What would you do with this house if you bought it?

[Curiosity101]

We're considering viewing this house but there's so much that could potentially be done with it. I wondered if the Mumsnet hive mind could give me some ideas. Not quite money no object cause we'd need to fund it... But equally would really enjoy seeing anything people can think of.

I screen shot these pictures from my phone so I might need to re upload them in a larger size (I'll double check once I'm on my PC).

It looks like the might have had part of the downstairs set up as a granny annexe.

I'd get an architect to look at that and be considering a complete rejig of the interior. Demolish conservatory and build a full length extension instead sounds a great idea and you should end up with some lovely big rooms.

After all the costs involved is it going to be a good investment or looking at the area are you likely to lose money? It’s a really strange layout, not thought through at all!

It's difficult to say. We were talking about this earlier and wondering what the ceiling price would be. I don't think it'll be an amazing investment, but I doubt it'll be a bad investment either. We'd also not be intending to sell it for at least 20 years, pretty much until both DCs are grown and moved out.

So this is why it doesn’t work, it’s a rehash of a previous layout

I would build an extension across the back online with the back of the current kitchen. All one big room. Kitchen, dinning living space. Where the current link room to the living room behind the garage is - I would turn that into a utility/ boot room. With a door into the garage and into the main living space. Where the current utility room is I would turn that into a wet room/ shower room - fab for coming in from wet mucky walks etc.
I would make the current downstairs bedroom an office with a door from the hall.
I would make a second office where the current lounge/diner is by building a wall from the bottom of the stairs to the external wall of the house. The resulting gap between the office and the kitchen I would make into a playroom.

Upstairs I would knock out the current bathroom and make into two bedrooms. The middle bedroom I would turn into another bathroom.

I hadn't thought to look at previous listings.

But yeah, definitely doesn't flow at all in its current layout. I'd guess I would probably reconfigure most of the downstairs. We'd definitely need an architect though to make sure we're generating a realistic plan. It's even things like, why is there so much landing? I'd been considering pulling that large bedroom into the landing area and then splitting it in two...

That maybe allows the middle upstairs bedroom to turn into a family bathroom. Then it's a question of whether you keep the ensuite or turn it into a walk in wardrobe... or maybe you could have a much smaller ensuite and have a small walk-in wardrobe.

It Is a lovely house with alot of potential
Have you got a budget in mind to do the work? We are currently doing a small reno and it's all working out to be alot more expensive than we thought

Not got a specific budget, it'll be driven by what we settled on doing to it. But I'd expect it to be a multi year project (5-7 years) and probably cost around £250k total.

It'd not be our first renovation, although it would be our biggest. For whatever reason we're attracted to full renovation projects 😅. We swore we absolutely wouldn't get a Reno after doing up our first house, then went from a 2 bed mid terrace to a 4 bed detached. We literally did everything you could think of. The only thing we've never done is an extension, but I've spoken to enough family and friends that have done them so know roughly what to expect.

It's a perfect house for the George Clarke tv show Old House New Home.
He would give you great ideas.
Fancy being on telly @Curiosity101 ?

It's got loads of room, just most of it in the wrong place!
The kitchen (that whole side is an addition) is about as far as possible from the left hand sitting room (also an addition)
I'd incorporate the wasted landing to create an ensuite to large left hand bedroom, then jack and Jill the other bathroom to the children's bedrooms.

Downstairs would benefit from an architect or surveyor's eye. The extensions mean quite a few load bearing walls need to be considered.
Definitely need to divide the ground floor into busy rooms (kitchen dining family room) and quiet side (a snug, downstairs bedroom and office)

Haha, definitely not top of my list. I love watching programs like that but I wonder about the reality of being on it 😄

@Curiosity101

I think why the layout seems confusing is because the Annexe isn't obvious and it's obviously been adapted to accommodate a family member, not originally designed that way.

I think you'd really need to be in it to decide what to do with it & personally I'd want to spend a year there first & see how the light is and what's good/annoying.

given your kids are so little it doesn't matter right now about it being an ensuite or a family bathroom, does it.

im not Sue NOW about making huge kitchen/family rooms. The cost of heating them is going to be a killer, especially North facing.

id definitely be looking at reconfiguring the kitchen area though as there's enough room to change that 'galley' look!

let the kids enjoy riding 'ride ons' around the house this winter! And being able to do painting inside etc, really makes the most of it being in need of renovation, but not being a cold draughty building site!

that's what I'd do anyway.

that's a lot if house & garden for the price. Here you'd get a 3bed terrace with a small garden & in need of redecoration, at least, if not bathrooms & kitchen.

Shame my job is here, not there 🤣

I’d buy it for the fabulous garden space !
We’re buying a bungalow ( other end of age scale , DC grown up and left home , we’re downsizing )
It also has a funny layout , so we’re going to move in , see which rooms we like living in , then get an architect to help us reconfigure it
we met the previous owner ( the one who lived in it first , before our seller ) and now know that the dark strange shaped main bedroom was originally the garage
( which explains why it’s dark and a strange shape ! )

Looking at the original layout really helps , and I had also thought about getting George Clarke involved !

Definitely go and view it

Totally agree. If (big if) we put an offer in then we'll be hiring an architect to help us plan.

I just needed ideas from here to help me and DH so some possible options in advance of viewing.

If we didn't have the DC I think we would 100% offer on it. Also if there wasn't a very real risk of interest rates climbing quite high.

We've got a viewing booked for Saturday though. Sounds like there won't be any moving prior to March next year due to some constraints in the chain so we'll not be rushed.

I'd open it up, simplify it.

Extension across the back with big double doors for the kitchen/dining/living space, presumably with lots of garden access. Keep the existing kitchen but turn it into a utility but with a loo at the back.

Lose the small rooms in the hallway, and knock the rooms on the left and the right into better sized ones. You'd then have a separate living room/playroom as well as another bedroom on the ground floor if you so wished.

It's been on the market a good six months, judging by the garden photos. I don't think there's going to be a bidding war for this one.

The garden is fabulous. What are the wider views like? Bit of a random suggestion, but might it work better "upside down"? Have the living space upstairs, and put the bedrooms in the downstairs that has more restrictions and small areas to fill?
That said, I'd not be keen on a kitchen not on the ground floor....

Good eye. It's been on since April. Two reductions from £600 to £575 to £550. They have had one offer previously of £550.

Views are pretty generic really. Just views of other houses mainly it I'll have a good look out of the windows when we view though.

Not sure I fancy an upside down layout.

That could be an amazing family home, so much space!!

Love the garden and the road looks quiet.

For me it needs an architect's eye as there is so much scope. You need to start again with the layout really!

I think it's still very overpriced given the local sale prices, spending £750k+ on house plus reno doesn't seem wise from an investment perspective. But it would get you a great house on a great plot, it's not all about the investment!

It's an insane amount of space. I do wonder if it'd actually be too much? Lots of rooms going un-used a lot of the time? I definitely agree with PPs who suggested not going fully open plan. I think we'd definitely be careful with what can be opened/closed up with doors etc. Our current house is quite open plan but we can close up doors to keep the living room cosy and warm.

I will also ask about garden maintenance whilst we're viewing. We're being shown around by the vendors which isn't ideal in my experience but does allow us to ask things like maintenance costs for the garden.

I was joking with DH that we could get a couple of pygmy goats or a large herd of Guinea pigs to look after it for us 🤣

We viewed it... I love it. Going to need to have some serious conversations about money and ceiling prices etc now. Given the state of the world, inflation and interest rates it's not a straight forward decision. But we definitely do love it, despite the unusual layout 😕

We also reckon it's big enough that we could live in the rooms that aren't being done whilst we do up other rooms. Improving electrics would be a pain but that always is.

It’s a lovely house. I’d also prioritise a decent kitchen on the ground floor, a re jig of the upstairs to include a proper family bathroom, a guest suite downstairs (maybe where behind the garage), an office and I’d keep the garage unless you really need the space. In terms of the renovation I’d start top down and get the upper floor done with a temporary kitchen (you can get them from IKEA) so you can live upstairs, a bit like a flat, whilst the renovations are being done. If you wfh you may also need to find a local coffee shop or library and buy some wine for the neighbours! But go for it, with that plot and potential I would be flabbergasted if you regretted it or lost money.
Oh and if you’re not in the area already get the kids into nursery ASAP if you’re doing a renovation!

Still not sure how to proceed with the house... £550k seems like such a huge amount to spend... it'd mean increasing our comfortable mortgage by around 50% 😅

But I can't stop imagining the kids growing up there and all the amazing things we could do to it long term.

Then DH mentions 'Who's going to buy a £750k house in future' and I can't help but agree with him. Yet we'd have no plans to sell anytime soon...