Help me remodel this house to suit my needs!

[ThisMustBeMyDream]

I'm looking at a house which has all the floor space we need, but not in the configuration needed. It currently has a living room, a very large kitchen diner and a big utility with a separate w.c in there.
I need a living room, dining area, kitchen and a play area for the children to house sofa, TV and toy unit.
My thoughts are to knock through to the utility and w.c and make that area a dining area as that space looks big enough for it. Put the w.c under the stairs and where the back door is, block that bit up. Then have kitchen units along the side wall as it currently has, but take out the ones on the back wall, and put them where the front windows are. Put a long island in the middle between them, so it is not in the centre of the room. Then the remaining space will be the family area. We don't need the utility, so it makes sense to me.
Does anyone have any better ideas? Also with regards to kitchen, I'm assuming as it is part of the family room we want to make the kitchen less kitchen like. So my desire for cream shaker and wooden worktops probably won't work! Something fairly sleek, handleless and muted colours to make it blend in?
Budget including kitchen is 30k. So ideally don't want to do any extending. I think the space we have can be rejigged.

Turn the kitchen round - please keep utility and downstairs loo!

To the right low toy storage

middle could the tall kitchen units which separate the dining area - or open - what ever works -

Can see kids play and sinking table and access to the downstairs toilet

No room on there for sofa and TV for family area though, I don't think the room is big enough to encompass kitchen, dining and family area.

Can you extend out? It’s pretty limited the way it is.

I would leave as is until you can extend out if you have the space in the garden.

Can't you just lose the utility room for now and use it as the playroom? So long as you can put the appliances from there somewhere in the kitchen, that's not much work.

I honestly couldn’t be without a downstairs loo and would really miss the utility room for somewhere to store the never ending laundry, sports kits, Wellington boots, school bags on pegs etc. Absolutely something we have used more as the kids got older- and it’s handy for storing excess drinks, cleaning products etc too.

Could you make do for long enough to save and extend?

OP, do you like the kitchen and general decor as it is?

If you can live with it then I'd do that - just live with it for now. Put a compact ish sofa under the windows and the dining table in the middle of the room.

Make the living room into the family room, with toys, sofa and tv.

Then save up £150K to do the proper extension version.

Your budget is tight so you'd not get it how you want it at the moment.

Spending money taking out a utility room - which is desirable and adds value to your house - is pretty mad from a financial POV.

That's just my thoughts but is what I'd do in your shoes. Best of luck!

It is already extended significantly. I'm not sure how much further it could be - but realistically there is zero chance of saving enough for an extension. The kids would be long grown up. It would take us more than 10 years. Kids are 10, 8 and 6.
Here is the RM link. https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/134799584#/?channel=RES_BUY

Your children are of the age to need independent play. They are not toddlers. That means in their rooms. Not in a family room. I would put an island with a seating area and a narrow dining table.

I would keep as is. Your kids are not going to need a playroom for long. In fact I would be thinking of keeping most toys in their rooms. I think you could spend loads to not really improve the property.

One child has asd/adhd. One child is a step child with a mother who causes problems with accusations so we don't allow play in rooms together. We need a communal area. It isn't helpful to try and tell me what we need. We've been house hunting for over a year between various sales falling through. We know what we need.

The kitchen is a decent sized room but used very inefficiently. It's nice and the units could be reused (painted if you want). Would probably need new flooring but that's not the end of the world.

You have a big utility so reduce the size of the kitchen and use it like a pantry. Have a peninsula rather than island as suggested above.

Make it multifunctional with a space saving table or bench seating and a small sofa /TV area.

Stick it in an online kitchen planner to see how different it could look

A utility room is pure gold! If there is any change I would make to it would be to add a stand up shower in the WC.

I wonder if you reduced the available space in the utility by relocating the WC, and closed off the egress door from the kitchen (because you have outside access via the utility), would it create enough space for something like this...

The brown rectangle represents a banquet (built-in would give extra storage)? Sofa against the wall, TV could be mounted on a swing/corner wall bracket? A teensy pantry if you're short on storage?

I don't think this is the right property for you and you should keep looking until you find one with the layout you want already at the price you can afford.

I think you should keep a utility in such a big openplan space. I like TattooedLady's suggestion, and my thoughts were similar. Attempted drawing below - can you block off a patch near the understairs/back door for a loo-tiliy, and open up the current utility as a playroom? Maybe without the door??

Not sure what the kitchen would look like, as I like very different set ups to you, so you wouldn't like anything I proposed! Might give you a floorplan to think on tho.

I tried and failed to come up with an idea without extending.. I just can't cope with the kitchen at the front of the house. I would extend the utility to the left and as a pp said you could reuse the kitchen to save money for now.

Or, this house (as much as it's dated) has a far better layout.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/127634144?utm_campaign=property-details&utm_content=buying&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=copytoclipboard#/&channel=RES_BUY

@CatsOnTheChair this could work. I like it. I'll have a play around with measurements to see where is best to place things. I'm not sure on how the loo part of the loo-tility will work though as the back door is there with window. I'll need to see the size of the under the stairs to see if I can put a separate door in. But otherwise it could work!
@NeverTalksToStrangers2 completely the wrong area. Really rough area too. I wouldn't live there. But we are staying very close to current location close for schools.
@CremeEggThief we'd never find anywhere if we did that. There has to be compromise. We want 4 beds, good size garden, right location, playroom. We can't seem to get all in budget. This house is actually well below budget and is a long term home so spending on it is absolutely fine. I've been house hunting for a Very Long Time. The house I was buying fell through due to my vendors causing my buyer to pull out (long story). Its taken 5 weeks to get a new buyer, so I can't hang around forever. Nothing else suitable on the market as small search area (wn35 and wn36 for high school catchment).
@TattoedLady I want a proper dining space, so that layout doesn't work unfortunately.

Similar to @CatsOnTheChair, I would put a loo + utility under the stairs (WC). Get the noisy washing machines out of your main big space. then you can make the back room into a snug with sofa / toys / TV etc.

To make best use of the kitchen, I've moved the sink to under the front window (S) and put an island in the middle. Then build in bench seating against the other 2 walls and put the dining table there (D) which would let you seat 6 or 8 comfortably. The radiator would need to change to a low one under the bench seating but that could be done by a sensible joiner.

If you have the money one day, you could add a conservatory (C) directly outside to get more space. In fact, adding that now might be cheaper than all the work to re-arrange the kitchen etc. But either option could make this house work for you.