Mary, it has been a while since I read the comments. I think you can take your time with growing with your new decluttered kitchen. It is truly beautiful with just the changes. Don't go spend a ton of money, save it and go on a holiday to a state park or something you have always wanted to do. If your friends that you invite over for dinner don't love ...... well just coming over and visiting,.... then oh well. As long as you are happy, but no need to break the bank..... you did great already. I love it, if you do more, please share though? And to bamamom, I so agree with you! My own, awful, claustrophobic kitchen is LESS than 8 ft x 11 ft... yep that tiny and horrible. I have taken out the nasty, dropped ceiling and have the slightly vaulted original one now, but with pipes showing where the HVAC was put in after and then the repiped ones....... I did not know they plumber would do this, much less the others were there.... gag me. And no money to do it up even decent.

If you are going to do this - make sure the bedrooms have plenty of wardrobe space etc - don't scrimp ! Ideally every woman wants at least double the wardrobe space she already has !! And a walk-in wardrobe / dressing room is something that would earn any developer brownie points !! So if you have the space ... Use it well !! Breakfast areas in morning sunshine work well and evening sun in the lounge is good - inside outside fireplaces can work really well and everybody needs storage for summer /winter stuff (ski /scuba /suitcases etc ) so worth adding in storage somewhere accessible (like utility room ) for that sort of gear too ! This is an awesome opportunity for you ! Have fun !!!

Hello Houzz Ireland, We are currently renovating a 1960's build - so as you know, there is a lot of decisions to be made!! So it would be nice to get some gems of advice from the experts to help us through this daunting task. Areas where we would really like some inspiration for - small bathroom downstairs. I would really like to do something fun with this room and although small, I think it could work really well with some funky wallpaper or possibly tiles?! I'm just not sure what to do with it. Also - pulling a whole house together?! Where do we start? We have the bigger pieces of furniture but how do I know what nest of tables goes best with a suite? Or what accessories will bring a room together? I'm due a second baby in 2 weeks time so any help at this stage would be so amazing - to guide me on the right interior design path for our new house. Thanks, Laurie

Hiya, I agree about the extra bits on the back. I would remove them including the dining room bay but retain the existing external kitchen wall and square it off with the dining room, knocking through to make a kitchen diner. I'll paste my drawing in below. - the dimensions made me think you could create a loo and even fit a shower in the kitchen space but looking again at the photos make me doubt the shower idea! - retaining the kitchen windows and back door would reduce costs - the new downstairs loo area could have a sliding door that remained open when not in use so that the light from that window reached further in - you could fit a roof light above the utility space to draw more light into the remaining kitchen area - it would be tempting to fit bi-fold doors to the new dining room opening but I would research 1930s patio doors in case you could find some more in keeping with the rest of the house - with the same goal in mind, could bricks be reused for the new section of wall required to square off the utility area and dining room? You'd need advice on the dining and kitchen doors area, e.g, a pillar might be required (which could be built into the kitchen design?) so I've just left them as is. I hope this is helpful.