Is it worth building an extension 1.5M wide?

[Mamaofdos]

We live in a new build and feel like we have no space. We have a downstairs utility and toilet. If we removed them we could have a decent sized and open plan kitchen/dining/living room.

I would still want a utility and toilet. Would a side extension at 1.5m be worth the money and hassle? We have 8m in length at the side of the house. Would you use the whole space?

On your picture of the layout, can you show us where the kitchen sink currently is, and the location of any windows and doors. This will help us plan the space for you.

Where does your soil pipe go? Judging by your plans, it'll be where your proposed extension is. You may have the additional expense of moving it. Just something to bear in mind x

Could you swap over your current playroom and living room, then divide up either the playroom or living room to put your office in there?

What is the construction of the wall between the current playroom and your kitchen/diner?

2k per m2 here too to totally finished spec. You will get your build costs but then need to think of any additional plumbing, electrics, decoration, flooring, doors, lighting etc on top

This is a more detailed drawing. Sorry no ruler. Little ones running about.

I think the luxury of not touching playroom is that room is closed off. So it’s like a playroom throughout the day and snug at night.

I have indicated where the two soil stacks are. My thoughts were if you mirrored the current utility and toilet there would be no need to move soil stacks and plumbing would be in place.

I’ve also shown where the window are.

I really need to stop watching ‘My dream home’ and ‘Love it or list it’. It’s really made me want a more open and sociable home.

I am not looking for anything fancy. Just practical. Something which will future proof our house. So as the kids get older we have the space required.

Like I said this is only on the table as we are remortgaging and also we have someone lined up to draw plans for free.

Forgot to label utility and toilet.

Plan isn’t to scale. Would probably like a bigger utility.

@JamMakingWannaBe

Could you swap over your current playroom and living room, then divide up either the playroom or living room to put your office in there?

What is the construction of the wall between the current playroom and your kitchen/diner?

Yes, or just make the playroom a bit smaller and put a loo and utility in there?

You seem to have more of a lay-out issue than a lack of space.

If you could do it without breaking out external walls it would be so much cheaper.

Mortgage rates are not going upwards for many years
Every pressure on interest rates the world over is deflationary at the moment

I never had a fixed rate - always trackers
and financed the whole of my building work by adding to the mortgage

StatisticallyChallenged
I love your sink/washer set up. Are you in a house or bungalow/flat? Basically is it upstairs?

I think it's a good idea if you don't want to move we opened up and I love it... only thought would be to make utility big enough as with the external door you need to have moving around space especially with a golden retriever!
I'm not sure would convert the doors to window I like the looking to the garden from the front door you see on the property programme (with vr can't remember the name)

OP we're getting quotes at the moment for something similar. We're looking to go out just over 2m at the side, giving us an internal width of around 1.7m or 1.8m along the length of the house which is 11m - office at front, some sort of space in the middle, and garden / bike storage at the rear. We had a big rear extension about 4 years ago and we're not "undoing" any of that or messing about with the plumbing - the only thing we have to do in block up a kitchen window on the side of the house (but would re-use that window in the office) and making one small window into the hall into a doorway into the office. Its literally an extra "box" on the side of the house with no other re-figuration etc. We've had 2 quotes so far (one from the builder we used previously who was brilliant) - they've both come in at £42k. We're in an expensive bit of the NW.

One other thing - our council will not allow extensions to the boundary now (I'm told - at least not without a fight). We're leaving 75cm at the side which is what we've been told is the minimum to get a wheelie bin down the side of the house / access to the rear garden. Maybe worth checking with your local planning department or look online at recent applications to see if they've been granted.

If, as it seems, you’re not worried about getting the money back in a very short time I would definitely go for it. If you’re planning on staying in the house for a long time and it would make a big difference to how you live (which it seems from the plans it would) then it’s worth it. I would also definitely try to incorporate the office as I think now that we’re all working from home much more it would definitely be a big selling point. The only thing I would suggest on your last plan is whether you combine the utility room and the toilet to have one big “lootility” rather than two small rooms which will not be so useful. If you have a bigger room then you could also have space for drying clothes on a rack or on a pulley which will make a big difference. I would also think about whether you need an external door in the utility room if you’ve got a door right next door to it in the kitchen, I would find it more useful to have the wall space, and also consider where you put the door into the office as where you’ve got it situated it breaks the office in half and also could potentially limit how you lay your lounge out.

What I mean about the doors is that I think it would be better to have nice big patio doors in the kitchen and no door in the utility which would give you more space in the utility and a nice view out of the kitchen.

Could you get a good architect? Would be worth the money for good plans, which you will need anyway. I think it is worth doing. But as you haven't shown a door to the playroom from the hall, I have visions of you doing a lap of the house leaping over toys & swerving round the furniture to open the front door before your delivery driver leaves.

Cloaks cupboards are brilliant - could you have a slide out one, like a larder in the utility room? That would save loads of space and ironing board/mop/shelves behind ute door? Biggest utility, smallest loo would be my advice.

The thing I would say is, a playroom is useful now. Will it be as useful in 5 years. If you’re going to spend money you want the layout to work in the future not just when children are small.
What are you going to do when they’ve all retreated to their bedrooms instead? It’s a large space to then have to use for something else instead.
I think also open plan is more attractive when children are small and they go to bed, when they are up later and you are all having to use the same space, less so.
Personally I’d want the garage space integrated into the kitchen and some of that end could be used as an office type space. It would be good to be able to have the living room run all the way to the back with doors though too.

@ConcreteUnderpants we're in a house so it's upstairs, which works so well. No traipsing dirty laundry through the whole house!

@Mamette our floors are concrete. So we wouldn’t be able to move soil stack. So unfortunately not an option. Husband is anti getting a Sani flow.

@Africa2go that’s so expensive 😬

@Heronwatcher great ideas. It’s good to get other people’s view.

@Iverunoutofnames playroom is fab for now. But if we make the whole house open plan it will be nice to have an area to close off. Depending on what me and hubby are watching one of us can be in the playroom and another in the living room.

Also if we merge our current living room and kitchen we don’t need a new kitchen. If we merge our garage and kitchen we would need a new kitchen.

Watch this episode OP. You might be able to open up your hallway and create an office by turning the bottom of your stairs.

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000k4cx/your-home-made-perfect-series-2-episode-6

After binge watching this series I would:

• knock through utility and wc to create a larger utility. I can't image this is a supporting wall.
• put the playroom in the current living room with the office sectioned off next to the new utility with some kind of window in the wall to let natural light in. You are then literally "shutting off" both the kids space and your work space when the kids go to bed.
• turn the stair. This will allow you to block up the existing front door to create a new wc in your current hallway. You have a soil pipe here as presumably you have a bathroom or en suite above this space so easy to get clean water in and grey water out.
• knock through the playroom window to create your new front door. You can then create a vestibule if you wish.
• knock through current playroom into kitchen/diner to give you the open plan space you want. The larger utility will have space for displaced kitchen cupboards. Move the boiler into the new utility ideally.

If you have space under the stairs, that's additional storage.

I would hazard a guess that a new kitchen will be cheaper than an extension. You can keep your existing appliances and may be able to reuse the carcasses etc.

I would put your exact measurements (or a scale of) of your downstairs into the IKEA kitchen planner. You can create walls to give you an " idea" of if it will work.

You can apply to your mortgage lender for "additional borrowing" at any time - not just when you re-mortgage.
We are part way though a fixed term and got extra funds released for home improvements.

StatisticallyChallenged Oooh! So just plumbed into the bathroom water stuff. What about the electrics?
Sorry to derail the thread and also for bugging you, SC, but this is something I’d really like but never thought feasible.
I never thought I’d be so jealous of someone’s washing machine/dryer...there is obviously something seriously missing in my life!

The electrics are legit - the switch is outside the bathroom so no accessible switch within the bathroom, and the appliances are a decent distance from the bath/shower so outside of the problem zones.

It's a heat pump condenser dryer from bosch which discharges the water straight in to the drain so no emptying drawers.

@JamMakingWannaBe loved watching that programme. Watched it in silence mind you during my little ones night feeds🤣

I don’t know why I never considered taking down the playrooms wall into the kitchen. And making original living room into a playroom. It would mean a new kitchen though...

You really have got me thinking now.

Is it bad my 3 and 5 year old are walking around with a tape measure measuring walls 🤣

You missed some classics in the dialogue! The couple are Gemini and James and the presenter starts with: "So Gemini, we all want to know....what's your star sign?" and when they don't put in the oriel window, she turns to the architect and says, "So how do you feel they didn't go with the oriel window, which to be fair, was pretty central to your design?"

I'm totally over-invested but my final suggestion would be to have the door of the new toilet off the playroom. You've still got a few years of potty training ahead of you.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

If you google your developer and the house name you should be able to find a plan with room measurements on it.

It's never too early to gets kids to wield a tape measure though!

Looking at your floor plan I would be tempted to leave the current toilet/ utility where they are and open up to the side to make a lovely square living space with a small office at the back corner. Just a thought.