Help me decide about how to do this extension

[IlanaK]

We are buying a ground floor garden flat and plan to get an architect in straight away to do plans for an extension. But I can't decide what I want to do.

The lounge has doors to the garden at one end of it (rectangular shaped lounge with doors at the short end) and no other windows. You walk through the lounge to get to the kitchen (there is no hallway as such). the kitchen starts where the lounge ends (but is to the left of it) so it sticks out further into the garden. Through the kitchen is a conservatory which is used as a dining room.

So, I have two choices:

1. extend the kitchen to the side all the way across where the end of the lounge currently is. This means a nice big eat in kitchen, but it would mean that the lounge would have no external doors or windows. So the doors from the lounge that did lead to the garden would now lead into the extended bit of the kitchen (we would have large patio doors put in do we would not lose light in the lounge. We would leave the conservatory as it is.

2. knock down the conservatory and extend the kitchen outward to where the conservatory was (but as a proper extension, not a conservatory type build. This too would give us a nice large eat in kitchen, but we would lose the extra space of the conservatory. But we would be able to open the doors of the lounge straight to outside.

I am guessing, option 2 is more expensive, but I am leaning towards it as I don't like the idea of the lounge not leading straight outside.

Any thoughts?

Someone help me make this decision!

I would go for option 2 as you would inevitably lose light in the lounge under option 1 and it would become dreary.

Thanks. That is my thought too. I wonder how much more it would cost to knock down the conservatory though.

Def option 2. I think option 1 would be weird, wouldn't be a very pleasant room to be in, and would put future buyers off when you want to sell

Conservatories take about a day to knock down - well, our mahoosive one did.

Option 2 sounds better. Unless the kitchen became the lounge??

Or, other options
as Option 2 but build a conservatory at the end of the lounge or
extend the lounge as one bigger room, not with doors into another room but with doors to the garden again,

This is what your architect is for. Get a good one and they will come up with stuff you can't believe you never thought of.

We've just had something similar to option 1 built, but we extended it a bit wider than the front part of the house and put a new side door in. You don't say if you live in a terrace or a semi-detatched (as we do). If the latter, then you could put windows into the side of the lounge to restore any lost light.

Personally I'd go for option 1 even if it meant losing light. Presumably you're wanting to extend to make extra room, and you're not going to get any extra space by just replacing a conservatory with a similar sized extension. If your kitchen is single storey you could put in a couple of velux windows and make it more open plan to maximise light in the lounge.

What soupy said. I personally would extend the kitchen to where the conservatory is but then have a conservatory from the lounge. So would have a good long light kitchen and extra space leading off the lounge.

It is attached on the side where the lounge is, so no windows possible. And it is not single storey in the kitchen.

Actually, we are not extending for extra overall space, just for more kitchen space. I want an eat in kitchen big enough for a very large table.

What would you use the conservatory for though?

"What would you use the conservatory for though? "

I don't know - you were worried about losing the space if you knocked down the conservatory Play room for the children maybe?

I think realistically, the conservatory would not get used much. Currently it would as it has the dining room table in it. But once the kitchen is eat in, I think the kids would play in the lounge, bedroom or garden. We have never had a play room so they are not used to playing in a designated space.

I think option 2 is the right way to go, but of course we will have an architect help us decide.

Not so much a playroom as an area to store all their crap much loved Stuff.

That would exactly be my concern - a mess room. I am a very organised person and store their toys in trays, boxes, etc - I even label them! I like it all to be stored in their room (and whatever doesn't fit will go in the shed). If I had a conservatory, I would want it used as a nice room to sit in. But as we have a lounge and a massive garden, I am not sure we really need that.

There you are then - you've talked yourself out of the worry of losing the conservatory space