Help me with my floor plan!

[carringtonm]

We're buying a new house and plan to convert the garage. I'd love some Mumsnet input because I've seen great ideas come from people on here.

We need to create a home office space that can double up as a spare bedroom for visitors. This has got to be part of the conversion because of my partner's need to work from home and family who don't live locally.

We are also aware that there isn't much storage space downstairs so we have debated keeping part of the garage as is, or adding in some built in cupboard space.

We also have a toddler and would like another child so space for toys and/or play space would be handy.

Not all of our needs can be catered for just in the garage so any simple amendments to the rest of the house are also welcome if they'll solve some storage issues. We can't afford a new kitchen at the moment so a complete change of layout isn't possible.

I have attached a floor plan of the property as it is. Each small square is roughly 1ft x 1ft.

What would you do with the space? Give me your bright ideas!

Can you split the garage to use it as outdoor and indoor storage plus office/guest room? I've drawn it (badly, on my phone) to show an open plan kitchen in the same footprint into the (now) dining room.

What sort of budget do you realistically have for this work? Even if moneys tight, if you see this as your long-term home then think of the eventual grand picture and just pick things off in affordable year by year stages. I think it’s a mistake to spend money on a smaller compromise which you eventually end up undoing once the budgets available...it’s money wasted. I did it myself and regretted it.

The floor to ceiling windows out into the garden are totally wasted as a dining room: I would make this the living room or big kitchen / diner.

Extend the garage to the line of the current dining room and incorporate that into a big kitchen diner.

I would talk to an actual architect as well. Money well spent.

I agree with @RainingBatsAndFrogs.
Storing bikes and lawn mowers in your internal main building is a very expensive solution (price per sq ft) for what amounts to storage of cheap outside items....if you can get them in a shed and utilise your proper roofed building for living areas this is better really. These things are generally a bit mucky too...the main thing is to make sure they’re secure and accessible where your going to need them the most. Good luck!

Hi @carringtonm. I think if I was you I would move the kitchen into the middle of the house (living room) and make the existing kitchen the office/guest room with a sofa bed. Then if you’re converting the garage you could make this into either a separate sitting room or dining room depending on your preference.

Though the plumbing/electrics may cost some money could you potentially refit the existing units into the new space? If it’s a galley kitchen you could make one run a peninsular that runs in the same direction as the hall IYSWIM.

How about opening up the dining/living room and having kitchen/dining/living in that rear space.
Changing the current kitchen to study/office and converting garage to playroom/guest bedroom?

Thanks for all the ideas. Our budget is about £5k-10k realistically. FIL is a builder so can do any brickwork/internal walls for us for free but we'll need to pay for specialist contractors (any plumbing, electric, etc) and for materials. We can do basic things like painting ourselves but we're not good at practical jobs!

We are meant to be getting married in July so the higher the budget for the house, the more we'll have to cut down the wedding plans (which are probably going to have to change anyway with Covid being how it is). But we've already postponed our wedding twice so it does feel like a shame to have to cut it down completely - even though it makes the most sense financially! It was never a ridiculously huge wedding to begin with but would have cost in the region of £10k if it had gone ahead this summer as originally planned.

The vendor has said that their original plan was for the kitchen to be in the back room with the big windows so it has all the higher electric points installed behind the plasterboard. Not sure about plumbing. The window is so lovely that I agree it's wasted as a dining room. It's what I would call a cathedral style window so not a run of the mill tall window.

This is the closest photo I can find of the type of window it is. I don't want to show the actual window because it isn't our house yet!

That is beautiful OP!