How would you do this house?

[Honeycombskl]

Looking at buying a house and struggling as I live in an area which many people are now moving to from much wealthier areas post lockdown. Everything is going so fast and for way more than valuation (in Scotland).
There is one house that really isn't selling and I think it's down to the layout so DP and I are considering it, but thinking of how we can reconfigure it. The main issue is that you can only go into the back garden either via the garage (which you need to go out the front door to enter) or via a conservatory/porch which has been added onto one of the bedrooms. As we are the type of people who enjoy having people round I'd rather people not go through our bedroom to go out back. I also feel like it limits the use of the porch which could potentially be a dining area if not on to a bedroom.

We have considered opening out the two bedrooms at the back of the house and turning them into an open plan living room and kitchen, and then making the old living room and kitchen 2 bedrooms. This will be pretty expensive though and a lot of work (I'm 6 months pregnant just now).
Can anyone see a simpler solution that we might have missed? I suggested converting the garage to turn that into the kitchen, and extending it slightly to the front so that it would be accessed directly from the house but DP thinks we should keep the garage. Does anyone have any other ideas?

Forgot to add this...

Floorplan?

Aha!

Turn living room into two bedrooms and use the current larger bedrooms as two new reception rooms.

Yes you basically need to flip living and bedroom space but I imagine there’d be a reasonable cost to move the plumbing around.

I think the best solution is the first one you mentioned, creating a large kitchen/family room across the back and moving the bedrooms to the front, however it’s also the most work as you say.

I’m not sure about the garage to kitchen idea as you would end up with a long skinny kitchen and still have the fairly unusable porch area.

Another option would be to move the kitchen to the bedroom with the porch off it - then you get a kitchen/diner with the garden off it. But without the added expense of opening up across the back.

Ooh, I've just thought - what if I could move the wall between the current 2 bedrooms so making the one beside the porch larger and so making this the new living room, then in the smaller bedroom the door would need to be moved, so where the cupboard is would be where you would come in. Then we make the current living room the new master bedroom, kitchen stays where it is (although beside a bedroom now and not living room)??

Another option would be to move the kitchen to the bedroom with the porch off it - then you get a kitchen/diner with the garden off it. But without the added expense of opening up across the back.

Hadn't thought of this idea...

If I were you I would create a corridor along the side of bed 2 with another door into the porch (which would be cheap and quick) to get garden access and then live in the house for a little while before you decide what to do. The bedroom would still be a decent size and you’d avoid a costly mistake. I agree that in the longer term you’d probably want to have the kitchen and lounge on the back but depending on the size of your garden and how long you’d want to stay you might just want to extend where the porch is and then create 1 or 2 extra bedrooms inside.

i'd move in as is & live in it for a year. Use the bedroom with the porch as a living room so you can have guests & use the garden. But leave everything else as it is.

then after a year when baby is big enough, you can plan for some bigger work to move the kitchen / open up the back etc.

In the short term, use the bedroom with porch as a sitting room. Long term, the world's your oyster, depending on your budget.

If I were you I would create a corridor along the side of bed 2 with another door into the porch (which would be cheap and quick) to get garden access and then live in the house for a little while before you decide what to do.

I don't mind this idea. It's also made me think what if I swapped that bedroom (the one beside the garage) for the living room, then put in a single French door onto the porch. This would mean keeping as much space as possible in the rooms and not losing any for a hallway.

In the short term, use the bedroom with porch as a sitting room.

We discussed this but it's only 2.6m wide which seems teeny for a sitting room.

Yes I think using bed 2 as a lounge for a bit and adding a door would also work, and if you didn’t like it you could just move the furniture back and use it as a bedroom.

I would move the kitchen and lounge into the 2 bedrooms (knock through) - using the porch as a dining room, then the old kitchen lounges would be bedrooms - I would squeeze a ensuite in to the bigger bedroom. A bigger project but would be great for living in and resell!

If I were you I would create a corridor along the side of bed 2 with another door into the porch (which would be cheap and quick) to get garden access and then live in the house for a little while before you decide what to do.

100% this

How many bedrooms do you need at the moment? If you don't need 3 bedrooms, you don't need to do the work yet.

@chesirecat99

Ideally three. I'm due in September and DP has 2 kids, baby could be in with us for a while but I was hoping to give DP's boys one of the bigger bedrooms and use the smallest one for baby clothes/nursery. We could technically manage with 2 but 3 is the ideal.

Plan A
I'd go kitchen diner with the bedroom and porch
Divide the living room and kitchen into two more even rooms if possible, but if not just leave them ...maybe try and wangle in a small ensuite/shower room....you'll have water and drainage there at least

or Plan B....if it's not possible to get the kitchen moved then keep the kitchen , open up the wall in between and close off living room door....access both using kitchen door, make a kitchen family type room, then steal a little from the living room where it butts up to the bedroom for the bedroom

dammit...i cut a bit off...

is the porch too porchy to use as a room thought that might be trouble??

and leave the other bedroom be!

It's recommended that babies sleep in the same room as their parents until 6 months, preferably 12 months, so you could use the bedroom/porch room as a playroom for the all the DC and to store baby clothes in the wardrobe, the two older DC could sleep in the smallest bedroom. That would give you a year to save up for the work.

How "porchy" is the porch? Is it a real room? Would you need to spend money to make it useable year round?

It does depend rather how much the house is worth, what the changes would cost, and how much it would increase the value if you converted the garage or turned the porch into a useable room.

The porch is more like a conservatory, it's tiled so would work well as a dining area. We've been talking about looking to extend and convert the garage in the long run so turning the bedroom beside the porch into a playroom/storage for baby stuff could be okay and then we work towards the extension in the long run. It's a great area so I don't think we'd be likely to lose money when we come to sell if we get it right. I do however think it's been over-valued so I'm very cautious of not getting it wrong so we don't lose money.

In the short term, use the bedroom with porch as a sitting room. Long term, the world's your oyster, depending on your budget

This. Loads of options. Give it a year and see how you use the space and what you want.

Okay so I went back to see the house again today and I think what we're going to do os swap the bedroom beside the porch with the kitchen. I thought the current kitchen would be too small for a bedroom but seeing it again it's really not too bad. That will probably be the easiest and cheapest way of doing it and saves the cost of converting the garage (as we want to move in a few years anyway).