What can we do with this layout?

[Pickingmyselfup]

If we put a whole width extension going out 3m?

Points to consider...

1. Can't steal any garage space, husband says it's too full of tools for fixing stuff
2. The kitchen back wall is a supporting wall from the external right hand side to basically where the window begins which is approx 77cm from corner to edge where the window starts.
3. I want a utility room/area to hide the washing
4. Dining table currently in the lounge, hate it, can't put it in the kitchen. Have worktops running with sides lengthways which is great for cooking and storage.
5. We are detached and own all 3 fences. Only have one neighbour on the kitchen side. Our external wall faces into their walkway to the side of their house.

We have considered moving and it's still an option but we wouldn't really gain much for our budget. It's cheaper to extend plus then we have the bonus of being able to put in a brand new kitchen and enjoy the house especially as we are starting to have to do things like put new bathrooms in because they are beginning to be not fit for purpose. We are limited to area too because of schools and will be for another ten years.

We want an extension to add value and if we stay long term the chances are we should make back most of the money we have spent on just building the extension.

I think I would put a new lounge on the LHS, coat cupboard at the front on the left then the lounge for the rest.

Open up between the kitchen and middle room, plenty of space to allocate a utility room.

could you add the current room dimensions. Do you want a separate reception room or do you like fully open plan?

Off the top of my head...

Lounge something over 5m in length and approx 2.9m wide

Kitchen is 5m in length and 2.4m wide

Don't like fully open plan, I want a separate lounge I can close off, carpet and have it cosy. I don't want my kitchen to be any smaller than it is now, it currently has dryer, washing machine, fridge freezer, freezer, bins, single cube kallax for the cat. In the future when when we are catless we will be adding 2 new kittens in so I want the space to add in 2x2 kallaxes so each cat has a separate cube for food and another cube for the water fountain. We can only do this if we lose the dryer and washing machine to somewhere else.

Unless he needs them for his work, no one has that many tools. I bet you could steal garage space if it was gone through, sorted and organised. You could convert a little bit and put a utility room in.

I said that but it's not happening. He's had to build a garden shed to house some of his stuff! He says they are necessary because they save us money because we don't have to pay people to fix things for us (like cars, he's basically a hobby mechanic so we do need things like car jacks or whatever else is in there.

I have also said that he doesn't get to dictate not having the laundry area in the dining area if it's hidden whilst he refuses to give up 1.5m of garage space. I don't care either way, I'm happy with both.

Go out to the left side by the 3m. To the left of the front door make a utility/boot room, loads of storage and washing machine/dryer with pulley overhead. The living room is now far wider which makes more space for the dining table.

Where is your door to the kitchen from living room? Consider widening it to double picket doors so you can have the room open-plan for entertaining but closed when you want to be cosy.

Can you put a utility under the stairs as there's water there already?

I'd also steal from lounge, have a kitchen diner and smaller lounge. Saves building.

We can't do that, we don't have the side space.

Under the stairs is our current lounge, basically you walk in the front door. Directly to the left is the toilet then the stairs. Ahead is lounge which includes the sloped bit of the stairs, we have a small sofa under that which is fine for us to sit on if we have people over because we aren't tall.

The door to the kitchen from the lounge is about 3.5-4m in as a rough estimate. At the end of the lounge are sliding patio doors to the garden.

Depending on your budget you could just steal the back of the garage for utility then just build out of the kitchen side to create a kitchen diner with a roof light . I’d be wary of building across the whole back due to how dark it could make the current kitchen and living room spaces.

I've taken this photo at the entrance to the lounge. As you can see the hall space isn't big so we cant take anything from there.

The internal door to the kitchen is just on the right.

To our left is the side of our house and that's our property. To the left of that is a public council owned park.

Where is the door from kitchen to lounge?

I can't, that's a non negotiable subject.

I was also concerned about the darkness but I went to see a neighbours similar building and theirs was ok, our kitchen gets dark as it is so we have to have lights on a lot so it wouldn't really change especially if there was plenty of light coming from the extension.

Maybe it is easier to move but it's just so expensive and we couldn't afford to replace anything like bathrooms or kitchens so if they were in rough shape we would be stuck.

I’d slice off a third of your lounge to create a dining room and a small utility area

Struggling to add a photo but it's probably 2/3s into the lounge on the right hand side.

That’s a huge amount of space for him and his tools !

Annoyingly I can't add more photos because I've drawn up better plans which show where all the doors and radiators are currently 😡

Mission accomplished (kind of)

Here is an almost to scale version of our lounge currently. The red rectangles at the far end are the walls where the patio doors are.The yellow blocks are radiators/windows.

2 radiators in the lounge, one under the window to the left and one to the right just after the kitchen door.

Green are sofas (we don't yet own) brown is furniture. Blue is a cat tree. Circle blob is a lamp.

Here is the kitchen.

Purple are the worktops basically run lengthways. Brown are the cupboards I would put in put at the moment one is a washing machine and one is a dryer. Black are the double kallaxes I want for the cats on the wall between the lounge and the kitchen and the other end is a range cooker which we don't have but I want. Sink is under the window. Boiler is on the wall in the corner by the window, could be moved but at a cost and if we moved it further into the garden we might upset the neighbours just like we might if we moved the cooker.

Right, so your original floor plan is wrong then if the toilet is to the left of the front door as you come in? Is it flipped? And what were you talking about when you said you could go out for a 3-metre extension? I thought you couldn’t go out the right because it was next to the neighbours’, and now you say you can’t go out the left either. Are you talking about going out beyond the French doors? That’ll make your long thin rooms even longer.

No sorry I was wrong, it's on the right!

Yes I do mean going out beyond the patio doors and yes it will make the rooms longer but a lot of people have conservatories so if I have one big room it would be the same?

So I can make the house 3m longer into our garden, can't go left, can't go right. It's the width of the house (approx 6m) and then out 3m.

You said you thought you could recoup most of the cost of extending. I am not sure you would. It will help sell more easily and you may get a premium for your house. We have just done an extension, going out 4 metres and the whole width of the house almost 7 metres. Cost £80k+, feel sure we would struggle to get £50k back.

I would make half the current kitchen a utility room

Keep lounge as is

Create a new kitchen diner on the back of the house with sliding doors onto the garden - preferably onto decking/patio same level

Kitchen on right next to utility, dining table on left between lounge and garden