blonde poker forum

Ok i know its a poker forum but poker is paying for it so there...

Just bought a new house and its a bit of a doer upper... needs a fair bit of work but I want to get the layout right 1st.. the kitchen (single height extension round back and side)  is currently accessed off the dining room... now for me this is a bit naff... but the mrs says Sarah Beeny would say I was potty to want to spend money changing it!

anyway knocked up a little plan myself... its not bad but not sure of the door posiitons as we have not moved yet...


any ideas on how best to redesign or leave alone.... im a bit crap and not sure.. so i figured i'd ask Blonde :)  !

oops can a mod move to the building sections pls... failing that the general board?  Ty  ;)

I'd find 3 doors between the Living room and Kitchen impractical - as well as 4 from the front door to the kitchen - the dining room is more of another hallway.


That's a real tough one - which walls are supporting walls?

If I was younger, I would have liked to have been an architect. It looks like such a good job ( other than a poker player of course ) .  Are you some kind of planner Rod?

Aye - but in telecom - just have watched programmes and try to think of how you move about the place.

How about


1. Removing the wall between the porch and the kitchen...it currently seems to be a hallway or similar in there?


2. Combine the study and dining room into one large room and do 1 above


depends obviously on whether the walls are supporting walls or not though

I think actually I might get rid of the dining room altogether, use the study as a formal dining room and use the extra space as a family dining area in the kitchen

You can then leave the kitchen, walk across your hall and go straight to your front room


then again I struggle to put up a shelf, so I know sod all!

My only advice is give it a little while before you go knocking down walls, people are always full of mass DIY enthusiasm when they first move in and regret getting themselves in to deep at a later date.

As a chippy id say use cad a very good program to design stuff with and you get a really good idea what it will look like i have it so if you put some mesurements down ill have a fiddle with it see what i can come up with :)

I carnt see the mesurements you have on there :P

Click on groundfloor.gif under the pic and it will bring it up clearer

oops lol kk

Agreed Rod... glad its just not me whos 'potty'   the supportin walls... not 100% sure only viewed it twice but the original external walls are the outside of the dining room, study, lounge... so knocking the kitchen into the dining is a no no... plus the kitchen is pretty huge as it is.  The utliity and kitchen are single height extesion. 

4Kingnuts... those dimensions are not 100% right but not far off... used the estate agents dimensions and dropped them into viso office planner and it change a few here and there (only by a few cm).

Going to view again tomorrow so I'll check the door position etc... how do I spot a supporting wall?  presume if there a wall above it upstairs it must be?   Umm think they all are then!   

Pic of front and back to give a better idea...

   

looks like a lovely place though Jim...must be outside of Leamington, can't be in Leamington!

good luck with it

cheers ... about 3/4 mile north of the town centre so not too far... need a place with a garden for the new arrival.   Needs total new decor and kitchen inside but nothing major.  Space wise its great.. just need to sort the layout   :D

Think this would be a nightmare to make work ergonomically.

If I'd kids and bags of cash I'd be tempted to knock through between the study & dining room make the Study back into the kitchen it was and have a combined/connected kitchen/dining room - both looking into the conservatory. I'd turn the kitchen into the kids room to keep them out of my hair (no obvious gags please). But then, if I'd that cash I'd probably look for another place that would be less hassle.....

 ;goodvevil;

Sorry not to be more help.

yep, I agree that is a nice looking house mate

Cant afford that rod!

One thing I had considered is making the porch and existing hallway into one hallway and then putting a hole in the dining room wall (almost opposite the front door) studding off a section of the dining room to make a bigger L shaped hall with access to the kitchen.  Would take 3-4 feet off the dining room but still a half decent size room, I'd prob have that as the study and make the existing study the dining room.... not sure how practical that would be though.

I work in the building trades so I've got some experience with things like this, these suggestions may not be practical due to budget or the fabric of the house but here goes.

First open up the wall opposite the front door to make an opening into the kitchen, then knock down the wall that separates the dinning room from the kitchen. once this has been done extend the wall between the kitchen and conservatory back to the hall wall, this divides the old dinning room area into two, giving a large kitchen/dinner and the smaller room with the door from the hall could be made into a down stairs toilet. If you ever needed a more formal dinning area then you could use either the stud or more practically the conservatory for this.

These changes would make the flow of the ground floor much better and the addition of a WC off of the hall would also add value to the property.

I hope some of these suggestions may have helped , the house looks great, is it up towards the south of the town towards Bishops Tatchbrook, although I might have got the name of that village completely wrong.

Isn't Julian Thew an architect, or am I dreaming that? he may recommend turning every room into a poker room, though!

Not sure we can take the wall between the kichen and dining room down.. its the old external wall of the original house.

However did go back yesterday to have another nosey,  I think the best solution is to merge the porch and hall into a hall, then knock through into the current WC/Utility, the loo and wash basin are already on the right hand external wall and I'd stud that off into a small WC ..1m x 2.5m. 

the rest of the old WC is dead space and would be used extend the hall further giving access to the kitchen and the new WC from the hallway.   :D