The house that Huw built....

[huw169]

Well nearly.

Its actually 2 flats at the mo. Both 2 beds, and the lower one has a conservatory. I've been on this site for a good few years, mostly viewing, and occasionally asking - a lot of good advice on here, so i thought it would be a good place to record my efforts.

Let me know what you think.

Front
That white door will be blocked up with a window.

Side
The new main entrance is just the other side of the side bay.

Back - you can see the old fence mark just to the right of the water butt seperating the 2 gardens. Stairs will be coming down soon with matching lower and upper windows.

I have just got my planning through, so i was keen to start and didn't take any pics before, but here are some before the builders arrive.

Conservatory
This is about 3x3m and will be built into a propper single story extension with 2 velux roof and a 2.4m wide 3 door bi-fold system. The rear wall with the windows in is coming out (full width) to join the downstairs main bedroom to the extension to create an open plan living area. The wall to the left is also coming out to create a big kitchen ~3x5m

Kitchen
Pantry will be coming out and the wall to the left (just out of shot with the door to the conservatory in) will all be open to the new extension.

Bit fuzzy - sorry about that. Door to conservatory is just out of shot to the right. Wall to teh right will be out to just past the rad mounts ~ 600mm from the end wall. That door to the corridor will be blocked up as the kitchen will be linked to the extension, which will be linked to the living area which has a door to the hall.

Downstairs loo
Which will become a shower room and house the boiler, & cat litter tray....

Downstairs bedroom 2.
This will be a lobby type area. There will be a large window seat in the bay with plenty of shoe storage underneath. Also, the wall at the end to the right of the bay will come out. This is the wall directly opposite the white front door, and will give us access to the stairs.

Main lounge
I was a bit concerned with this being a little small ~3x5m into bay, but with such a large open plan living area to the rear, i think it will be more of a secluded cosey space.

Downstairs bedroom 1
This will be the main access through to the extension/kitchen and form a dinning/main living area.

Builders are in next monday to start all the structural stuff - extension & knocking walls out, etc. However, I am doing most of the work myself. Pulling all the floorboards to clean out all the rubbish, all the old cables, plumbing, etc. I'll chase in & run/label all electrical cabling ready for my electrical chap to connect, test, and part P.
I'll plumb downstairs, change lead pipes to plastic, set up for new boiler position ready for my corgi man to come & move my upstairs boiler down to the shower room. Fortunately it is the correct size for a 4 bed house - whew....
All downstairs will have 100mm rockwool in between the joists, then boards down.
Lots more to do, but my hand is getting tired.
I'm sure I'll have a mass of questions, but i'll post them in the appropriate section & try & keep this to progress only.

Cheers
Huw

 

[Bahco]

Good luck and I will be watching your progress.

 

[ColJack]

can you do us a floor plan as it is and as it will be? I like to follow this kind of thing..

 

[David937]

Good luck

 

[huw169]

Thanks fellas

Current and proposed floorplans

 

[butterscotch]

Wow I look forward to watching this with interest.

 

[ColJack]

might want to edit the pic to take the street name out.. it's easy to find you..

View media item 13796
based on next door, I recon you're taking the wrong door out..

you have to go through that room to go upstairs in your proposed plan..
but you'd have to go through it to get to the rest of the house anyway..

it would also mean you could make the downstairs loo bigger, or move it over and have a longer kitchen..
but it's your house, I'm only offering a different point of view..

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

might want to edit the pic to take the street name out.. it's easy to find you..

Especially as you've posted a photo of it in the thread!

 

[ColJack]

yes but without a street name, it's a lot harder to find it on google earth..

 

[huw169]

Thanks ColJack - i have edited it out.

I understand what you ar saying about the front door & the wife & i are constantly having a 'think' about that.
There are pros and cons for each. I think that it is nice to come into a hallway that access' a couple of main rooms, but that said it would be good to find a simple solution that gives us more of a utility type area with a reasonably sized kitchen.

Thanks for the comments.

 

[ColJack]

it's those stairs that's messing with the design.. awkward place for them..

pretty much renders that corner room useless as you'd have to go through that room no matter what door you keep..
if you keep the original front door, you have to go theough that room to access the downstairs part of the house, if you keep the side door, you have to go through that room to access the upstairs..

I've had a thought but you won't like it..
you'd have to reposition both bathrooms and probably lose one..

if you put the stairs next to the side door, where the downstairs bathroom is now, you can access upstairs and downstairs without going through any other rooms..
but it does mess with the upstairs bathroom..

View media item 13799
the area in orange would be understairs storage, or could be used for a washer and dryer..
the window in blue would need moving over to be above the front door..
the room in green would be the bathroom, moved over..

 

[huw169]

Interesting point ColJack.

One of the reasons we have settled on the front door being at the side of the property is that in time we could move the stairs, but not to where you are suggesting.

They could go in RH reception room (as you look at the plan) starting about 1.5m inside the opened out doorway. The chimney breast would have to come out, but they would go up a few steps, landing against the back wall, then return to the first floor landing along the dividing wall.

This would have the advantage of a huge lounge, bigger master bedroom and possible en-suit whilst keeping the 2 bathrooms. The disadvantage would be that one of the berooms would half in size and the usable space in the rear living/dinning area would be reduced.

(I would sketch it, but I'm in work at the mo.)
We want to live in it first though as we may feel differently once we have been in it for a while. My wife is preggers too, so I have a tight deadline.....

 

[ColJack]

View media item 13800
how's this one then?

you loose a little out of the 2 bedrooms, but don't have to remove the chimney brest..
and you keep a little more of the RH reception room by not having the stairs turn at the bottom ( plus you'd have to think about head height and may have to loose a littl more of the RH bedroom your way..)

 

[huw169]

Or this one

All the lower floor under the floor joists is now spotless - could eat my dinner off it (but i wont...)
Just doing lots of prep work for the builders - removing plumbing/skirting boards/electrics, etc. I'd rather they just cracked on with the stuff i can't do than wasting time doing easy stuff.

 

[ColJack]

fair enough

you loose quite a lot of that bedroom then..
if you move the door that bedroom could become an en-suite to the master bedroom, but then it's down to a 3 bed house..