How to make more space in newbuild, any creative visionaries?

[Frazzled252]

We have bought a house in the south east, that is very far from our dream home but we panicked a little as TTC and don’t want to move once pregnant.
The house is…eugh. It’s a David Wilson Buckingham style home, and although it’s 2100 something sq ft it feels really small. I worked out that as it has an attic floor the ground and first floor would be circa 1500sq ft which is why it feels really small. So trying to work out how to live with it until we can move.
The garden is typical new build and tiny so I’m not sure an extension would work. Theres a double garage I would like to convert but I think there’s a rule we can’t change it for a few years until the new builds are all finished.
I have an elderly parent that would need to stay sometimes and can’t manage the stairs. I could use an office room as a bedroom but then there’s no shower and the downstairs wc is too small to make it into a wet room. I am genuinely at a loss at what to do. The sale has been completed so too late to back out. We are stuck.
Anyone been in a similar situation/have any ideas? TIA

Can you post the floor plan? Are you trying to create more space or be creative with storage? Are you able to reconfigure internal walls if need be?

Yes agree the floor plan would help

1500 square foot over two floors doesnt sound small. We need to see the floor plan to comment though

Thanks for your reply. I will try and post the floor plan. It’s the downstairs, which is the issue really the main bedroom is big enough and then there’s two other rooms and two more in the attic. The issue is the downstairs living space, it feels very boxy and claustrophobic. Plus with the elderly parent there’s nowhere really to put them. I am not the most creative thinker though so hoping someone else has a lot more ideas ❤️

Knock loo and utility into one, stack appliances and create a lootility. Is there room for a bed in the study? Or pod in garden.

why did you buy it?

Or, make a downstairs bathroom out of the study. Cut sitting room in half and make front half a bedroom and half a snug.

The downstairs loo is quite far from the utility, in the hall vs just off the kitchen. We bought because we’re idiots frankly we really didn’t think it through.

The lootilty is exactly what I would suggest (great name for it BTW, stealing that!), but if you need the study I'd just get a really decent sofa bed for the lounge for visitors. That would probably be my simplest suggestion for this layout.

But they are next to each other on the floor plan with probably just a stud wall. Go through the wall 🤷🏽‍♀️

It's not if you block the hall entrance to the loo, then knock the adjoining wall between the hall and utility down.

The downstairs loo is right next to the utility.

Another vote for creating a shower/loo there, the study becomes a bedroom.

I would put a through floor lift in so they have access to the first floor. It’s probably cheaper than any of the other suggestions here. You could put it in the study or dining room. They don’t take up masses of space.

Study as bedroom and WC as shower room?

incorporate WC (if you need one downstairs) into the utility

I’d block the door from kitchen and outside and keep the door from hall.

Is it really too late to pull out? You seem really unhappy with the house.

I live on a new build estate in the south east in a David Wilson home but it’s two bedrooms, the Buckinghams are 5 bedrooms and the ones where I live are £770k, that’s a crazy amount of money to spend if you’re not happy and are going to spend more changing it!!

@BoredZelda Would a floor lift not harm the value of the house for future sale though? I'd have thought it would be much more expensive to install than knocking down a wall and making a shower/loo/utility.

Developer trying to tick too many boxes here. It’s not so much a space problem but how it’s used.

The space in the kitchen is really for a kitchen diner not a family room. Take out the breakfast bar and just have a dining table in there.

The dining room then becomes a snug.

Put a double door in between the new snug and lounge which can be either opened or closed depending on mood / space needed.

In the office just move the door and put a sofa bed or Murphy bed in there. Current door placement prevents this

If you are putting in a shower you will need building control approval. Building regulations say you can’t have access to a WC opening directly into a kitchen. You wouldn’t get approval to do this.

Dining room into family sitting room, dining table into kitchen (round table?). Then your front room can double as a spare room when your parents stay.

Nope. There is a severe shortage of ground floor/bungalow accommodations for people with restricted mobility. The market is definitely there for it. They are also easy to remove.

You can pick up a second hand / reconditioned lift for a fairly low cost and installation isn’t complicated especially going through a timber floor.

Knocking down the wall and creating another shower room will cost around 10k minimum. You can do a through floor lift for that.

Make study a guest bedroom. Swap over loo and utility. Current loo is a small utility with washer and dryer stacked accessed from kitchen. Current utility is shower room accessed from spare bedroom - close off external door.

Agree with PP saying have dining table in kitchen and make dining room a study/snug/playroom/music room.

The issue is that we did a part exchange and actually it took a while for our house to sell, and we ended up getting more than it sold for from the developer in terms of value. Now the house had sold I’m not sure what would happen but I know there’d be significant penalties for backing out.

I think building regs changed some years ago on this front. As long as the WC
has a wash basin and extractor it can open into any room. Whether you’d want it too or not is another matter!

If it's important to have a downstairs shower for your parents, the easiest way would be to move the washing machine out of the utility room and create a walk-in shower with grab handles as a wet room. Not ideal, but OK for the occasional shower. The washing machine could maybe go an upstairs bathroom if no room in the kitchen.
Or, you could think about how important it is for your parents to shower when they visit. If they only come for short periods, might they be happy to have a wash in the downstairs cloakroom, or could they get upstairs once a day for a shower if you helped them?
The study would make a good spare bedroom.

You still have a kitchen with space to eat, a separate dining room and a lounge. It seems like plenty of space for two people, and I'm not sure why it feels so small. Without the measurements it's hard to tell. Are the rooms very low-ceilinged?
Don't despair. The house will look much nicer with your furniture in it and maybe some decorating if you don't like what's here.

Garden pod is also an option but not sure how much space we’d need. The garden is tiny. Has anyone done a garden pod? Curious if the can be like little standalone homes