Advise on floor layout

[mcampster]

We're about to renovate our newly purchased house, and we're having trouble deciding on the best layout. We are only going to live in it for a few years, so we have one eye on keeping the layout popular for potential buyers rather than just for ourselves. Hence why I thought I would ask what others thought?

The house will be split over 3 floors, entering on the middle floor. The lower ground floor will house all the living space - kitchen, lounge, dining area etc. The ground floor and upstairs need to house 4 bedrooms, a 2nd reception room, bathroom, cloakroom (shower room?) and maybe a study/box room.

But we are stumped as to how to lay all this out...

Do people prefer to have bedrooms on the same floor? In which case, we cannot get a decent size bathroom on the same floor. Is that an issue? Personally, I don't like the idea of having to walk downstairs to go the bathroom.

What about en-suites? We could potentially get a rather small shower room added to the front bedroom, but it would then make the bedroom a little small. Is it worth it?

I've attached the floor plan. I would be very interested to hear anyones thoughts.

Thanks

Mark

Proposed Floorplan

• mcampster
• 23 Jan 2013
• 1

 

[dann09]

Others may have more and better answers to your questions and lay-out possibilities.

I'd suggest putting it to an architectural technician for a view. AT's do this stuff all the time,
and you could be more detailed in your requirements with an AT.

People with kids or elderly, want toilets on the same level.

What is your long term plan - lofts and extensions? Do it up and sell, rent out?

There's a lack of closets/storage in your above plan.

 

[luisdesign]

There certainly looks like there is a lot of scope and potential here.

Though looking at "just" the floorplan can sometimes be quite misleading. There are other factors that may need to be considered in order to be able to put together a layout that will work the best... for example, the suggested ensuite bathroom to the front may not be very feasible depending on where the existing drainage lies and things like the potential for a loft conversion (either by yourselves or by a future purchaser). This should have a bearing on what you do now because if you can improve the possibility of a loft conversion you are effectively designing in the future development for a purchaser... they will see this potential and it may help the sale.

On that note, I would be wary of compromising a bedroom for the sake of fitting in an en-suite. But I do agree that having a main bathroom on the floor with the most bedrooms is a good idea.

I might consider looking at trying to configure a master suite on the entrance floor with the three other bedrooms on the upper floor with a single bathroom. The trouble I htink you may have is that people in this country tend to have a mental aversion to bedrooms on the entrance floor, so you will want to give a reason for this room... make it the most desire-able room by giving it a nice outlook over the garden and access to an en-suite... it also makes "sense" that the "parent" room sits in a controlling position over the "children" rooms.

Also, think about how prepared you are to make structural alterations, as work to that central wall could really open up some interesting possibilities.

 

[noseall]

Regards the top floor front bedroom with en-suite: How do you propose dealing with the waste pipes when it looks as though these are concentrated at the rear elevation?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

This is all pointless, you need to assess the whole job so we need existing plans & eles, existing drain routes, how the house works with the outside spaces etc etc.

I could draw up a dozen layouts but they'd all be useless without that info and some non too clear direction as to what the OP wants.

 

[mcampster]

I appreciate its not easy without all the details, I was really just looking for more general opinions on things like master bedrooms on entrance floors, the importance of an en-suite in a 4 bed house (at the cost of room size), family bathrooms on a different floor to the bedrooms etc

I hadn't thought of putting the master room downstairs. I'll try that out and see what I can come up with. Thanks for the suggestion.

I have attached the existing floorplan.

Existing Floorplan

• mcampster
• 24 Jan 2013
• 1

Thanks again for everyones help

 

[Nige F]

. The lower ground floor will house all the living space - kitchen, lounge, dining area etc. . Is it worth it?

I've attached the floor plan. I would be very interested to hear anyones thoughts.

Thanks

Mark

[]

So you want to live in the basement - how trendy just hope that trend continues past your selling time

 

[mcampster]

So you want to live in the basement - how trendy just hope that trend continues past your selling time

Its not really a basement, more of a lower ground floor... at the back of the house its at garden level, its just you come in on the middle floor.

The weird part of this layout would be coming in and then having to go down stairs to get to the living space. But I'm hoping that's not going to be too big an issue.

The alternative would be to make the living space on the middle floor at entry level, but then you have bedrooms above and below you which is equally weird, and no access to the garden from your living space.