Potential new house, how to extend with kitchen on the front?

Lezman

Prominent Member
Joined
Mar 16, 2006
Messages
3,993
Reaction score
1,495
Points
912
Location
Reading
Hi everyone,

We found a house we really like in our budget, in fact ticks all boxes except one.

The ground floor has been opened out already into a big kitchen/diner/lounge. There is a new kitchen in (which we like) and all is generally very nice.

The issue is that we would like to extend the house in future, to allow the big kitchen/diner but wall off a separate lounge (I like having a separate lounge separate from cooking and cleaning etc).

This is where my total lack of vision comes in, most houses have the big kitchen/diner on the back. Can’t seem to find inspiration online. General plan would be to add 6x3 metre extension along the back.

I’m concerned that any new lounge ‘created’ would either be long and thin on the left of the plan below, and/or have a lack of light. Ideally we don’t want to move the kitchen.

While of course we would employ an architect of some sort to handle this in future, it is my one concern before putting an offer in.

Can anyone provide some ideas/advice if this can be done?

Thanks!

IMG_3677.jpg
 
Last edited:
Are you saying that you have scope to extend into the black rectangle to the left? If so, and if your plan is to-scale, then you'd get about another 2 metres or so.

Assuming you're not planning to extend the top floor as well, I suggest you build a 1-storey extension the full length of the house. Wall off the Living Room, keeping the French doors in the kitchen/diner; convert the downstairs toilet & cupboard into a shower room, and extend that tiny little 'family room'. Alternatively, you could keep the toilet as is and extend the family room behind it to make a small study area.

By the way, many house have a kitchen/diner the way this is, with diner at the back & kitchen at the front. We do, and so does my daughter. It simply depends on circumstances.
 
Firstly, you've already got a (small) separate lounge at the front there.

This really depends on the budget. I'd move the garage forward to front of the house creating space behind for the dining room to go into, whilst leaving the kitchen where it is. May need to remodel the kitchen slightly to make a doorway.
 
Are you saying that you have scope to extend into the black rectangle to the left? If so, and if your plan is to-scale, then you'd get about another 2 metres or so.

Assuming you're not planning to extend the top floor as well, I suggest you build a 1-storey extension the full length of the house. Wall off the Living Room, keeping the French doors in the kitchen/diner; convert the downstairs toilet & cupboard into a shower room, and extend that tiny little 'family room'. Alternatively, you could keep the toilet as is and extend the family room behind it to make a small study area.

By the way, many house have a kitchen/diner the way this is, with diner at the back & kitchen at the front. We do, and so does my daughter. It simply depends on circumstances.

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately we cannot go sideways (the left black bar is the neighbours garage/driveway), and the right black bar is the house of the other neighbour, which is where my concerns regarding 'narrowness' come in. Our plan would be a single storey though, we don't need more space upstairs.
 
Firstly, you've already got a (small) separate lounge at the front there.

This really depends on the budget. I'd move the garage forward to front of the house creating space behind for the dining room to go into, whilst leaving the kitchen where it is. May need to remodel the kitchen slightly to make a doorway.

Yeah, I agree although ideally I would leave that small family room as is and make it a study to work at home from as it's pretty teeny. It does really seem that, apart from converting the garage, the only way to extend is on the back of the existing lounge/diner.
 
Yeah, I agree although ideally I would leave that small family room as is and make it a study to work at home from as it's pretty teeny. It does really seem that, apart from converting the garage, the only way to extend is on the back of the existing lounge/diner.
IMG_3677j.jpg


If doing this, make sure the ground floor work is up to spec to allow a two-story extension. You might as well then extend the upstairs over the garage.

If you wanted, you could also lose half the garage and make it an even bigger kitchen / diner
 
View attachment 938173

If doing this, make sure the ground floor work is up to spec to allow a two-story extension. You might as well then extend the upstairs over the garage.

If you wanted, you could also lose half the garage and make it an even bigger kitchen / diner

This is pretty nice (I know it looks simple, but like i said, I have a lack of vision). I think we would go into the garage to make a utility.

Two questions come to mind, does it matter if the right hand side of the extension as you drew it runs right up to the fence of the neighbour's garden? Second, I had thought of the '2 doors' approach at the end of the hall but thought it might look odd. Thanks for the input!
 
This is pretty nice (I know it looks simple, but like i said, I have a lack of vision). I think we would go into the garage to make a utility.

Two questions come to mind, does it matter if the right hand side of the extension as you drew it runs right up to the fence of the neighbour's garden? Second, I had thought of the '2 doors' approach at the end of the hall but thought it might look odd. Thanks for the input!
Remember that you will still need an architect as there are things like load bearing walls to take into account that may hinder these plans. That second door going into the kitchen doesn't need to be a door, could just be an archway. You'll also likely need to take out the back door from what was the garage and I'd just run a huge tri-folding door along the length of the back wall.

With regards to the garage and neighbours, you'd need legal advice regarding a party wall agreement (and hope the neighbours are on board), and also need planning permission I believe. Others can advise better here.
 
Remember that you will still need an architect as there are things like load bearing walls to take into account that may hinder these plans. That second door going into the kitchen doesn't need to be a door, could just be an archway. You'll also likely need to take out the back door from what was the garage and I'd just run a huge tri-folding door along the length of the back wall.

With regards to the garage and neighbours, you'd need legal advice regarding a party wall agreement (and hope the neighbours are on board), and also need planning permission I believe. Others can advise better here.

Thanks Jassco, appreciated. Certainly I would never do this without an architect! Just trying (if possible) to ascertain if we could get what we want in future, and that might decide whether we place an offer.

Wary of buying somewhere where I might need full on planning permission.
 
Thanks Jassco, appreciated. Certainly I would never do this without an architect! Just trying (if possible) to ascertain if we could get what we want in future, and that might decide whether we place an offer.

Wary of buying somewhere where I might need full on planning permission.
From other people's discussions on here, I think you can make an informal enquiry free of charge(?) with the planning office of the council as to whether permission would be granted.

Got any pics of the front / back of the house, or even a link to rightmove? Might help with other people's ideas
 
From other people's discussions on here, I think you can make an informal enquiry free of charge(?) with the planning office of the council as to whether permission would be granted.

Got any pics of the front / back of the house, or even a link to rightmove? Might help with other people's ideas

Thanks, I will go look into that. Here are the back/front pics...please assume the left of of the garden pic is the fence all the way down. I feel that there is room (planning discussion aside), to do something nice with it.

IMG_3690.jpg
IMG_3691.jpg
 
Looks like the lounge could be walled off now anyway, without building anything.
 
Looks like they have plenty of off road parking, so they could leave the garage as is but break into it and incorporate it as living space.

e.g.

garage extension.jpg


Has anyone else in the road remodelled?

PS Study? could probably do with a window :) Alternatively if you lost some kitchen worktop and put a door in it's place it could be a Utility room.
 
That's a linked garage, isn't it? You'll need to assess the impact on next door if you plan to change things there.
yup looks like it to me. It'd likely be a case of demolishing the garage and starting again but a party wall agreement would be needed.

Has anyone else in the street done similar work?

*edit* - just noticed that next door have windows on the side of their house. This will almost certainly rule out a double story extension
 
yup looks like it to me. It'd likely be a case of demolishing the garage and starting again but a party wall agreement would be needed.

Has anyone else in the street done similar work?

*edit* - just noticed that next door have windows on the side of their house. This will almost certainly rule out a double story extension

Yes they have, it’s 50% front vs back kitchen on the street. To the current owners knowledge only those with kitchens on the back have done extension work however.
 
Looks like they have plenty of off road parking, so they could leave the garage as is but break into it and incorporate it as living space.

e.g.

View attachment 938284

Has anyone else in the road remodelled?

PS Study? could probably do with a window :) Alternatively if you lost some kitchen worktop and put a door in it's place it could be a Utility room.

There are others who have knocked through to the garage and made a utility room, presumably it’s no longer a link detached at that point.
 
Just about to start some work here shortly, I have had the council out to do a site visit, he could not give me to much advice as I have to get structural engineers advice on loads before I can go any further on the application for building control.

Structural engineers quote for two walls £250 to £350 for paperwork and £150 per wall for local council.
 

The latest video from AVForums

TV Buying Guide - Which TV Is Best For You?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom