If you’ve extended your house, what would you redo again, or do differently?

[Yellownotblue]

We’re planning an extension to our house - the pre app has just gone in (it’s quite a big extension by London standards - not typical side return). Basically extending at the back, side (on two storeys) and over the existing outrigger. We’re not adding bedrooms, but we are making the whole house more spacious and adding bathrooms and a big scullery, as well as redesigning the ground floor and doing a new kitchen.

We’re now at the stage of planning the layout and the look & feel.

I have a lot of ideas, we have a good design team (I think!) but I’d love to know what works and doesn’t work in your extension.

Is there anything you think ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe I went without x for so long’?

And conversely, is there anything you think you wouldn’t bother with if you extended again?

Any idea, big or small, welcome. For instance, are you happy with your glazing, choice of flooring, flow between rooms, lighting?

Thank you lovely mners 💐

It’s interesting reading this thread how increasingly the functional parts of the kitchen are being put into smaller separate spaces and the kitchen that is on show is largely decorative. It’s the natural evolution of the room with the increase in open plan living and the kitchen as the primary status symbol.

@Circusoflove I don't think that's right, I don't see my kitchen as a status symbol nor is it decorative - its the heart (and engine!) of the house! It is a "living and working" space though rather than just a "working" space and I think that's actually right - a reflection of society in that its not somewhere that's shut off from the rest of the house with (previously) the wife/mother shut away working away. A kitchen is now (rightly so) a family room where everyone can get involved.

My love of clean lines and lack of clutter just means that I find it more of a relaxing space, without the nagging voice in my head I'd have if it looked untidy or everything wasn't put away.

Circusoflove hmm I think for most people the main functional parts of the kitchen - hob, sink, oven, dishwasher, fridge - are still in the kitchen. The bits we’re trying to hide away are the bits that don’t get used so much or aren’t cooking related but historically have tended to hang around in the kitchen and make it look messy (laundry, less used appliances, cleaning stuff, things that need to soak in a sink etc)

I agree there is a growing realisation that open plan only works if you can store away these messy/noisy things and keep your kitchen for cooking only.

My boiler is in the utility room and it dries the washing for free in the winter. It also acts as useful pantry storage. It is much easier to keep tidy if you have an organised washing and storage place. You can have clever built. in shelves for washing machine/dryer etc on top of each other. I would also always go for a downstairs loo. Light in the house/corridor makes a huge difference to mood, especially in the winter.

The kitchen is typically now the most expensive room in the house as befits it’s ‘public facing’ status. This contrasts to say the 1930s when my house was built. Then the kitchen was a very basic room with any spare household money being spent on furniture and rugs for the parlour where visitors would be received.

We have a second larger sink in the utility for soaking big pots and pans very useful. So that is a good idea 💡

Also think about where your toaster will go. I would have loved one of those breakfast bar cupboards but we did not have room.
I also love our bora hob, make sure it has the mergable cooking zones if you go for induction very useful when making gravy in a roasting pan for example.

@LittleEsme the unit has a humidistat so when it detects humidity above 50% it goes into a boost mode, this removes all cooking smells, bathroom etc. The boost is also linked to bathroom lights so toilet smells are dealt with the same way.

The incoming fresh vvv slightly cooler air goes into bedrooms and living areas. But if you think when cooking you might be throwing 3kW straight out a vent, similar for bathrooms, that energy is being kept within the house.

We reckon it increased internal temperature by about 2C in Autumn through to Spring, which saved something like a month or two of heating. In summer when it 20C out and 20C in there's obviously no exchange of heat. You can get them with a summer bypass for those that need it.

Overall the air in all the rooms is much fresher.

The only thing I hate is we moved our downstairs toilet to the utility room rather than opening off the hall. Big mistake as I now have to keep the utility room vaguely tidy too as anyone who visits the house traipses through there. I curse it all the time as our utility functions perfectly as the house dumping ground.

What I mean is the downstairs toilet opens off the utility room, not that its just plonked in their amidst the laundry!

Agree re underfloor heating. Pocket doors in smaller spaces like bathrooms/ pantry/ etc. Agree that an upstairs utility is a good idea, but make sure there is space to dry clothes and have a tumble dryer vented to the outside. Also agree re 2 dishwashers and hot water tap. Any high velux windows get electric controls and think about how you might clean them. Avoid square tap controls (never straight), black taps, granite worksurfaces, sisal carpet (stains and uncleanable!). Also think about water pressure/ flow as you may have to replace the pipes to the mains which is definitely worth doing unless you fancy a fancy looking shower which is no more than a trickle! In the future I also fancy one of those breakfast cupboards which hide the coffee machine, a fridge which also makes ice and ovens/ grill which are eye level or slightly lower- much prefer these to a range style cooker. And if money no object a good living flame (gas) log burner style fire in the living area of the kitchen diner.

Glazing - no. Should have gone for better spec. Bifolds are great though.

Love the engineered wood. We didn't get underfloor heating which I don't regret at all. I wish we got more powerful radiators in the big kitchen diner though.

We should have got a bigger utility and not bothered with a door to the garden in it. We never use it.

We did a huge master bedroom and it's amazing! I wish there was a direct door between our dressing room and ensuite as I regularly start work early.

I'm pleased we redid the whole house in one go and not bit by bit.

We’ve fitted a laundry chute. It’s on our landing and falls into our laundry basket in the utility.

We’ve also opened up our staircase to make it much larger, and sacrificed a bedroom and bathroom for a bigger landing. The big landing feels very spacious and makes the house feel really large. We want more space, not more rooms.

Downstairs we changed the dining room into a study and a gym. I want to be able to have a separate space to have a running machine, but we have a large dining area in the kitchen so a second space seemed unnecessary.

If I built again I’d make sure the architect thought more about the practical application of his design ideas.

Oh Wow a laundry chute sounds amazing.

Feel like moving house to use some of these ideas.

Oh Wow a laundry chute sounds amazing I will admit I’m happier with that than anything else we’ve done. I appear to be the only person that doesn’t like dirty pants left around.

... I didn’t add my DH top additions

• a steam room in our en-suite. I don’t like them so isnt really on my radar.

• CAT 6 cabling and AV kit. No black spots on WiFi

I've wanted a laundry chute for ages and had originally included one in my plans. Now my utility room has swapped places, it's unlikely that I'll be able to do that.

Quite gutted! DH can't see the fuss, but I really wanted one.

Really good thread OP - I'm making notes. I'm still in planning phase at the moment (renovation and extension).

I'm making a few notes from this thread! I did see a similar thread the other day where the posted suggested thinking about whether you would need heavy duty hooks put in anywhere externally for fairy lights, xmas decorations or just a washing line.

We're starting our update/extension next year and I love these threads but they also make me feel overwhelmed.

whether you would need heavy duty hooks put in anywhere externally for fairy lights, xmas decorations or just a washing line

We've put a plug near the ceiling for my powered disco light

Definitely the time to do these things - and a great tip @UpToonGirl

Underfloor heating was great. The laundry room was great but could have been three times bigger. Travertine floors were horrible. Bifold doors a pain, but husband loved them.

@EmpressoftheMundane why were the bifolds a pain?

@UpToonGirl 100% agree with you!
Our plans have gone for a pre-plan check. Fingers crossed!

Some things I have and love and would do again:

Tall 300mm pull out kitchen larder cupboard in the ground floor ensuite bathroom to store toiletries, towels, toilet paper, cleaning materials. This forms one of the 900mm walls of the walk in shower (900x1500mm shower)
Built in nooks for shampoo, soap etc behind the tall larder cupboard within the shower - the shower head is on the opposite wall so no water gets into the nook. You do have to reach across but I don't find that a problem when I'm standing in the middle of the shower anyway.
Shower control on the wall as you go into the shower rather than under the shower head.
Low level motion controlled light for night time visits to the loo without putting the extractor fan on.
We have a Velux window in this ensuite and I love the light in there.
Stainless steel catering sink unit in utility. The sink is wide and deep for oven shelves and there are drainers on both sides for messy jobs.
Programmable TRV's on radiators so you have more control of the heating you use.
Outward opening back door gave much more room (in our utility).
Floor to ceiling swing glass doors onto an extension at the back of the house with a Velux window directly above it gives so much light to the original room. It also allows me to display, and constantly see, a very delicate statue which our cats have managed to damage when they were allowed more free access 😳

We also installed pocket doors in various places and I'm 50:50 on them. They do save space but, because we've got cats who aren't allowed into the "good" rooms, they have to be opened and closed every time going from our living room/kitchen/diner to the sitting room and beyond and there will be a "coffee spilled on the cream carpet incident" before long. In the cat free area, they are a godsend saving space.

@LittleEsme

The doors are heavy, the tracks fill in with dirt. I’d have been just as happy with classic French doors, but I appreciate it depends upon the style of the house.

This thread is brilliant. A few more things we did were to put network cabling all over the home, it's nice not to have to rely on wifi for internet-connected devices eg sky box. We also put speaker cable in so we could have speakers in all corners of the living room to create surround sound without any visible cables. We chased cables into the living room wall to allow us to mount the TV on the wall with no cables dangling down, which looks beautifully neat. All this stuff is really worth thinking through when you renovate so that you don't have visible cables running everywhere. We also have the Philips hue system for lights so they control (nearly) all the lights in the house on different groups. Some of these are only triggered by motion sensors like the hallway and landing so you can just pass through an area, the light comes on then goes off, in relation to the light level outside. Helps with kids who never turn lights off!

Low level motion controlled light for night time visits to the loo without putting the extractor fan on

We’re having this too. Really pleased someone suggested it.