What would you do here-renovation/extension

[Dizzyheights1]

We have finally saved enough to extend our house but I want to firstly get my head around idea what we can realistically do before we start involving various people into the process.

I have attached a floor plan of the current layout. Not exactly current as the garage is now a lounge and there is a small porch at the front. We will be extending out into the back, as we’d like a bigger kitchen and dining room. We do need two living rooms and I’m not quite sure how to now arrange the rooms. I don’t want an open plan kitchen as I prefer a separate dining room.

There are two main issues for me;

1. The hallway is tiny and then the stairs are straight facing as soon as you get out of the porch. There are then doors on either side to the living rooms. Ideally I’d like a hallway, with access to the kitchen and toilet without having to walk through the living room on the right. Can anyone see a way of creating a hallway without losing the second living room on the left? I can’t see that there is but any opinions/ideas are appreciated.

2. The downstairs toilet. We have quite a few guests throughout the year so would prefer people not to have to walk through kitchen to get to the toilet. Where could we possibly move this to?

Any other input on the overall layout is appreciated. We have the option now to either extend or move. Would love to for various reasons but space is becoming an issue.

Can you shift the wall down between the hallway and the lounge on the right and widen the hallway by shifting it further into the lounge? Then knock through next the area marked as "storage" as the hallway would then be wider to make a flow through to the back area and new extension? Then if the kitchen and diner move out slightly due to the extension could you move the utility room slightly to wrap around the toilet so it's accessible in that room but doesn't open directly into the kitchen?

That floor plan is misleading. The only hallway is the bit directly before the stairs. The stairs are directly between both living rooms.

I would agree with the above poster. Make the front living room more narrow and put a hallway alongside the stairs. Get rid of the storage at the back (maybe put a toilet under the stairs). And, for good measure, knock through the kitchen /back living room and close off the doors between the two living rooms. I'd then use the toilet as a lovely big pantry

I would sacrifice the old garage to be your new corridor & utility room. It is a narrow little room at the moment, and could instead give you a very decent hall / utility / WC area that will connect up the rest of the house.

when you've done that, then you can close up the wall to get L1 (big formal lounge) and L2 (snug) as two separate rooms. you put the kitchen (K) at the back with a nice big island in the middle, and beyond that you have the dining room D in your new extension.

There is a slight risk the kitchen would be dark, but if you have glass doors to the dining room and/or a roof light in the dining room, then it should be OK.

I actually like the idea of the WC and utility room at the front of the house. I’m coming round to the idea of getting rid of that room to create a hallway. The kitchen is north facing so worried about lighting but I think that seems to be the best use of space Parietal’.

Could keep the dining room where it is now and have an another lounge between the hallway and kitchen, with kitchen out into the extension.

Thank you all for your input.

Do you currently have to who through both lounge/diners to get to the kitchen?
I like @parietal suggestion to create access directly to the kitchen.

*Who through = walk through

Yes we do and it’s actually a PITA! I like that suggestion too. We’ve lived here for almost 5 years now and although I’ve been itching to get a few things done I’m glad we’ve left it all and lived in it as it’s given us a lot to think about and how we actually use the space.

I agree with parietal's suggestion. The final layout looks good, and there are two other points that make this very practical.

First, the extension is just a dining room, so minimal services (water, drainage, gas) are needed. This should keep the cost of the build down - though of course there's lots of reworking needed to put the new WC/utility room in.

Second, there is minimal work to be done to the right-hand side of the house. This should help to make living in the house during the work fairly tolerable.

When the work starts, close off the door between the hall and the ex garage and the one between the kitchen and dining room. Seal them up well. When we had our extension the builders covered over the equivalent doors with board screwed to the wall around the doorway, to keep the rest of the house secure and dust free.

Opening up the new hallway at the bottom of the stairs, can be done once the new rooms behind are almost finished. Closing off the doorway between the living room and snug should be the last piece of work, otherwise you'll only be able to access the old dining room area via the garden/building site.

We will be extending the whole of the back as this will give us more space with the existing living rooms. Very helpful suggestions, thanks.

That's a lot of construction work, I think you need to compare very carefully to the cost of moving - it seems you have outgrown your existing house

I agree with parietal.
Additionally is there any possibility of moving your front door over so it enters into the area that was previously the garage. Then could have a nice entrance with space for storage and to take shoes off etc rather than just the space at the bottom of the stairs. Then agree to utility and toilet between that and the kitchen.
I've probably watched too many property shows....

Definitely cheaper to extend as house prices have gone completely crazy around here. However, we are keeping an eye on the market.

We already have a small porch which isn’t on that floor plan.