What extension would you do?

[Ladyof]

We have been looking to move for over a year.

Ideally I wanted 4 beds, downstairs loo, utility room, kitchen diner and lounge.

We have have an offer accepted on a 3 bed but no utility or downstairs loo.

We only need 3 beds but the 4th bed was just for an office and a guest room (we rarely have people staying)

My question is, we are either going to do a loft conversion for 4th bed or a open plan kitchen diner and make the existing kitchen into a loo and utility room.

I can't decide which to do and I don't think we can afford both what would you do??

Thanks

We extended our downstairs and it's made life so much easier and nicer - I really didn't think a house change could make so much difference but it has. I think it would make a lot more difference to you than an attic conversion, cos you spend most of your life downstairs.

Re utility rooms, I didn't have space for one but put the washing machine at one side of a new large cupboard with a Louvre door on it and a radiator in it and then made one washing rack up the wall and one freestanding one. I dry all my endless washing in there so it's completely out of sight. Love it.

@NorthSouthMiddle

Ohh sounds fab I like that idea, do you have any photos you could share? I worry about where to dry clothes as I have space now in utility room but new house doesn't have that space.
Thanks

I would do the downstairs as suggested. You will get a lot more use out of the utility room and kitchen diner by the sounds of it, and downstairs loo is always great to have if you can

Do you need an office because you need to WFH? If you do, I’d go for an attic conversion. Otherwise, adding more space downstairs will probably be better for the family.

If you put a downstairs loo in and get a bed setee in the open plan then you have the option if someone does need to stay ?

Are any of the bedrooms large enough to put up a stud wall and steal a small area to create an office?
I'd do that and extend downstairs. We're extending our kitchen, we get far more use from it since WFH & it sounds like you'd enjoy that space much more.

can you post a floor plan?

do you need the office everyday for wfh or just occasionally?

I would eventually do both but start with the attic.

Could you zone a bit of the downstairs extension to add a desk / working area - so you could comfortably work from home there until you can do the loft extension further down the line? That's what we are doing - there is an alcove in our reception room (which will be part of the kitchen diner once we have work done) where I will add a bureau or build in a small desk area. Understand this may not work if you have small children in there during the day!

It is important to us to do the kitchen/diner work first though, as our kitchen is small and it would make a big difference to our standard of living.

Here is a floor plan. The only thing that puts me off doing the downstairs is that it has a decent conservatory with a proper roof and a small kitchen extension which it would mean knocking them both down and rebuilding a kitchen diner which seems such a waste really.

The bedrooms aren't big enough to put an office in them and I do WFM 3 days a week but can always work from Dining room if needed.

I was hoing to suggest having a kitchen diner and a separate living room with a really good sofa-bed for guests. To my mind, that's a much better arrangement than a sofa-bed in an open plan kitchen diner.

The existing layout - with the front door and stairs leading into the front room - makes that arrangement more difficult to achieve, but perhaps not impossible with a bit of imagination?

I would convert the garage, or at least part of it, to an office, loo and utility room.

I would convert the garage. We have just finished and it is now exactly what you wanted a downstairs loo, utility and office space for two.

As previous posters have said, a good sofa bed could make the office the emergency guest accommodation too.
You might also be able to get a hall out of the slice at the side of the garage by turning the entrance door to the side. Rather than porch and straight into lounge.

Now I see the layout, I'd convert the garage into an office / guest room AND also redo the kitchen / dining conservatory so that you'd have a small downstairs loo + utility in the back half of the current kitchen (under the bathroom so the plumbing is easy) and then a new kitchen diner in the remaining space including the conservatory.

But if the current kitchen is in good shape, you wouldn't need to do this immediately. you could wait a few years to save money & get your plans ready.

I'd have the conservatory and anything else single storey down and build a two storey extension (assuming enough garden) as the cost is not that much greater than single storey, then you could have everything you want

Is this not kuchen deaer to go double extension? That might be our answer then. Ill maybe look to get some ideas and quotes.

If anyone has any good idea from the floorplan please let me know. Thank you

That should say "is it not that much dearer to do double extension"

We’ve just completed a double storey house extension.
Added a downstairs loo, utility room, we now have a playroom (was dining room) but dining room table is now in kitchen and we’ve added a 4th bedroom so the 3rd small bedroom is now an office.
Would it help you if I added our floor plans?

You said it yourself - you don't really need the fourth bedroom, but a utility and downstairs loo you'd probably use every day!

We converted our garage to an office / spare room with en suite. Works really well. Could you do that and have a small extension on the back for utility?

Friends of ours had a one storey extension put down the sidenand across the back of their house (semi). They now have a small office, small utility room, downstairs loo, and a large kitchen diner.

You could a bigger kitchen extension and make the ‘dark’ bit a study/ guest bedroom.

Or, 2 storey extension…

Converting the garage will be about 1/2 to 1/3 of cost per sqm compared to a loft extension . Sounds like it’s WFH space you need. When we convert ours we will be adding a sofa bed and WC.

@northerngirl88 yes please that would be amazing and any photos if you feel comfortable or inbox if you prefer. Thanks so much.

My daughter is moving to a smaller bedroom which was why we considered a 4th bed then the smallest room would be the office or guest room.

I'm not very good at seeing potential so I appreciate the ideas.

No problem pictures coming up!

Existing floor plan (says we have a downstairs WC but we didn’t)