Reconfiguring Ground Floor and removing lean to

3 years ago

We are looking to buy our first home, and have found one that we think with a bit of work could work for us. At the moment, the east-facing 'family room' is a lean to extension with nothing in it, that we feel is just stealing all the light and leaving the kitchen/dinner dark and dingy. Our feeling is that turning the lean to in to a proper extension - removing the exterior wall at east end of kitchen, bringing up to spec with proper insulation etc, reconfiguring position of doors, adding new windows - would be very expensive. So we are thinking to take down the lean to completely but keep the footprint as a decked area that would then have some kind of pergola structure over it, with widened patio doors or bi-folds opening out from the kitchen to create a space somewhere in between inside/outside.

Then the plan would be to remove the wall between kitchen/dinner and lounge and put glass doors in it's place, add wood or parquet flooring through out the kitchen/dinner and lounge to create a connected space that would be separated by glass doors. We'd then like to add a corner window in the south east corner of kitchen to open the room up more and allow more light in.

Furthermore we plan to remove a portion of the wall that is the direct eyeline from the front door through to kitchen, again to open up the space a little.

As we are first time buyers, we obviously have no experience in this and are a little in that dark to costs/potential pit falls of any of these actions. Any advice on layout and design as well as budgeting would be hugely appreciated!

Comments (2)

PRO
Ang Lee Projects
3 years ago
Exciting times for you! That lean to/family room (guessing that's estate agent speak!) certainly seems a little pointless if it's taking light from the kitchen/diner.

It seems likely that the wall between the kitchen and the lounge is a load-bearing wall so you would have to put a structural beam in if you take that wall out; it may work out more expensive than you think, depending on the width of the space. Worth doing a couple of exploratory holes to see if there's a beam up there already; a structural engineer would help advise too and far better than having the house fall down.

What is the lean-to built out of at the moment? And is the WC a more permanent structure? Would you want to keep that downstairs loo or are you intending to remove that as well as the rest of the structure. Worth remembering that you'll use any indoor space all year around and outdoor for around 50% of the year (at best! I assume you're in the UK!)

Can I ask what kind of budget you're holding back for this work? I can help you with costing out options at some point and happy to consult on ideas (first consultation is free) - obviously video calls best at the moment but I'm always happy to help.
David Miller thanked Ang Lee Projects
David Miller
Original Author
3 years ago
Hi, thanks for taking the time to respond!

The lean to is brick built, and in truth seems fairly well constructed. My worry is that the costs of removing the exterior wall and making sure the lean to meets building regs will be too much for us, but I could be wrong.

Yes, the WC would go, the plan would be to move to under the stairs so we kept a loo on both floors.

Our budget is going to be around £20k, this would include putting in a new kitchen. I realise we may have to be flexible and rethink a few things, but this is our starting point!
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Reconfiguring Ground Floor and removing lean to

Comments (2)

Ang Lee Projects

David Miller
Original Author

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Reconfiguring Ground Floor and removing lean to

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David MillerOriginal Author

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David Miller
Original Author