House Extension Ideas

[pixaar3101]

Hello Everyone,

We are planning our house extension after having two kids and looking for some ideas and opinions on our current thought process.

Please refer to the rough plan. Below is the colour schema.
Black = Existing ground floor.
Blue = Planned extensions
Red = My question areas

I have 4 questions as highlighted in the outline.

1. Extended kitchen diner will increase to approx 30 sqm from the current kitchen size of 10 sqm. Any thoughts on the planned drawing?
2. We will extend to the back and add approximately 1.5M. Living room 2 will become quite long at 8M. Do you have any ideas how can we manage this space better? French doors in the middle? I can think of a few uses for this space. Kids playroom, TV room, A library/reading area etc.
3. I have a pretty good feeling about this point. We are not going to break through this wall as it will create a very long room. SO this stays as Living room 1/guest reception.
4. Does it make sense to combine the planned kitchen diner with living room 2 to create a very large open kitchen diner/living room? We cook a lot and I kind of like having a separate kitchen from living room but we do have living room 1. So I am in two minds whether to open it up or keep it as planned.

Are there any things we should watch out for or consider in our planning?
Any ideas or comments welcome.

Ask yourself whether you really do need the extension to be as big as you are making it. I have a 9m x 3.5 long playroom in my house and we're cutting it in two - it's just wasted space right now, half of it is not used. You could extend just where the kitchen is and not along the living room 2.

I don't like massive open plan spaces so would keep them as separate rooms, although I'd probably have a half glazed double door between that and the kitchen, so it can be a more sociable space when you choose to.

@CatherinedeBourgh thanks for your reply. Both very valid points. Initially, we were thinking of exactly what you suggested on extending till where the kitchen ends and not along the length of living room 2. It will also not eat into our patio that much. So we will consider this.

We are also thinking about opening some space at point no 4 highlighted and adding a metal french door that will give us the flexibility of open/close space.
So thanks for validating our viewpoints.

The new kitchen would basically be 2.5mx6m then the L right?

I think I would make the kitchen part of living room 2 so that it could be a big family space with kitchen area, dining area and sofa area.

Or if you really want a separate kitchen you could cut the L and have a kitchen then family lounge / diner. We often have people over for dinner so we love a kitchen diner but I know not everyone does.

@Zonder can you please elaborate this point? Where would you cut the L to separate kitchen and family lounge/diner?

Or if you really want a separate kitchen you could cut the L and have a kitchen then family lounge / diner.

I'd separate the kitchen by putting a wall or door or maybe even an arch where my green line is and remove the wall where the yellow cross is.

Although as I said I do like a big kitchen diner / family room myself.

I'd just knock your kitchen and living room together to make a kitchen diner.

You're going to end up with a lot of unused, dark space, with your planned extension.

Don't forget, people can only be in 1 space at a time, so assuming there are 4 of you, do you really need an office, kitchen diner, 2 large Downstairs reception rooms? How many bedrooms have you got?

Okay, I see what you are saying. Basically, you would combine the current kitchen and living room into a large living room/dining area and separate out the kitchen.

@Seaside3
We have 3 bedrooms. We can convert a loft for a 4th bedroom which we will need because we have frequent guests - out parents and inlawas who don't live in the UK. So they stay with us a few times a year.

I would if I really wanted a separate kitchen, yes.

And as a mother of two teens I would go against what the PP said about not needing so many rooms - we have lots of space downstairs so plenty of room for the kids to have friends over and not disturb us.

As a mother of 2 teens and 2 adults(now left), I found they are happy to hangout in their rooms, or the and we have the lounge. Or vise versa.

I think the existing space can easily accommodate 2 kids, but a downstairs loo and an upstairs laundry room are always good additions.

We discourage hanging out in rooms - I don't like other people going upstairs and I like to keep the bedrooms for quiet and relaxing.

So more reception space works for that.

Big fan of upstairs laundry space though!

okay so here is our rationale for the current plan.
Both my wife and I work from home atleast 2/3 days a week and this will continue. We currently sit in Living room 2 for work and it's quite disruptive plus the lighting is not so good. People can hardly see us on zoom. Hence the office is a must have for us. Downstairs bathroom goes without saying. It's just convenient. I must say, we do have a downstairs bathrooom in the hallway that I haven't highlighted. But i's quite small - just the toilet. In the new plan , we will have a shower there as well. Finally the utility room is something I am looking forward to. I hate clothes drying all over the house. I want to move the washing machine to the utility room and get a dryer. This is where cloth racks will go.

@Zonder fair enough. It doesn't bother me if they want to hang out with their mates in their bedrooms. I trust them.and figure they're allowed some privacy. But each to their own.

Either way, I don't think the proposed extension above is a great one.

Guys - can you please walk me though the upstairs laundry room? Why not a utility room on the ground floor? We are not touching the first floor. This is a ground floor extension only.

We put our laundry in our Iver sized bathroom upstairs. It means no dragging washing all round the house, it's tidy and out of the way of guests etc. So much better than downstairs.

This all sounds great then. You will love having an office where you can close the door on it at the end of a working day.

I don't think it makes much difference if it's up or down really - having a big enough space for your washer, dryer and rack is all you need.

I had an upstairs laundry room for a few years and it made things easier in that washing never came downstairs. Clothes are taken off, washed, dried and put away upstairs.

The disadvantage is that you have to lug it downstairs to line dry outside.

@Zonder okay got it. We don't have that option anyway as the first floor stays as is. But perhaps something to think when we convert the loft in future. We have roughly 35 sqm space for the loft which will be our master bedroom in future. So maybe we can think of moving the laundry area upstairs later.

The extra bit on the end of the living room- why not make this the utility instead, put the bathroom in the planned utility and have a bigger office- for 2 WFH can have enough space and could have a sofa so multipurpose

Here's what I would do, if you really want more space . I'd get rid of the extension at the side. You will just end up with a weird shaped kitchen and a really long 2nd living space.

I'd extend put the back to make a good sized kitchen dining room. Keep living 1 and 2, so one can be used as a 2nd office/play room.

I'd get rid of the downstairs bathroom, no one really wants to shower downstairs, and you already have a downstairs loo. I'd put your utility off the new kitchen, and make your office a decent size, with a door from the hall, so it's totally separate. This would make a good spare bedroom too, as it's kind of separate from living space.

Put nice wide doors from kitchen out to garden and french doors from office.

Amazing picture attached.

Is your house in an utterly amazing location or a very big plot?

It seems like a very costly extension and then a loft conversion on top.

Have you priced it yet versus moving? I know moving carries other costs but in the current climate a very large extension with a lot of foundation work may not be cost effective.

I was going to say have you priced this extension up?

Have you considered getting professional advice? An Architect will often come up with a solution that wouldn't even occur to most people. They will also be up to date on current regulations and materials and should be able to spot potential pitfalls too. It can save a lot of time and money and ensure you get exactly what you need.

Good point @unsync - I've always been amazed at the cool ideas our architect comes up with and how he sweeps away my batshit ideas

If you extend too much without creating extra bedrooms then you risk massively overstepping the ceiling price for the number of bedrooms. I.e. you could end up with a 3 bed when the biggest 3 bed in the area costs £300,000 and you have spent £500,000 on yours.

I also think it is a bit weird to have as many reception rooms as there are people living in the house. Almost like you don't ever want to spend any time together?