Kitchen/dining extension advice

[tinkersfig]

After much deliberation, we have decided to stay in our 3 bed semi and extend the back but I need some help.

I’ve added the floor plan and as you can see, my house is not the biggest but I have a decent sized garden though.

My issue is that I can’t go out to the side as that’s where the driveway is, but I could come out to the side off the new extension about 5ft (if that makes sense) What would you recommend to make the new layout feel like “zones”?

Are there any do’s and don’ts you’d suggest?

What do you want/need to gain?

Office, playroom, utility, extra bedroom?

Single or double storey?

@jackstini id like an open plan kitchen/living/dining and if I could squeeze a utility room, that would be grand

Single story

Can you extend to the side to create a downstairs bathroom and utility in that 5ft? Then take out the current WC and have one big open kitchen dining room with a new family sitting area in the new extension to the kitchen diner?

I never even thought about moving the WC! I think that could be a good idea.

Move the WC but keep the front room separate or install doors so it can be separate.

Completely open plan is very noisy and limiting.

Where are the stairs??

Oh yeah definitely keeping the front lounge as is

They’re at the front in the hall 😂 you walk through the front door and the stairs are I front of you

Would making the car a one car driveway be a bad idea? As is it’s the length of the house and we get two cars on there.

we’re not moving anytime soon but I don’t want to devalue just in case.

We have a long drive away where you have to park one behind another and in reality one person parks on the road and one on the drive.

What is your street like for parking on the road?

If I had a large back garden I would sacrifice some of my front garden to have side by side car parking.

That’s what our drive is like too. No room at the front to add a driveway unfortunately, if we used some of the current driveway, it’d mean on parked on the drive and one on the street at all times.

Out street is fairly quiet, so that wouldn’t be a problem, I’m just thinking of if we were to sell in 10 years say. Would that put people off?

As one behind the other driveways are such a pain I personally don’t think so.

If you extend at the side have most of it sticking out into your back garden then opening onto the driveway a brick storage space for bikes and access to the back garden via the WC & utility still.

If you extended across your drive would that cut off your access to your garden?

So is the only access to the kitchen through the lounge? Is the left hand kitchen side the external wall where you would extend out?

I like the idea of putting the toilet and utility into a side extension but 5ft is tight by the time you add the width of the new wall and insulation. You would need to check dimensions for building regs if you are relocating the existing toilet as I think there may be a minimum width for accessibility reasons (presume your house is fairly new build?).

Could you keep.exoating toilet then put the washing machine in the cupboard under the stairs and extend the cupboard out into the dining space to the same level as the toilet wall so you are squaring off that end of your room? I would.wqnt to keep side garden access if I could.

Do you have a garage separate to your house you could convert half into a utility room?

Very bad drawing of what I mean!

Think about light and views. you don't want to make any of the existing rooms to deep and dark. We knew we wanted to be able to sit and see the garden so did a long narrow extension with glass on 2 of the 3 ends. We sit at that end and eat there too as it's light and got a geat view of the garden. We put mirrors on the 3rd wall to reflect the garden and try and detract from some of the narrowness. We've got big skylights in so it's not too dark. But it is a bit like a bowling alley. Neighbours did a smaller extension that I think to be honest works better.

We could leave a little gap for a gate so there’s an exit route

Yeah the only access is through the lounge, which was one of the reasons I wanted to move. I’d love a hall way and separate lounge, but to buy that in our area would mean doubling the mortgage.

there is a little under stairs cupboard where your drawing is that has the dryer and vacuum etc in there so if we did extend, it could definitely be made larger.

No garage unfortunately.

can you tell it was me who wanted to move and DH who wants the stay 😂