Feedback on renovation plans

3 years ago

Hi all,

My wife and I are about to undertake a major renovation project for our 1920's double brick California Bungalow and would love some advice on our floorplan.

The image below covers our existing layout and as you can see, it leaves a lot to be desired. Right now we have kitchen sandwiched between and bathroom and bedroom then an awkward step down in to our laundry which exits to the patio. In the front house we have sunroom that connects to the living room (which has no windows). Major goals for the renovation are to open the house up more, increase the size of the kitchen and third bedroom and add another bathroom.

The diagram below covers the renovation, measurements are close but by no means 100%. At a high level we plan on extending the house out to where the old patio used to end (~2m), removing the wall between the living and kitchen areas, adding a bathroom to the old living room, converting the old living room to a bedroom and separating out the sunroom so we have an attached playroom/study for the bedrooms.

We'd love to hear from anyone on this forum about things we should consider before we formalise the plans and engage a builder.

Thanks!

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (8)

dreamer
3 years ago
Which way is north? And is there any reason why you have moved all the plumbing to the other side of the home?
oklouise
3 years ago
we need the length and width of existing rooms to better understand the changes
Related Discussions
Renovation plan - feedback please!
Q
Comments (7)
hey, firstly - can you post the plans directly into the forum? you might get a bit more feedback that way! Your plan seems pretty logical and straightforward - swapping the bedroom and living areas over to create an open plan space. Have you considered where the sunlight is at different times of day and how this might affect the different rooms? I would encourage you to have a think about this if not - there is nothing worse than adding a load of new windows and sliding doors only to find out the space is dark and cold. Are you planning on extending at all or are you working with the existing floorplan? its hard to tell but it looks like once you move the bedroom it will be trapped between the ensuite and the hallway. Will you be able to get a window into this room? You need some sort of external window for building regulations purposes plus a room without windows is pretty grim! I hope this helps! Good to see someone sketching out their ideas like this.
...See More
Floor-plan feedback/ideas needed -What do you think of this floor-plan
Q
Comments (51)
siriuskey, Yes, the courtyard is open to the sky (no roof over it), I assume this is what you mean by double story. Ref. below photos, I would love to get this look, especially the first and last photo, where you can see family living space from the first floor. I can't achieve this in my plan as it eats a lot of floor space upstairs. The referred plan (photos) has a very big void combining staircase, hallway and dining area. I know it is not easy with cooling and heating when you have such a big void. So, I explored a few ideas (with my limited knowledge on this topic) before achieving the current floorplan. I have also thought about, in my current plan, extending the void on the staircase to the dining area (it is more like L shape) but i wasn't sure if that makes any difference. keen to hear your thoughts.
...See More
Feedback on extension/renovation idea
Q
Comments (16)
How ere you proposing to retain the 4th bedroom when you plan to turn it into a separate living area adjoining the kitchen? Your revised plan with the changes only shows the backend of the house, not the full floorplan. From that I assumed that the current 4th bedroom was being repurposed as a dining/living room and you were retaining the original 3 bedrooms. If you look at the original house fllorplan, it's a H shape with what appears to be two equal sized wings. One of them houses 3 bedrooms while the other the current kitchen, 4th bed/study and the dining room. Flipping the house into a mirror image will require moving the walls of the current dining/kitchen and study to create three bedrooms the same size as your existing ones. The kitchen would then be positioned in the [current] centre bedroom space with an open plan dining, living towards the rear. There is no need to install a U shaped kitchen as you currently have. A galley style that runs across the space will be more space efficient and give you a large island to work with. While the front part could be your 4th bedroom or you can relocate your current front living room to that space and put the forth bedroom where the current living area is. It's really not much different to the floorplan you have in mind, it's just a mirror image of it placing all the bedrooms in the south and living area's in the north as is desirable. Unless you are planning to move out during the build it's going to be difficult living in the middle of any renovation. Your builder will have to remove the rear wall of your house to extend and you'll be living in a house with tarps on the backend anyway. Any renovation can be staged to cause least inconvenience. But no matter what, changing the footprint of a house is always going to be a major hassle. Which is why a lot of people choose to move out and rent for the duration of the build.
...See More
Looking for feedback on proposed renovation/floorplan -1926 home in SA
Q
Comments (36)
So true. And so bloody disappointing. The least effort and quickest sale seems to be the motivating factors for most agents. I actually just had a really positive experience with a lovely REA in Adelaide though! She has done a fantastic job, always transparent and honest with me and has made an effort to get me the best price. I got a fantastic offer just yesterday after 6 days on market and she's chasing up better counter offers now. I'm really lucky it's a hot market to sell, which helps a lot. I'm considering writing letters to people in streets I love and doing a letterbox drop. I figure I've got nothing to lose and I know people who've bought houses this way! I think that people's distrust of REAs might make an off market sale appealing to some. Who knows...worth a try!
...See More
Kate
3 years ago
Okl second plan includes dimensions. Not ideal having to go through the bedrooms to get to study and tv room. Maybe at least keep a door linking the two to give more options if someone is sleeping.
dreamer
3 years ago
Not ideal having the bathroom next to the dining room.
Can the new bathroom be the study, and one of the bedrooms has an ensuite. Since you are moving all the plumbing around.
And as requested, what are the length and width of the existing rooms on your existing plan. Not the proposed plan.
Robson Household
Original Author
3 years ago
Thanks for the feedback everyone.

The idea behind having the study and TV room next to the bedrooms was that so the parents could have our own space to work and our daughter will have her own play space, ideally that's where she'll be spending time with her friends etc and eventually can be used for a study (she's only 5 now)

Agree that having the bathroom off the living room isn't ideal, one idea we've had suggested is to indent the room more so at least it's not as obvious.

We've relocated the plumbing as we'll just be knocking down the back half of the house from where the dining room ends. Moving this to the other side allows us to open up the space more so we can look straight out to the deck and backyard from our living/dining space.

The picture below covers current layout with rough dimensions. The front of the house faces north west.
dreamer
3 years ago
Just to clarify, does the sunroom face northwest, or the front door face northwest?
Robson Household
Original Author
3 years ago
Should have been clearer. The Sunroom faces northwest.
oklouise
3 years ago
with such a big renovation with two new bathrooms it's a shame not to have an ensuite and my suggestion makes the second bedroom a little smaller in order to have a more generous family bathroom to be shared between two bedrooms and the old sunroom becomes an ensuite and dressing room (or study) off the master bedroom and the playroom off the second bedroom .. the space you allowed for the bathroom becomes a pantry and laundry (or study) and the laundry off the deck could be omitted?.. it looks like you plan to add or replace all the windows but you need to be careful to not make the windows too tall or wide and lose wall space for furniture and risk overheating ..with a pantry the storage in the kitchen can be simpler with a bigger island and consider a splashback or highlight windows and a sink and DW in the island

Feedback on renovation plans

Comments (8)

dreamer

oklouise

Related Discussions

Kate

dreamer

Robson Household
Original Author

dreamer

Robson Household
Original Author

oklouise

COMPANY

EXPLORE HOUZZ

CONNECT WITH US

Feedback on renovation plans

Comments (8)

dreamer

oklouise

Related Discussions

Kate

dreamer

Robson HouseholdOriginal Author

dreamer

Robson HouseholdOriginal Author

oklouise

COMPANY

EXPLORE HOUZZ

CONNECT WITH US

Robson Household
Original Author

Robson Household
Original Author