. Hence can't have the cloakroom door opening from the kitchen side.

How about making those internal walls to the living room with with glass walls - my friend has them from her hall to living room and they look amazing and just help spread light through the house but so create a divide. You could have blinds in the glazing perhaps to shut it off if required?

That Your Home episode is deceptive, every wall and door is painted bright white and even the floor is incredibly white. The carpet in the lounge has stuff woven into the pile that reflects light too.

They have glass/perspex furniture in that media room too and a lot of skylights plus every light is switched on.

I did do interior design as a night class by the way. I am not sure I would want a toilet door opening into the kitchen. Also I didn't realise you were converting the garage too. Do you want to keep your kitchen in the original footprint? Why do you have a requirement to keep your hob where it is?

I also have a house that was a long term project, we converted a double garage, extended the kitchen and gutted the bathroom, new double glazing, all sofits and facias, new boiler, radiators, etc etc. We also did it to a previous house.

I will have a tinker with your floor plan and hopefully upload it later today just to possibly spark some ideas. Right off to tackle the garden!

Even if you could put a window in there it would be a very peculiar outlook, I'm just not sure those plans work.

Ooooh no to a toilet opening into the kitchen!!

You already have one downstairs toilet in the annex!

@bestbefore - interesting point about glass walls. could you share any pics. I'm thinking about the load bearing walls etc.

@Angellegna we want to keep the annexe self contained and don't want to share the toilet. We have elderly and that annexe toilet will have special toilet settings.

@MontysOarlock - good to know you have done interior study, always helps. Surely pls tinker with the plans. During lockdown we are continuously tinkering ideas. Hence they are changing everyday.

Wrt the hob direction should be East/ SE, is a Fengshui type belief. Its a belief thing . We have always had like that, hence want to keep that way.

a) attached above, we get kitchen, dining area and an extra lounge. The dining and lounge opens out to the garden. We shall have bifold doors.

b) We created another alternate see attached here. Here the issue is we will not get extra lounge space.

Well these are long term plans, we shall do the annexe lot later. Making best use of lockdown

missed the plan b) attached here

I have been in houses with land locked rooms, one very similar layout to your design actually, and honestly they’re awful. Ruins the whole flow of the house, I couldn’t live with one.

This is nothing to do with your original question, but I would consider moving the downstairs toilet door to the left wall where the sink is. This takes it well away from the kitchen.

This sort of thing...no idea about load bearing sorry! Was just thinking about light and obvs you do loose any wall space for kitchen/ soft etc

Hi @soupdragon if you mean other side of kitchen, that side is towards the garden and sunny side. I don’t want to lose that to a a toilet rather use it for dining area see plan A above.