Need inspo for our house.

[InNeedOfInspo]

Have been in our house for nearly 20 years. Me, husband, teen and dog.

We’re struggling to use it for everything we need to, with 2 of us working from home and hobbies etc. DH thinks the answer is a garden room, but I want to explore other options first.

Attached is the floor plan as it is now. In addition we have an extension on the back of a double garage that measures 4.5m x 3.5m and has a multipurpose room downstairs (currently a gym) with a shower room and an office upstairs with a sofa bed and an electric piano.

DH and I both work from home - him more or less 100% of the time and me 60% of the time. The desk in the extension is the only one with additional monitors so we end up fighting over it. I have a tiny standing desk at the back of the living room but can only fit a laptop on it.

We don’t have enough storage in the kitchen, so the dining room has become the overspill area, along with the utility room. We don’t sit to eat in the dining room, partly because it is cramped but mostly because our schedules mean we all end up eating at different times.

Upstairs I have Bed 1 and the en-suite, DD has bed 4 for sleeping, books and clothes and DH has bed 2. Again, this is due to schedules and everyone getting enough sleep. Bed 3 has DD’s toys, the family Lego, a desk and sofa bed. It’s mainly used by DD. DD and DH share the family bathroom.

We have too much stuff, and need to declutter and we need to replace the windows and doors within the next couple of years. This has led to a discussion about potential garden room (garden faces north so would take the only sunny spot) or extensions, and I’m thinking about internal layout as well.

We need a proper working space for me which is separate to the outside office. We need to house the musical
instruments more effectively and ideally together (at the moment there is a drum kit in the living room, piano in the office and smaller instruments in bedroom 3).

I would like a more functional kitchen and utility room with significant storage (the quote I had from a designer for kitchen, utility and dining room had 36 units).

We intend to stay in the house for at least another 10 years, possibly forever. Happy to spend money to make it work better for us but not so much that we never realise it at resale. We’ve biggest house on the street and the existing extension probably took us over the ceiling price.

I can’t help but think that with 3 of us in a relatively large house we shouldn’t need to extend or add a garden room
to achieve these objectives but I’m struggling to see what could be possible.

Any thoughts or ideas welcomed.

You could knock the kitchen into the dining room as you said the dining room is an overflow of the kitchen. Get a garden room for the piano drums etc. Your lounge looks large couldn't you partition it off to make an office then you can still use the extension office you will have one each. Then you wouldn't have to move any of the toys or lego.

DH is a long distance cycler so trains several times a week over winter. I train 3-4 days a week year round.

Can’t have the 2 offices in the same space.

Give DD one of the bigger bedrooms to sleep in and for her stuff. Use bed 4 as one office.

Dining room and kitchen are already together.

Lounge is an awkward length so you’d end up with a very small room with the patio doors at the back (issue for dog getting out to the garden) and you’d make the living room end quite dark.

this

once tour daughter does a sort out i suspect won’t need two bedrooms, especially with garden room

She needs to be separate for sleep. I’ve already explained that.

Combine utility and kitchen and move kitchen overflow our of dining room into new extended kitchen

You're becoming a bit, erm, spiky. You fix it since no-one else seems to be giving you the answers you want.

There is also a fireplace opposite the lounge door with a chimney.

Sorry, trying to keep up with questions and typing quickly.

I have thought about lots of these things. I wouldn’t be talking about extending if they were an option.

You have a 4 bed house, plus a gym and office with only three people.

You have a clutter issue, not a space issue.

• Have a massive declutter.
• DH retains the office space as his as he is 100% WFH
• DD is moved 100% into Bed 3 for her sleeping, clothes, toys and books
• You take Bed 4 as your office. Get a desk and second screens, it is crazy you haven't sorted that out if you are WFH 60%. You could consider having a second desk for DD to do her homework in Bed 4 as well if you wanted to give her some separation, but honestly most children manage with one bedroom!!!
• Have a massive declutter.
• Rejig the downstairs layout so that the kitchen and diner are knocked through and you have a nice spacious kitchen, with a big island for eating at and lovely bog doors onto the garden for maximum light.
• Think about the gym, who uses it and what for? If it is just DH is it really fair that he is taking over such a large % of the house space for his office and hobby. Can the gym become the music room?
• Consider splitting the lounge into two to make a separate music room. Those long thru lounges aren't THAT great since you mainly end up using it for sitting watching TV on a sofa.
• Have a massive declutter. I bet you don't need 36 units in your kitchen.

On the plan the dining room is separate. You said some of the kitchen stuff is in the dining room that why the suggestions to knock through to dining room. As in my other post the lounge look big partition some of this off for an extra office. Garden room for musical stuff. Then you don't have to disturb upstairs.

Would have less storage without utility room wall as there is wire shelving along that wall? Need to keep area by back door clear so only gain floor space doing that, unless I’m misunderstanding?

the oven is next to the utility room door so would have to accommodate that elsewhere if that wall were shorter. That might work but would need to look at it.

I’ve altered the plan. It was originally planned to be separate but they built this house slightly differently. Sorry, the dimensions might be wonky as a result. You go through the dining room door from the hall and the kitchen is immediately to the left. There is a half height wall between the dining room and kitchen hence not many wall units etc overall. So they are together, mostly.

absolutely want to take that half wall down and use the whole space properly. Wasn’t sure if extending back would be worth it.

OK, based on your replies I can see that you 100% believe:
You and DH NEED the gym.
Your DD NEEDS two bedrooms.
You NEED all that space for the kitchen/diner/utility.
You and DH NEED to sleep separately.
You and DH NEED to have office space separatly.

So just chuck up a garden room for your office and music stuff. If you literally NEED everything and more..... then build more. A garden room will be the quickest, easiest and cheapest option to add more space.

I'd probably try the massive declutter first... but hey ho.

Move your gym to some where in the garden in one of those log cabin things

m then convert the existing gym to more usable space

garden rooms are difficult to hear

you’ll build a garden room and it will become a dumping ground i suspect

Get your dopamine hits from selling on eBay.

That's a huge extension and should house all the musical instruments & one office. Maybe Lego too.

Dining room could be the other office.

Dining table at garden end of the large reception.

Kitchen stuff needs to be trimmed back to fit the kitchen. Store rarely-used things in the garage.

Make guest room purely for guests/toys.

Declutter until you all fit.

your posts on this very thread indicate you aren’t in the right frame of mind to be doing a big redesign op

Thank you. DD won’t sleep if there is anything other than books in her room. It’s been a lesson learned the hard way.

Am keen to keep one room where visitors can stay if possible, plus future sleepovers for DD.

Where would you see the kitchen island going, out of interest?

Gym needs to stay for now. I often use it very late at night and DH can maintain his training (he has the bike on a platform thing through winter). He needs the routine of exercise but where we live has bad weather much of the time so he needs to be able to use the indoor space. Sadly because of the shower room and the stairs there isn’t room for the gym kit and musical instruments to share the space.

have thought about splitting the living room but the layout with the door and fireplace/chimney half way along the walls means the smaller sofa is in line with the door and there is fitted furniture from the other side of the sofa to the back. The room that could be created at the back would be very dark and cold in winter due to being north facing and with a large patio door. But it is a thought. Would have to remove the radiator to fit in a different desk.

Don’t extend, all you will create is more space for more stuff.
l agree that ideally you declutter first but can totally see your need for an upfront incentive.
I would move DD into bedroom one, more space for her musical stuff, teenage stuff etc.
You and DH get bedrooms 2 and 3. You get bedroom 4 as an office (with or without the sofa bed. Downstairs take down the wall between kitchen and dining room and get it refitted with as much storage as possible. Lounge stays as it is but possibly gets some built in storage and a makeover.
Garage extension gets a tidy and possibly built in storage.
At every stage you look at things with the assumption that they have to justify the space they take up. Do you all use the gym? Are all the musical instruments actually played?
You will have to do all the thinking, planning and being proactive so you might as well also make sure you get colour choices, kitchen choices etc too!

The 36 unit kitchen was because I had a cake business on the side (at the time). The wire shelving I put in the utility room to house kit and supplies would have been replaced with units and I wanted somewhere for mops and steam cleaners etc to live.

As I understand my ADHD better it’s actually really hard when I can’t see things because they basically don’t exist. At one point we had 24 bags of pasta in a cupboard because DH kept putting them away and I forgot we had pasta and kept buying more. It’s a challenge, but I now know a 36 unit kitchen would make things worse!

I think you all need hoarding counselling TBH. That's a lot of space for three people but you have answers to everything; Why you can't do this or that.

If you add more rooms you'll fill them all too, and push the house right out of the price ceiling for the area to boot.

You need to start getting your dopamine hits from divestment and tidiness.

It's probably also your last chance to teach your DD that there are effective strategies for managing ND- influenced behaviour patterns. No ND person gets through life without coping strategies. Currently she's not getting very healthy messages, TH brutally H.

As I understand my ADHD better it’s actually really hard when I can’t see things because they basically don’t exist.

My dyspraxia works the same way. Which is why I have to have systems and discipline to keep things tidy, filed and under control.

There is a shower room in the extension where the gym is. Wouldn’t be in a garden room…..?