Floorplan / ground floor remodelling help and ideas!

[NoPrivateSpy]

We are having our ground floor remodelled.

We have plans submitted and approved to knock the current utility wall down, replace the conservatory with an extension and create a large open plan kitchen-diner-lounge but I am worried it will now be too cost prohibitive.

We were also planning to section off the front lounge area to create a separate room.

1. What would you do with this space?
2. If we didn’t remove the existing utility wall, do you think the current dining room, kitchen, back lounge bit plus conservatory would be large enough for a kitchen-diner-lounge? It would be 6m by 6m.

Ideally we wanted a separate front room that we can use as an occasional bedroom.

We are not open to a garage conversion as it is joined to next door’s garage.

Any advice or help very much appreciated.

Your kitchen is still very small..do you not want a bigger kitchen? The garage door into garage i would move a few feet across so you can have a straight line of kitchen units.

A comfortable size living room for a house that size is 4mx4m. So I think 6mx6m isn’t large enough
It’s all a matter of taste though. If you are happy with a small kitchen or just want a dining table tucked against a wall then it’s fine

Confused why you can’t go into the garage
I’d move the garage door to nearer the WC so you have more wall space and less routes though

In order to appreciate the space I’d move furniture around to create the dining living etc within that space. Even if all you’ve got is empty boxes it can help to appreciate the scale

Why not make current utility in to a spare room, block off back door and install a downstairs shower.

Then the 'through' bit that's currently dining becomes a 2nd.kitchen/utility space and you have a kitchen diner at back, with doors into lounge.

We recently did an L shape kitchen, dinning and snug area extension by removing conservatory and is approx 6.5 metres wide and 7 metres deep. This includes keeping our small utility room. I wouldn’t want it any bigger. We have a separate large lounge/diner.

I think,6m by 6m woukd be fine with a clever use of space, say the dinning table has a bench against the wall backing onto the new small lounge then your table. We have only a 2 seater sofa so ours is a snug rather than a full lounge.

if you took down your utility wall then wouldn’t your toilet be accessed from the new kitchen, dinning room and lounge. It would probably save you quite a bit of money if you didn’t take the wall down but I am no expert.

Would this work?

I’d make the conservatory into an orangery type space and knock through to the kitchen so you could do what a pp showed on the floor plans. Having an L shaped kitchen dining area and the separate lounge. If it’s big enough I’d have a tv and couch in the orangery plus large doors onto the garden

How big is the open plan kitchen area if you go with @MrsPositivity1 ? I would want to go with that plan and keep the utility, as you don't want washing machine noise in an open plan area. Then a sofa bed in the closed off front room for occasional guests.

I was going to suggest the same thing. You could put a sofa on the new wall separating the living room off. The kitchen down the left hand side and a dining table in the old conservatory space.

Plus I’d prefer to keep a utility anyway.

OP were you thinking you’d knock down the conservatory and rebuild?
could you get away with keeping it and putting a lightweight roof with insulation on and opening it up as per this plan?

I would try to keep the utility room too with the toilet of as per what you currently have.

I don’t think I explained it that well, sorry @SUPerSaver721

This is the current floorplan. So if we knocked through to the dining room and conservatory and squared it off with the lounge, it would 6m x 6m.

@Plantatreetoday- thank you. I am not sure what you mean about the garage door?

I don’t want to convert the garage as I don’t want a living space joined to the house next door when the the rest of the house is detached. That probably doesn’t make sense!

Ingenious if we didn’t want to take down any walls @Seaside3

thank you - food for thought. I have toyed with having a bedroom on the side but apparently not a great idea so close to the kitchen? Not sure if that really bothers me though.

Yeah, in the architectural plans they have moved the toilet to under the stairs. I think it’s going to be quite pricey. I’m too scared to get quotes 🤣

Good to know in comparison to the size of yours. Thank you for the advice.

Hello @MrsPositivity1- this is exactly what I was wondering. This layout creates a 6m by 6m space.

do you think that it is big enough for a kitchen diner lounge or just a kitchen diner?

Thank you. It would be 6m by 6m so I just can’t work out if that would be big enough or not for a lounge section?

I was definitely going to take the conservatory down because it was erected in the 90s I think. Although it is water tight and quite solid, it has seen better days and isn’t very attractive. I love the orangery look though so would definitely incorporate lots of glass on that side.

Thank you all so much - it’s good to hear that some people think it might be doable size wise.

I explained my post really badly but essentially the plans we had accepted remove the utility wall, place the toilet under the stairs and take out a bit of the garage for the utility room. So essentially we maintain all those things but with nearly 3m more width on the back kitchen etc. to make it 9m x 6m. That seems to make the space really generous and I am just worried it might look cramped otherwise.

I'm not sure that keeping the wall will necessarily save that much in the big scheme of things, I think the extension will be the major cost. There comes a point where you may as well spend a bit extra to do it properly. What does your architect say about it?

The architect has commented that it would be much more cost effective to keep the structural walls (of which that utility wall is one). And to keep supporting columns where we can (such as between the current dining room and lounge). These are the original exterior walls of the house.

I haven’t got structural engineer plans yet though.

Chat GPT

I did run it through chat GPT and got nothing very useful 🤣 Yours at least looks like a kitchen!

If you move the door between garage and etg kitchen north to next to your double doors into the garden you are waisting less useable wall space
and using up less room in terms of routes around the space
Doors in the middle of kitchen walls are a pain to design around so stick it next to the double doors
It also creates more utility space for storage
and means you can walk straight into a lobby to your grd fl WC

If the garage it attached then your property is more link detached than detached but I appreciate what you mean by its perception

You’re going to have some expensive beams to take the first floor load at that structural corner you’ve just removed.

I wouldn’t advice removing that corner @MrsPositivity1 19:28

Re toilet moving to under the stairs

Id concider where the existing plumbing is upstairs
If any bathrooms are above or to the side of the stairs sticking a WC in at grd floor below is not expensive
If they are remote you’ll have to dig in new drainage, provide water and venting aswell = more expensive.

Id also concider all of the above if you in any way want to move the kitchen too much. Drainage and pipe work is a pain and if your grd fl construction is solid expensive to install.