Is this a lot of money for not much gain?

[Indecisivelurcher]

H & I are really struggling to decide what to do here. We are in a fortunate position to be able to do our house up. We plan on staying here 10yrs. Benefits of this proposal are solving issue v dark dining area and giving us more room for table, replace knackered flat roof with smart new one with skylight, again bringing in more light, and replacing unreasonably cold /hot conservatory with usable space. But, it's a lot of money to not add any floor space...

@CovidCakeConundrum

£5-9k for a simple downstairs loo seems very pricey to me.

That's not just the cost of the new loo, it's the cost of getting rid of the old loo, inc fuse box and wall. Plus putting a new one in, somewhere less in the way.

Alternative toilet location ideas (L)

I really think the loo is in by far the best position where it is now. Could you add high glass panels to the top of the loo walls on both sides to let light in the dining area? Or could you open the dining area up through the living room and make it an L-shaped living-dining room? I’d be tempted to move the door in the kitchen. Is your oven stuck on its own on one side of the door like that?

Is having the additional light in that dining area with 40k to you? Is it going to improve your lifestyle? Only you can know that and which of these designs will work best for you.

Some of the designs wouldn't work for me. The 2 storey design is particularly bad with two staircases in a relatively small house and spaces that aren't connected. If you haven't already it might be worth speaking to an architect to discuss how your needs can best be met within your budget.

For me, if the desire is for light into that middle space, and then the obvious thing to do is take that steel all the way across removing the hallway wall completely. You'd need to reconfigure your kitchen a bit. Taking out half the wall seems like youre overly comprising to save your existing kitchen set up.

Is there a reason why you can’t widen the snug across the back and open the wall above the sink? In that case I’d put the loo in the bottom corner of the kitchen like pic 4 I think. Put a sofa etc in the dining area of kitchen and the dining table etc in the wider snug and have it as open plan as possible between the kitchen and the back.

Can you put the plans up without any lines on?

Could you put a loo and utility in the current dining room?

Depending on your kitchen, you could move the door up a bit, closer towards your back door, losing a cupboard space but means the loo/utility could be a bit bigger.

Then you've got a big area which was formally the loo, snug and hall to have a nice dining area/family space.

If you were wanting to get rid of the conservatory and rebuild, you could either have it as one large room or have a separate room at the end for a study.

If you upload an unedited floor plan I can show you what I mean.

I can see why it’s hard to make a decision - I can’t quite work out the best thing and keep changing my mind!

At first I thought £40k is crazy for so little gain, but then when I saw the photo, I got it. But then I changed my mind again when I saw value of house - £40k is a lot of money. If it was a house for 20+ years I’d say go for it. For ten years though? Hmmmm. If you’re nearly at the ceiling of what it could be worth, how about use your £40k to move house now, rather than in 10 years? Would that work? Make the most of low interest rates?

The best loo position for me would be what @purplewithred said. Under the stairs accessed through a utility room on what is now the kitchen on the right hand side.

You could refit your kitchen in the other corner, but picked up like a tetris piece and rotated 180 degrees. This would ensure the toilet doesn't open directly onto a living space, give you a new utility and allow for a fully open kitchen diner. Subject to position of utilities etc.

I would
Put the loo under the stairs.
Knock down the snug and conservatory.
Build a full width extension with roof lanterns/velux and some type of patio doors.
Reposition door into lounge so its opposite the front door.
Reposition door between lounge so its opposite new lounge/hall door
Create wall alongside new doors so lounge becomes a snug.

OP doesn’t want to move the kitchen, though.

If it was me. I’d put a wall across the living room. Increase the light coming in from the font door by widening that and adding a frosted side glazed pane. Remove the bit of wall which used to house the living room door. Then make the opening into the kitchen the other end of the newly created hall bigger to let more light in from the front door.

The window over the sink I’d then increase the size of this. Reshuffle the kitchen cupboards so the one next to the sink moves to next to the cooker. Open that wall up to the snug room.

Leave the loo and then open up the wall to the snug. If the back door isn’t fully glazed I’d change that.

Then use the snug as dining room and the newly extended space beyond as a second sitting space

Reshuffling the kitchen isn’t that expensive if the units will relocate unless you have expensive worktops I guess. We did this with our kitchen when we extended. The kitchen was too new to remove so we rejigged what we had and change worktops and tiles for a less than £2k. Which you’d save by not moving toilet and fuse box

Second suggestion apply to be on your house made perfect!

www.madeperfect.tv/

I can see the challenge here. For me the toilet is a really tricky factor - I'd personally not buy a house with a toilet 'in' the kitchen, in the sense that I'd want 2 doors between toilet and kitchen. Going through a utility room would be fine but none of the arrangements you have suggested would work for me. I do wonder whether you might be able to move your new kitchen? So keep the units but put it in a place which allows more flexibility of layout?

I would say the toilet being there is the problem, it won't allow you to open up the space, that hall way between the kitchen and the snug is wasted space now, the snug and conservatory are separated and probably not used much. I do detest houses with lots of little rooms when there aren't vast numbers of people living in it, you end up cramped in one or 2 rooms, with others going unused.

I would say if its £40k to get a big kitchen diner living space, its worth it, as right now, the hallway, snug and conservatory are wasted space.

Could you put the loo under the stairs? Moving loos are expensive. Moving fuse boxes are expensive. Doing both is pricy- but is it worth £40k to get a house that works better for you?

Oh and also worth looking what selling your house and buying another with an extra £40k budget would get you.

And remember, if you can afford to spend £40k to get your dream house layout for your family, if you spend £20k for something that doesn't work as well, you'll feel cheated. If this is at least a 10 year house, ignore the house price issues, this is about spending your money to get a family home that works for your family.

Blue lines are new doors/bifolds
Purple is new walls
Red is blocked up door
L is new loo position with door into new hallway

@MrsMoastyToasty would be great but expect may start getting really quite expensive

What about removing the wall between the kitchen and the living room to get one big bright room?

Leave the loo and the fuse box where they are.

Then extend out the back to get a separate living room.

Save money on steels and plumbing.

@Whatthebloodyell

I think that's a great idea. You'd get a much larger and lighter kitchen/ diner/ family room, a separate lounge with potentially good views of the garden, a loo which is not in the kitchen and you'd not have to move the loo and fusebox either. It's perhaps a compromise in other ways but I think probably the best compromise.

I think you need to leave the loo, make the living room more ‘snug’ but leading into the open kitchen diner (so the light flows from the other end of the house into the diner/mid section) and make a huge bright living room at the back overlooking the garden...

Crikey thanks everyone. My mind is currently blown. Need to think.

The space under the stairs (existing) is not big enough for a downstairs loo. Could close off as suggested but it will definitely end up adding to the cost so I don't think it's an option.

Could potentially remove part of the wall to the bottom of the dining table, between the living room and dining area. It would make a good circuit for the kids to run laps... Could save money on that option, but leaving the loo where it is, and therefore the fuse box.

The jury is out on whether to get rid of the conservatory and expand the single storey snug, or whether to keep it and put a warm roof on. This would reduce cost considerably. But be a compromise on what we want and less wow.

We could do nothing and move! We have looked. You don't spend all this money on your house without checking that out. But if we move we'd head to a village location, and the houses we can afford are actually smaller than here so we have ruled that out for now. Staying here means spending at least £15k and up to £40k so if we go top whack we will certainly stay here 10yrs, until the kids are in senior school.

House as is.

I think these were some of the suggestions...

Someone asked about the kitchen. The plan shows how it is when we moved in. The oven is in the corner now where the X is shown. Where the oven was we have an integrated fridge and freezer under a counter and a cupboard above.