What would you do with this floorplan?

[Floorplan101]

I've just moved house and looking for ideas on what people would do with the current rooms/future works. At the moment, our current plans are to take the lower cabinets out in the "utility room" (opposite the window side) as currently having low units on each side is very narrow. There is a sloping roof on the extension with the kitchen, so can only have low cabinets really in there - so we probably need to use the understair space as more of a pantry area.

We have varying ideas between Dh and I of knocking down walls and merging rooms, or simply leaving it as is and decorating.

Wwyd ?

What rooms do you need/want?

Extend the sun room out and open the dining room for an open plan kitchen diner. Unless you want the separation, I’d just extend the kitchen into the sun room, extend the way out to square it off and create a large kitchen.

Preference for me would be to move the utility somehow too as I wouldn’t be keen on having it as a walk through to the back of the house.

Depending on the upstairs layout I might have the stairs reversed so that they run up from the hall rather than the utility. Then move a toilet/basin to the right side of what is now the utility.
Utilise the old toilet/shower room as a new utility.
Combine the sun room and kitchen and possibly the existing dining room into a lovely open space. But keep the living room as a totally separate space.
If I am envisaging the upstairs space correctly, I'd then add an en suite to the front bedroom (over the existing entrance hall) to make up for the loss of the downstairs shower.
I'd do a schematic but I'm a few vodkas in.

Live with it. We've been in our house nearly 8 years and we finally know what to do with it!

I wouldn’t be happy with walking through the utility to get to the kitchen. Turn the utility into sort of a boot room where you can keep coats and shoes (but make it look posh because you have to walk through it). Turn the shower room into a new utility. Merge the kitchen and sun room into a big kitchen. You already seem to have doors into the dining room, I would make them glass doors. Keep the lounge separate so you have a quiet escape and a place to relax.

Does the stair really go up from in the utility room? Or have they got the arrow wrong on the plan?
Assuming that the stair already goes up from the hall, and if budget allowed in an ideal world I'd knock the dining and utility together and make that your kitchen, then have the sunroom and existing kitchen as your dining area/ family room. Would ideally put the loo under the stair and have the exiting wc as utility, but all that won't be cheap..

I would extend the sun room to create a large breakfasting kitchen, lose one side of cabinets in utility and just have washer, dryer, sink whatever on one size. I'd block access to utility from the hallway. Keep the shower room as I'm guessing building regs will require you to keep a downstairs toilet. Keep dining room if you need/want one or use it as a family room, playroom, study etc. depending on requirements.

To avoid confusion re the stairs yes you go up these from the hall, not the utility! Good spot : )

I suspect the dining room is dark, im guessing the current kitchen, sun room and random bathroom are add ons?

Anyway, I would move the kitchen to current dining room, dining to sun room.

The current kitchen becomes an office/spare room/sun room/ play room (whatever you need). Leave random downstairs bathroom.

The 'utility' just becomes built in cupboards on stair side.

I'd move washing up stairs if possible so it's not all over downstairs.

Ideally I'd move the utility room into the downstairs loo and move the downstairs loo into the utility room and block off the door from the relocated downstairs loo into the kitchen. Not a fan of a door leading off into a kitchen from a toilet.

Actually I like @Seaside3 suggestions better. Though, I'd make the utility a small study/home office area, and the existing kitchen a home gym or spare ensuite bedroom (because that would suit us).

Thanks! @WhatWouldTheDoctorDo The current utility seems a weird space. I'm guessing it may have been original kitchen, when kitchens were much smaller.

I honestly don't know but I personally would change going from the kitchen to the shower room. I didn't think this was legal but it must be.

Is the sun room a proper room, with a solid roof? Or is it basically a sort of half hearted conservatory?

if it is anything like the ‘sun rooms ‘ round here, I would consider replacing it with a proper room, incorporating the kitchen, so you can access the dining room directly from the kitchen.

enlarge the dinning room opening into the sun room , and merge sun room and kitchen together,
big kitchen would be great

I would never have a loo off a kitchen and I didn’t think that was legal either.

I would put a window in the utility and use it as an office space. Or gaming space - or hobby space. Or use it as a cloakroom /bootroom. Do you need a downstairs shower? I’m not a fan.

I would tidy up the whole of the back of the house into one extension and put in a downstairs loo separated from the kitchen by the utility space. If you have gone with the home office idea! We have a laundry room which takes clothes out of the kitchen. Then have the sun room space and dining space as a larger kitchen dining area.

Thank you everyone for the very handy suggestions. It has certainly given us some food for thought including some suggestions which we had never thought of.

We would want to budget around £30,000.00 for the work / is some of the suggestions doable on that budget? I am guessing keeping the footprints as they are (ie not extending but just knocking walls down/reconfiguring rooms) would help. If anyone has any recent experience of costings- please share. :)

That being said - how do I go about finding out how much it will cost? Is the first step to contact an architect or a builder? I have never done this before so completely new.

And also, because we have a set budget (or a figure we would like to stick to) and am open to different ideas, if we were to contact say an architect, would they be able to draw up different plans for each work, and give a rough idea of costs for each one?

(obviously I would pay them for this service) but more so, is that the first step?

We had the same difficulty-even to get a ballpark figure from a builder was tricky. They were all so busy round here they didn’t want to even talk to us unless we had approved plans already. Part of me wishes we’d waited and lived with it and thought about it longer but it was very hard to live in ours- we had a hopeless tiny kitchen with an ancient gas cooker and a falling down sun room. Anyway I would keep the front room separate, make the utility into a downstairs loo (not a walk through one 😀) and make the whole of the back a kitchen diner. Give some thought to what the old dining room will be used for so it isn’t just a corridor. The current downstairs bathroom should be a utility/ pantry. We did similar and it cost a lot more than 30K in London

Do you know if your sun room has proper foundations?

@schooloflostsocks thank you.

Yes I believe so, it is a proper room with electrics and proper roof (tiles)

I'd want to out the loo under the stairs - knock all the other walls down between rooms, except the lounge - keep it separate - bathroom becomes utility room. Put the kitchen units in the dining room. Think it might cost more that £30k though.

Do you have dc, or plans to? How long do you imagine you’ll be in this house?

Do you know which walls are supporting walls? It would still be possible to knock them and open up the floor space but you’re getting into architects and engineers and steel beams. That will swallow up your budget.

Without any major structural changes, you could draw up the floor plans and apply for pp (if even needed) by yourself without an architect. (Ime they’re utterly clueless at estimating costs)

How many bathrooms/toilets do you have upstairs?

I'm with poster #4. Don't mess around with it for the sake of doing so.

Live in it then find out what you want/need and then get that done.

If you don't know what you want to do with it, the best thing is probably to do nothing.

I would not want a house with a bathroom straight off the kitchen, even if it is allowed in modern regs.