Advice needed for new build plans

[AugieMarch]

Hi all,

 

We got the following design with our architect, and we have now secured our planning permission, but we have a few niggles that we need to decide on before ordering the timber frame or putting to tender.

 

Points and questions:

 

1. We're happy with the layout of the kitchen/dining/living areas and the sitting room, and relatively ok with the first floor. Will have a secret door from living room to sitting room also (possibly), although it might interfere with my plans to put a 120" projector screen on that wall...

 

2. Main problem we have is with ground floor layout in other rooms. My wife doesn't like the toilet where it is, and while I don't mind it so much, the fact that it has such a big front window is problematic (have one frosted window on that facade, or some other way to obscure room - all a little awkward and inelegant. I have been considering the following options:

 

(a.) Move GF toilet to the left there, using only the side window (which can then be reduced in size too), and move study to all across the front of that part of the building. Study would be slightly less deep but longer, and could have more storage. Would also allow both myself and wife to work in there at the same time (with a partition to save our marriage  ).

(b.) No need for hot press downstairs like the architect has drawn, plus the back door hallway is a bit of a waste of space. I would reduce the length of that hallway, put the door from kitchen to back hall closer to the external wall, and in its place change the orientation of the pantry so it is sideways there so to speak. Utility could be stretched a little under that into part of where hot press was, making utility a little bigger, if not quite as neatly shaped.

(c.) My wife doesn't like having a porch there and wants a more modern big entrance door, and while I don't feel as strongly I still agree that it would be nice to have a more modern front door and allow more light into the hall.

(c.) Stairs - this is the big one. I have always been concerned about light in the upstairs hallway. Near the end of the design phase we came up with an idea - what if we made the entry hall a little bit deeper and moved the stairs to make them lateral across the entrance hall there. That means the foot of the stairs would be just outside the sitting room door (maybe it would require a bit of winding stairs or one or two steps up before turning left), and the stairs would run from right to left there. Upstairs, the dressing room could just move like for like over to where the stairs are currently placed, so it would be relatively simple to swap them.

 

It would mean a tighter living room though, and here is my main question: what would it be like to walk into? I've googled every variation of 'lateral staircase' 'stairs across entrance hall' etc. but cannot find any examples of such a configuration at all! Would it look weird or feel cramped (even with open string stairs)? It would allow us to make the entrance hall double height and allow way more light in there and way more light into the upstairs hallway also, so would solve a few issues. I just don't know if it would be a disaster in terms of the feel of the entrance, and would love your advice.

 

[AugieMarch]

Just to clarify - if we were to put the stairs across the entrance hall there, that hall would need to be maybe 2.1m deep at least instead of 1.8m.

[Jml]

Why not do (b) but where hot press and lower half of pantry is put wc, then square off study, with door half way up stair length to make lovely big room.

[AugieMarch]

4 hours ago, Jml said:

Why not do (b) but where hot press and lower half of pantry is put wc, then square off study, with door half way up stair length to make lovely big room.

Thanks, that would be good but we've got a thing about internal wcs with no windows! Don't like them. Although I have considered some kind of frosted window between the wc and utility. Might be too dark though, still. 

[ProDave]

You could always do as we are, and have utility and WC all as one room. Not to everyones taste but building control are happy with it.

[AugieMarch]

1 hour ago, ProDave said:

You could always do as we are, and have utility and WC all as one room. Not to everyones taste but building control are happy with it.

Cheers for the tip, but that wouldn't work for us. I'll post a pic of what I was thinking of doing, I did it up on the Floorplanner.com site to see how things would fit. Might just work. 

 

The more I think of it the more I think a lateral staircase in a ~2m hall would be  bit crap. A large front door would nearly be up against the handrail when opened. I think I'll leave the stairs where they are. Might add another light well in the hall upstairs to reduce gloom. 

 

I am very torn about where to put a 2.7m lift and slide patio door though. Wanted it in the kitchen, architect convinced me to put it in the living room instead and leave corner seat in kitchen, but neither option is incredibly satisfying to me now. Maybe I'm unnecessarily trying to include a big fancy feature that we don't actually need...