Help with ground floor layout of victorian terrace semi!

2 years ago

Hi!

We have recently purchased a 2 bed Victorian semi and thought we would do a side extension, move stairs, loft conversion etc..... after initial quotes coming in around £130-£140k we then scaled back the work to just a side extension to increase our kitchen space with a new refit of the bathroom. STILL the quotes are coming in above £100k (how are amazing TV renovations such as location location location, George Clarke old house new home etc. coming in more around £50-80k?!). We are not planning to be here more than 5 years, we do not want to over develop as we most likely will not get the investment back in such a short space of time, but we still need the space to work for us whilst here!

We see the problem being with downstairs layout, the stairs cut off the kitchen from the rest of the living space. The kitchen is small and currently not sociable, once I have finished cooking I have to walk through the stairs landing area to the dining room to serve. It also seems strange sitting in a dining room right next to the living room. Another issue is the entry way, currently you walk in the front door and get into the rest of the house by the left hand side doorway into the front living room, which then leads you through to the rest of the house. It just doesn't flow well. One option is to close up the doorway into the lounge and create a new one directly opposite the front door leading into the dining room (so you'd then access the front living room via the dining room). As we are a younger couple (early 30's) a more formal dining room is wasted on us.....yet it is the biggest room in the house and seems so wasted as just a dining room, very much disconnected from the kitchen!

Does anyone have ANY ideas they could put to us to help? I think to really break it down we want to address; a) create a kitchen which could incorporate some seating, b) a better flow of the entrance to the house and c) ideas as to what we could use the dining room for - all of this without spending more than around £50-60k.

I have attached the current floor plan with measurements to help!

Thanks so much for any help!

Claire

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Comments (4)

PRO
Kay Moden
2 years ago
Hi,

It's not easy with a staircase like this, but as an option you could have a new fire wall in dining (full glass or at least partially, althought in any case expensive) and open up the dining to the kicthen. With a drop of creative design this can look quite cool. See sketch below.

Feel free to get in touch if you need further help with design, drawings, planning etc.

Andre
Katherine
2 years ago
Could you put the kitchen in the dining room and have your table in the bay window? Then you would have space for an island and the doors wouldn’t be such an issue? Then you could add a door in the dining room window to access the garden, and your kitchen could become a snug with doors to the garden?
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Katherine
2 years ago
Also a good tip I heard was to look at other similar houses on Rightmove to see what other people have done, if you search for affluent areas you can find houses that have already made changes and see their floor plans and benefit from any architect design that way. Just an idea
Claire T
Original Author
2 years ago
Thanks very much Katherine and Andre! These are both really great ideas - and tips to try :). We had thought about moving the kitchen into the dining room but were sure the cost would be worth it or whether the snug would be a decent enough size. But these have given us the ideas again so maybe we will look back into it :) thanks again

Help with ground floor layout of victorian terrace semi!

Comments (4)

Kay Moden

Katherine

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Claire T
Original Author

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Help with ground floor layout of victorian terrace semi!

Comments (4)

Kay Moden

Katherine

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Claire TOriginal Author

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Claire T
Original Author