Ground floor layout remodel - help! (with floorplan)

[JustLikeThatBluebird]

I've seen some brilliant ideas from people on this board when it comes to floor plans and I'm hoping some of you might have some ideas for our planned remodel as we're a bit stuck and keep going around in circles.

Long story short - we have planning permission for a side extension but the architect has been very slow (and also very out of touch with costs) and in the meantime prices have rocketed so it's now completely out of reach. Work circumstances mean that we may not stay in this house permanently (though we would like to) so we've decided that our best bet is to just remodel what we currently have. I've attached the existing floor plan as drawn up by the architect.

Important details (apologies if I forget anything):

• The yellow lines show the drains (yes, they are at both the front and side of the house).
• The left hand side of the house, as in the plan, is attached.
• We're willing to consider most options, including moving the location of the kitchen (the current layout is awful).
• We're willing to consider removing chimney breasts though would ideally like a wood burner in either the front or the back.
• The hall cannot be touched as it has original 1920s tiles.
• We do need to keep a downstairs loo.
• One of the biggest problems is that the back of the house (current kitchen/diner) is south-facing, which is brilliant but means that the living room is cold, damp and dark pretty much year round. We want to make the two main rooms at least a little bit open plan (can be more open than less if it works).
• We have 4 metres to the side of the house (right hand side on the plan - the long thin structure is a rickety wooden porch that needs taking down). This is where we were going to extend but even without an extension we'd like to do something with the space as it's currently a dumping ground. Any ideas?
• The side access doesn't need retaining.
• We'd love to be able to sit at the back of the house as it looks out onto a large garden. That could be either as the main living room or a sofa in the kitchen/diner. It doesn't look big enough but we currently have a dining table in the middle of the kitchen and a small sofa by the bifold doors, and it doesn't look cramped.
• There's a scale on the image but I don't know how readable it will be. The front room is 3.7m wide and 4.2m long (into the bay). The back room (if we ignore walls) is approximately 4m x 5.5m. So not huge but I'm sure it can improved.
• Budget - in theory we have as much as £100k but we really don't want to spend that much on a remodel. Just giving this figure to say that we don't have a very tightly constrained budget so can consider structural work.

Is the wall between the lounge and the dining/utility rooms a load bearing wall?

Could you do a small side extension, replacing the rickety porch and moving the downstairs toilet there. This frees up the space in the kitchen diner.

Adding glazed doors to the living room lets light through but means you can close it off.

The wall between the lounge and kitchen diner is load bearing. We can open it up but not take it out completely. The wall between the kitchen and utility can go completely (and that was our original plan along with an extension).

We've considered something like this (thanks!) but it's still surprisingly expensive for the extra space we'd get so we're trying to remodel without extending. Also, I have several kitchen layouts planned on the Ikea Kitchen Planner with this exact layout and we can't actually get a good kitchen in this position. The current kitchen is a horrible layout but we're reluctant to spend a lot of money on something that won't be a big improvement.

We loved the quirkiness of the house when we bought it (it's a hall-adjoining semi) but it's now causing us problems...

I feel like we need one of those fancy architects who focus on remodelling instead of extending but we've had nothing but bad experiences with architects in the past (expensive, slow, poor communication, poor understanding of building costs).

Is there any reason you can't move the kitchen diner to the front and have the living room at the back?

@SoupDragon We definitely could do that. Having drainage at the front as well as side makes it really easy in terms of utilities. We're still unsure of how to best use the space though. If we just leave the layout exactly as is, we have this odd space in the (existing) kitchen, that currently houses the fridge freezer and sink and we can't work out what to do with it. It could fit a small study area or it could fit a small sofa if we keep the kitchen at the back.

Moving the living room to the back would probably mean we do need to move some walls as it's hard to position sofas without blocking doors. But we're open to doing that, just can't work out what will work best.

I would do a modular extension, which will come in under 100k. Can downstairs look go under the stairs? And add sliding crittal doors to the living room to bring some light in.

@anicecuppateaa Loo can't go under the stairs for two reasons, 1) original 1920s floor tiles that we don't want to damage and 2) getting the soil pipe out would be nigh on impossible. The tiles would need digging up and even so, I don't think we'd get the necessary drop.

Unfortunately, a modular extension doesn't work either. The extension we had planned completely opened up the side of the house at the back, which we can't do with a modular extension. It'd probably work well if we just wanted an extra room or two on the side though. Might be one to think about in future if we end up staying here but for now we're looking to spend a lot less and have far less disruption.

Are you in London? We used an architect called Home Tales for our extension and they were very good with helping us understand the costs from the start. They also offered us unlimited changes to the plans which was good for my indecisiveness 😅

@eb949013 No, we're in Yorkshire but thanks for the recommendation. Sounds like that's the sort of architect we need! So disappointed with the most recent one but the one we hired for our last house was pretty terrible too!

I'm currently playing around with the Ikea Kitchen Planner (I've used it for the whole ground floor, it's a shame you can't add sofas but other than that it's great) to see what's the maximum improvement we can get with minimum structural change. I'm trying to turn it into a challenge so it feels like less of a disappointment after our original plans 😆

Forgive my appalling drawing skills but I'd extend at the back to create a longer hall which I'd line with storage and downstairs wc ( both marked blue), the kitchen units (row of cupboards against party wall and a peninsula unit would sit beyond this with dining area on other side of the extension. The sitting area would be tucked in old utility/kitchen area - although you could place dining table there and have sitting area directly onto the garden.

I'd definitely look at moving the kitchen diner to the front. Something like this

(the study bit is primarily to avoid having the toilet opening directly into the living space)

Do you need the back door?
At its simplest, I'd move the loo to the current back door location, and then have a long thin utility running down the wide space on the right.
That would allow a sensible kitchen space. Doesn't solve the north facing living room tho.

If you’re thinking of moving less is probably more. I’d simply move the side door over if you need to keep, relocate the loo the corner and have the back as open plan living dining kitchen. I’d keep the separate living room as having had open plan having somewhere else to go is useful.

I would 100% build a small (but not tiny) side extension consisting of a shower room/wc, really good utility room, and a vestibule/hallway with shoe/coat storage between the two as I hate walking through utility rooms to downstairs loos.

Then you'll also have a spacious kitchen/living/diner, and a separate living room.

You have a good sized front room and leave it like that, I'd invest in good heating and lighting in there too.

That way your hall remains untouched, your fireplaces are untouched, and you will have a really versatile home that will suit you or anyone else indefinitely.

Could you tell me a bit more about modular extensions please?

They appeal to me cost wise and also as I believe they are quick and efficient to build.

What about longevity though as opposed to traditional construction? And are councils ok with them?

Are there any modular companies you could recommend?

Thank you!

@everythingcrossed Thanks! Unfortunately, extending to the back is no cheaper than extending to the side. We also can't put the loo on that side as we won't be able to get the soil pipe out.

@SoupDragon We're leaning towards something like that - thanks! I'm going to give it a go in the Ikea planner, see how it works with the actual measurements.

@SnowyIcySnow If you mean the side door then no, we don't need it. I think this is the solution we're converging on, with a partial knock-through to the front. Just need to then decide whether or not to keep the living room at the front or swap it with the kitchen. I need to draw up both options to see what works best.

@nameychange We were originally thinking of something like this but it means the loo is directly off the kitchen plus it leaves a lot of unused space. I might try out a few more configurations though. The living room is definitely getting knocked through though, it's a miserable dark and cold room that is currently almost completely unused. We'll have doors on though so it can be closed off when we want but being able to use that room without needing the heating on in summer would be very nice.

@JustLikeThatBluebird yes, I do mean the side door, rather than the bifolds. Back door was very poor terminology - the door at the side of the house leading to the back garden....
I saw the sketch above my response after I'd posted. I think I was thinking the loo the other way round, so a narrower utility than the study sketched, but very similar ideas in those 2 posts.

@FavouriteTshirt This was our original plan B but the costs are just too high still. Extension costs are coming in at £4k per square metre (just for the shell!) so even something small will cost us far more than it will add to the house value and that's before we even start looking at new kitchen cost etc. If we were definitely staying long-term that would be fine but it's just not worth the risk when we might move in a couple of years.

Apologies for the terrible drawing and this would depend on the room dimensions but I'm thinking something like:

• block up the side door from the kitchen and that space could be a walk in pantry cupboard or space for hoover, ironing board etc.
• keep the toilet where it is and create a new utility room space around it in the back corner of the kitchen with a new back door into the garden for access to the washing line, dirty shoes, people in the garden coming in for the loo so they don't have to traipse through the kitchen and dining area etc
• Have 2 sets of parallel units in the kitchen, potentially with a breakfast bar arrangement on the back of the island unit. Wall units on the wall against the utility room and base units only on the island. You could have your hob on the island so it's more sociable when cooking.
• put new glass doors into the living room

@MiddleAgedDread Ooh interesting! It'll cost us more to take out that internal wall but could be worth the expense. I'm going to draw this up - thanks!