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Renovating Design Dilemma

Wanting perspectives on this floor plan for terrace renovation.

2 years ago

Doing a complete gutting and reno of inner city terrace.

Some info about current property

-land slopes downwards from front of house to rear of the house

-current entry is stairs downwards from street level to lower floor level

Major additions include

attic conversion into master bedroom+WIR+ensuite
new rear access with new underground garage,
side return extension on the lower ground floor to use that current dead space to widen kitchen, dinning area
new stairs hugging the side wall
creating main access entry from street to upper floor instead of currently stairs going down to lower ground level
Open plan lower ground floor, with kitchen and dinning area opening up to rear courtyard
The family room is separated from the kitchen and dinning because there are city skyline views from rear of the first floor.

I'm particularly after an opinion on

whether it would be wise to knock off the wall to the right of the guest bedroom on the lower ground level, make the guest bedroom much larger, block off that current access next to the planter bed and use the new doors to the courtyard as an access. from the street. (attached photo)
configuration and location of stairs. Is there another way to place it to obtain a better connection between the kitchen and family room? Can it be configured better so it doesn't cut into the family room as much.
location of the WC on the lower ground floor. What do you guys think of hiding it to the rear of the kitchen with the laundry so that it looks a little like this (see photo)

Many thanks

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Comments (5)

oklouise
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
1. removing the hall loses a separate bedroom and would spoil the original appearance of the house so i would keep the separate front entry hall and bedroom but, adding furniture helps show the lack of space so my suggestion would be to lose the wiw in favour of a bigger bedroom and bathroom and use a fee standing wardrobe or chest of drawers and the hallway closet for storage

2. stairs have to be placed in the available space to suit both levels and can't easily be moved so trying not to waste the under stairs space would be to use the kitchen for a pantry, under the family room stairs for a study nook and under the master bedroom stairs for walk in storage

3. and your floorplan for the kitchen and meals area is not scaled correctly for suitable kitchen and laundry cabinets and appliances and there's not enough space to add a powder room and hallway.to the existing laundry location..my suggestion would be to combine the laundry and powder room next to the guest room ensuite and allow for a more comfortable rumpus, kitchen and dining area with a more convenient access to the garage stairs
TJW thanked oklouise
TJW
Original Author
2 years ago
Hi Oklouise,

Thanks for your comments. great insight.

We've redesigned the floor plan, mainly reconfiguring the stairs to have a better connection between the kitchen and the formal family room. Upside is that the family room gets a more congruent rectangular shape, however bedroom 2 and the bathroom both become smaller.

In your opinion, which would be a better plan in terms of flow of the house, sizes of the room?

Thanks
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oklouise
2 years ago
do you have a copy of the new plans without the shadow of the original walls?...it's very difficult to read such small plans with so much extra detail that's not part of the final floor plans and, when you say "which is the better plan?" do you mean in comparison to the original as you've only posted one option today
TJW
Original Author
2 years ago
Sorry, due to Houzz only allowing me to upload certain file types, it is now as clear. I'm trying it again here and hope it is a little clearer.

And yes to the original, more so in terms of the position of the stairs.

Thanks Louise

Lower Ground upper ground

Upper ground Attic
oklouise
2 years ago
stairs look much better but you need to add scale sized furniture to see how the spaces really work

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