What do you think?

[canalsiderenovation]

So, after some views on our remodel. Yes the bungalow is odd in its design but as you can see it works well in the layout as we have views of the canal and whilst most people would like to knock it down we are trying to keep as much of it as we can as we like it's weird shape and it works well with views, sunlight etc. There are just the two of us, no kids etc. 

 

The bedroom downstairs with ensuite will be used as Airbnb hence the door to keep it separate to the main house. As we get older it could be a room for us and also parents etc. The other bedroom could also have multi use as a study too. 

 

I'm attaching our initial house and floor plan and proposed. The proposed looks yellow but will be euroclad/metal cladding and a light render and wood underneath the balcony (see example pic). 

 

What do people think? 

[canalsiderenovation]

[canalsiderenovation]

Here is our property and our inspiration we hope it will look a bit like. 

 

 

[the_r_sole]

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Edited September 26, 2019 by the_r_sole

[Ferdinand]

Do you have a site plan, and visual from an angle and distance like the photo to give us an impression of how it sits on the site.

 

F

[Triassic]

Have you looked at the cost implications of keeping the old bungalow? It might be cheaper to demolish it and start again. In starting again, you won't have to compromise on insulation, cold bridging and wall placement etc?

[Jeremy Harris]

Worth looking at the costs of demolition and rebuild, even if you retain the same footprint, as the VAT bonus from a rebuild makes a fair difference, as well as being able to do away with the inevitable compromises in such a major renovation project.

[canalsiderenovation]

That was our initial question to our architects re rebuilding and as we actually liked so much of the existing building it didnt work out financially. That said we still need it replastwred, rewired, new heating system etc..... 

 

It does seem quite big, but I work from home mainly so need some kind of office space and the Airbnb bit is some potential extra income too in the long term. 

[joe90]

Mine is a demolish and rebuild and After doing refurbs for years I found the new build soo much better, no compromise and no old stuff to deal with (and got the VAT back, or not charged it).

[canalsiderenovation]

47 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

Do you have a site plan, and visual from an angle and distance like the photo to give us an impression of how it sits on the site.

 

F

 

https://pin.it/cvadb7wokacxnn

 

https://pin.it/heux3hd5s6eowc

[PeterW]

59 minutes ago, joe90 said:

Mine is a demolish and rebuild and After doing refurbs for years I found the new build soo much better, no compromise and no old stuff to deal with (and got the VAT back, or not charged it).

 

Totally agree with that ..! Last one is a part refurb and part new, and the old building has caused the most issues as it wasn’t square and basically had to be ripped apart to start again ...

 

Good news was that most trades are not VAT registered so the VAT reclaim wouldn’t have covered the cost of the materials and demolition 

[Ferdinand]

17 hours ago, canalsiderenovation said:

 

https://pin.it/cvadb7wokacxnn

 

https://pin.it/heux3hd5s6eowc

 

I may not be been clear, or perhaps cannot find it.

 

I meant a view of the new design from far enough back such that it can be compared with the existing in terms of the size on the plot.

 

F

[canalsiderenovation]

28 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

 

I may not be been clear, or perhaps cannot find it.

 

I meant a view of the new design from far enough back such that it can be compared with the existing in terms of the size on the plot.

 

F

 

Err, no I don't think we do. In terms of the size, the only extension to the ground floor is out 3.5 metres where the current dining/kitchen area is which will end up being an open plan kitchen and dining area. The rest of the actual plot is as currently is as the rest of the extension is upstairs. We have an half acre plot, probably not easy to see from the pics. 

[Ferdinand]

16 minutes ago, canalsiderenovation said:

Err, no I don't think we do. In terms of the size, the only extension to the ground floor is out 3.5 metres where the current dining/kitchen area is which will end up being an open plan kitchen and dining area. The rest of the actual plot is as currently is as the rest of the extension is upstairs. We have an half acre plot, probably not easy to see from the pics. 

 

Looking briefly at the plans (and without scaling), I wonder two things:

 

1 - Is that balcony too large wrt the bedroom? By shrinking it slightly can you give room to have some sort of sitting area inside your bedroom to use in the autumn / winter / spring?

2 - Do you have space to make a more sumptuous bathroom without undermining the dressing or bedroom?

3 - The living room seems rather cut off from the kitchen, and the kitchen does not seem to have a place to sit comfortably rather than at the table. Do you want 2 'reception' spaces for when you have visitors, grandchildren in etc. So that you could divide TV / talk or noisy / civilised etc.

 

All of those depend on how you will live in it.

 

F

[canalsiderenovation]

On 31/10/2018 at 10:36, Ferdinand said:

 

Looking briefly at the plans (and without scaling), I wonder two things:

 

1 - Is that balcony too large wrt the bedroom? By shrinking it slightly can you give room to have some sort of sitting area inside your bedroom to use in the autumn / winter / spring?

2 - Do you have space to make a more sumptuous bathroom without undermining the dressing or bedroom?

3 - The living room seems rather cut off from the kitchen, and the kitchen does not seem to have a place to sit comfortably rather than at the table. Do you want 2 'reception' spaces for when you have visitors, grandchildren in etc. So that you could divide TV / talk or noisy / civilised etc.

 

All of those depend on how you will live in it.

 

F

 

Thanks so much for your feedback, you echoed some of our thoughts re balcony. 

 

1 and 2 - if we are honest, yes it's a bit too big but it mirrors the extension downstairs so it's 3525mm. If we made the bedroom/bathroom/dressing room bigger and balcony smaller it would mean having an extra lintel put in upstairs after the original existing external walls and so it would seem to divide the bedroom up (I'm really not explaining this well) so the architects advised against it. I think we may backtrack on this though as it's eating into space which we would value elsewhere and if we do this use the division as a seating area in the bedroom perhaps. Without this we could make the bedroom smaller and bathroom/dressing room bigger as realistically we only want a bed but it would only highlight the huge balcony and small bedroom. 

 

3. I think this goes back to how we were both brought up, the kitchen and dining area is pretty much where we lived and the living room was 'best'. We should have space for a couple of comfortable chairs in the dining bit we think, but we'd rather keep it separate. 

 

I've got some measurements now so we need to see if the sizes work for us. See pic. First one is downstairs, second one upstairs. 

[JamieL]

I like your inspiration photo, but the difference with your design is that you have indoor/outdoor space upstairs only. Depends how you live, but I would guess that you will spend very little time sitting upstairs outdoors. If you want to sit outdoors you would be better somewhere downstairs where you have easy access to the kitchen for refills and can wander in the garden if the mood takes you. And with that long, enclosed balcony your view from the bedroom will be limited unless your go outside in your PJs.

 

So, why not make the upstairs balcony area your bedroom and if you want an upstairs balcony stick an actual balcony on the end which will act as a roof for a small outdoors area in front of your dining room sliding doors. Or just a Juliette maybe. The current bedroom then becomes dressing/ensuite and BR2/study goes where the current dressing/ensuite is (or you could put the gym there).

 

Then you can make that Airbnb space a little suite so your guests have some space to sit without being in your way.

Also, I'd want a door from the kitchen to the living room. Do you need to go from the cloak room to the bathroom? Maybe loose both bathroom doors and put one opposite the kitchen door.

Edited November 1, 2018 by JamieL

[canalsiderenovation]

Thanks JamieL

The Airbnbers won't have access to the main house as there is a door we will lock so they will enter through the sliding door and just have bedroom/ensuite and outdoor space, but something to consider re extending the space. 

 

We want more than a small Juliette balcony upstairs, and we did initially have a downstairs covered bit on the first plans but decided it would make the kitchen and dining very shaded, although we still like the concept.... Perhaps look at this again, thank you as we do still really like it. Its a great idea to put the bedroom where the balcony is though as this would mean we could then have a smaller balcony and the covered bit over the dining area. It also means a bigger ensuite and dressing room so we are definitely going to look into this more. Obviously need to rejig the bedroom door etc but we like your thinking. 

 

Take the comments about door from kitchen to living room,  but decided against it, I'd rather keep them separate and it would into my long worktop space which I'm desperate for baking and cooking.

 

The idea re two doors in the bathroom is that it can be accessed from the utility or the hall. We have a large garden and are always gardening so this will be a 'mucky' kind of entrance/access to bathroom without traipsing through the nice main entrance and hall, but if we are in another room access is also possible not via the utility.

 

It's really useful reading other peoples views. It helps us a lot, sometimes just to reinforce why we have done things or makes us think again about what to change. Much appreciated. 

Edited November 1, 2018 by canalsiderenovation
Edit

[Mr Punter]

With the balcony, look carefully at floor levels as you will need insulation and this will probably need to be a warm roof construction, so a step up onto the balcony.  Also as others have said, look at making the balcony 2.6m deep and give the 900mm to the bedroom.  It is not much of a technical challenge.

 

I really liked the roof lights to the balcony in your inspiration house.

 

Any chance if you post more plans you can upload pdfs?  It is quite hard to see otherwise.

[Ferdinand]

1 hour ago, canalsiderenovation said:

3. I think this goes back to how we were both brought up, the kitchen and dining area is pretty much where we lived and the living room was 'best'. We should have space for a couple of comfortable chairs in the dining bit we think, but we'd rather keep it separate. 

 

One way to sanity check that and also look for ideas is to allow yourself a few weekends away or citybreaks staying in AirBNB houses or modern holiday rentals, of which there are a lot around.

 

It is also a lot of fun.

 

F

[canalsiderenovation]

Ah OK I'll make sure they are pdfs. Definitely going to look into making the balcony into the bedroom, reworking the internal layouts upstairs and then creating the balcony so it provides some downstairs patio space as an extension of the dining area. I think we initially said 2metres ish would be fine as a balcony and we would rather the space in the dressing room/ensuite.... 

[canalsiderenovation]

22 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

 

One way to sanity check that and also look for ideas is to allow yourself a few weekends away or citybreaks staying in AirBNB houses or modern holiday rentals, of which there are a lot around.

 

It is also a lot of fun.

 

F

Good tip, I currently stay away every week with work in different hotels, Airbnbs etc and I've come across this set up a few times with living room accessible from the kitchen  (our last house of 10 years had this set up too). I think I'd rather keep the big kitchen worktop instead and it'd only round the corner... 

 

Staying in lots of hotel rooms and bedrooms does give you lots of ideas and you come away with some real bugbears! 

[the_r_sole]

.

Edited September 26, 2019 by the_r_sole

[Ferdinand]

5 minutes ago, canalsiderenovation said:

Good tip, I currently stay away every week with work in different hotels, Airbnbs etc and I've come across this set up a few times with living room accessible from the kitchen  (our last house of 10 years had this set up too). I think I'd rather keep the big kitchen worktop instead and it'd only round the corner... 

 

Staying in lots of hotel rooms and bedrooms does give you lots of ideas and you come away with some real bugbears! 

 

 

I did a series of blogs about things including hotel bathrooms (good places to learn about dirt traps and hopefully not phallic shadows from badly placed shower heads and lights) soon after this place started, but it stopped at 1 with an article about street furniture.

 

There is still one in the drafts about bathrooms.

[canalsiderenovation]

22 minutes ago, the_r_sole said:

Another thing I've noticed there, is that your balcony looks like it's north facing? presumably that's where the view is?

But is there not a potential for high level external space that is in the daylight and has a view - if it's nice enough to be sitting outside you're probably going to want to sit in the light, no?

 

Looking out from the balcony it will be west facing not north, yes that view will look towards the canal bridge and be of the longest part of the garden.. 

[canalsiderenovation]

26 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

 

 

I did a series of blogs about things including hotel bathrooms (good places to learn about dirt traps and hopefully not phallic shadows from badly placed shower heads and lights) soon after this place started, but it stopped at 1 with an article about street furniture.

 

There is still one in the drafts about bathrooms.

 

I can't see the drafts can you direct me to it please? 

Edited November 1, 2018 by canalsiderenovation