How Would You Rework This Floor Plan?

[Louisianna]

Hi Guys,

Calling all creative and great minds out there!

Would love to hear your thoughts as to how you would re-work the floor plan for a 3 bedroom house that I just bought as PPOR.

Budget is limited and sitting at $40k as the other $10k is to get the house re-wired and painted. Hubby is also handy so will do most of the work himself (with help from family), but will leave any structural, knocking out walls to the pros.

My current thoughts are:

1. Bedroom 1 and 2 and living room remains unchanged.
2. Existing bathroom and pantry remains unchanged (except door to the pantry gets moved to opposite the bathroom).
3. Kitchen gets moved into the dining area so the dining space becomes combined kitchen and dining (dining on the left, kitchen on the right).
4. Current kitchen is turned into a home office.
5. Current laundry at the back of the house is turned into the second bathroom.
6. Current toilet at the back of the house gets turned into a laundry.

Goal is to add-value but not over capitalise.
Let me know your savvy thoughts please!!

Regards,
Louisianna

 

[tobe]

Moving kitchens, and any plumbing is expensive. I'd just make an alcove somewhere for your study. Its unlikely to appeal to tenants or future purchases. Whats the point of swapping laundry and 2nd bathroom?

 

[DaveM]

Heres what I would do... minimal wall changes, much more modern. Bed3 ex loung needs a window installed but has WIR and fireplace. Or you can flip the WIR into a study nook with doors to the living area.

Bathroom extended so you can fit bath, shower, basin and toilet comfortably

 

[Louisianna]

Hi Tobe,

Existing bathroom in the centre of the house is tiny and will only cater for a shower, not bath tub. So we thought it would be a good idea to get a second bathroom built with a bath tub in the existing laundry room.

The suburb we bought in is family friendly, so we wanted to appeal to a larger market if we decide to sell in the future.

Yes/No?

Regards, Louisianna

 

[Louisianna]

DaveM,

That's a great idea.

Much better floor plan than what hubby and I came up with!

Food for thought.

Regards, Louisianna

 

[TMNT]

Heres what I would do... minimal wall changes, much more modern. Bed3 ex loung needs a window installed but has WIR and fireplace. Or you can flip the WIR into a study nook with doors to the living area.

Bathroom extended so you can fit bath, shower, basin and toilet comfortably

exactly what I was going to do, adding the bdr will do the most bang for buck increase, and unless you moved the bathroom, you are going to have to bend the corridor around the corner,

extending the bathroom is going to be expensive, or you could just leave it, but obviously you will have a smaller bathroom,

since its for your PPOR, you need to decide what is best for you,

from a pure IP pespective, id make it into a 4bdr with an ensuite, and put the laundry where the toilet is, and get rid of the bath tub, make it a shower and put a toilet in there!,

 

[neK]

This requires moving of plumbing but i think its a more functional layout.

Having to turn left, then right to get into the backroom would be highly annoying.... its like my house.... annoys the crap out of me and makes it look dark and narrow.

I would move the laundry too, except im thinking the wall of the laundry is actually structural. Its much nicer if the living room can open into the backyard. Brings a greater sense of space.

 

[Louisianna]

Hi Nek,

I explored that design with a builder and was quoted a min of $100k was needed to get to that layout. That's out of my budget.

And you are right. There is a approx 10-15cm step down from the existing kitchen into the back laundry/toilet area of the house.

Thanks for your thoughts though!
It's interesting to see how the minds of others work and the ideas that come through.

Louisianna

 

[missmonopoly]

I had a play around with a few ideas but I'm not sure if this will work as I don't know which walls are structural or even if this will fit in the budget but anyway here's my ideas

Turn lounge into main bed with semi ensuite including bath

Have washing machine in cupboard in kitchen

Make a large kitchen bench at the end of the kitchen that doubles as a dining table then you free up more living space and since there is a 50cm drop along the back of the house where the laundry and toilet are you could just make that a step down from the kitchen area to the dining bench area

the design of the lounge room would allow internal bifold doors to close off the lounge from kitchen area if needed

so you end up with a 3 bed 1 bath with lounge and home office and semi ensuite

sorry about the dodgy drawings - i used waaaay too much liquid paper

 

[Louisianna]

Miss monopoly,

I really liked your idea with the kitchen bench doubling up as a dining table!

I need to engage an engineer as I don't currently know which walls are structural or otherwise.

Louisianna

 

[Louisianna]

Hi Somersoft Peeps,

I have attached an image of the proposed floor plan to give you an idea of what I was originally thinking, where I felt the redesign would stick to the budget I have to play with.

If there are any builders out there that can assist within my budget, please PM me!

Louisianna

 

[neK]

Can i ask if the following areas of the house feel cramped to you in its current state

Bathroom
Hallway between bathroom and pantry
kitchen
bed 3
laundry

 

[Louisianna]

Can i ask if the following areas of the house feel cramped to you in its current state

Bathroom
Hallway between bathroom and pantry
kitchen
bed 3
laundry

Bathroom, small but do-able (too expensive to relocate and expand?)
Hallway between bathroom and pantry is fine (but feels pokey)
Kitchen, yes too small to be functional
Bed 3, small but we can use this as a guest bedroom?
Laundry, too big hence the reason why we want to move it into the back toilet.

Front part of the house is good. Reasonable sized rooms and it flows well. Past the living room, things start to feel pokey. Making it open plan looking out to the backyard through bi-folds would be most ideal. However I am concerned about the cost element.

Louisianna

 

[neK]

Hi louisanna, i think if you feel the house as it is feels pokey, then the proposed renovation you have laid out will not change anything.

With this type of home, i don't feel a study / home office at the expense of a smaller rooms will add value. I'm guessing this is located inner city, and in my opinion, people looking to buy this home off you would be looking for a more open modern feel, therefore you would be better off going with the design you explored with your builder which cost $100k (but source alternative quotes).

Also try to understand why it costs $100k, is it because of load bearing walls etc, and what can you do to work around it.

 

[Louisianna]

Hi louisanna, i think if you feel the house as it is feels pokey, then the proposed renovation you have laid out will not change anything.

With this type of home, i don't feel a study / home office at the expense of a smaller rooms will add value. I'm guessing this is located inner city, and in my opinion, people looking to buy this home off you would be looking for a more open modern feel, therefore you would be better off going with the design you explored with your builder which cost $100k (but source alternative quotes).

Also try to understand why it costs $100k, is it because of load bearing walls etc, and what can you do to work around it.

Thanks Nek for the great advice. The house is located in Five Dock, less than 10ks from the city. If we decide to keep the house, we'll look to build up (take advantage of the city views) and make the downstairs more open plan at that point.

Would do it now without any hesitation if we won the lottery.

 

[neK]

Five dock, nice up market area.

Anyway, two similar properties, shares the same fundamental design as yours.

Nicer looking layout (as it opens out to backyard)
http://www.rs.realestate.com.au/property-duplex+semi-detached-nsw-burwood-113843187

Not so nice looking layout (backyard is no where near as inviting).
http://i.domain.com.au/property/for-sale/house/nsw/burwood/?adid=2010678697

Based on what you've said, I would be inclined to leave everything as it is and just update it - ie rip out kitchen and replace. As for the bathroom, this is more expensive so unless its really old, i would leave it.

 

[Louisianna]

Thanks Nek.

Five Dock is a great suburb. I love it. I also believe the suburb is under valued and should see growth over the coming years.

The link to the second house seems to mirror the floor plan of my place.
The entire house needs to be gutted. It's 100 years old and the bathroom and kitchen is original, manly and simply unusable.

I have attached my neighbours floor plan. Their house is identical to the one we bought except it's been renovated and extended with a family room, driveway, etc.

Do you think their floor plan works and that we should mirror our design on theirs (excl the family room, second bathroom and laundry extension).

Welcome everyone else' thoughts as well!