Floorplan Suggestions

Hi guys, lots of great resources on here so I wanted to pick your brains. Looking at a PPOR in Bendigo (Vic) and renovating for our enjoyment + maybe CG over the next 5-10 years, I've come up with the following potential alterations to the floorplan. Let me know what you think, and if I've missed any information out, please ask.

I realise that costing is a "how long is a piece of string" question, but if anyone has done anything similar and could give a ballpark, that would be greatly appreciated. The block is elevated so the front of the house sits about 1.5m off the ground, and it's a weatherboard house.

 

Does the roofline allow you to incorporate tbe sunroom easily, or will the wall removal always look like you removed the wall to the kitchen ?

I'd be tempted to get rid of the doors and wall between the entry and lounge while you are at it

Just put a cavity slider into bed 3 wall like this to seperate off that end of the house

Like this

 

The sunroom looks like it was a verandah once upon a time so the ceiling is lower. That being said, it’s always going to look like it’s added on anyway, because it’s got external sliding doors and the kitchen window looks out into it.

The thought process behind it was that it would give us a proper dining space, and then we could have sliding doors going out into the backyard/entertaining area.

 

I'm wondering about stuctural issues. Would that wall b/t kitchen and sunroom be the main load-bearing wall? Perhaps also the the kitchen to lounge wall? What would hold the house up at that end? I don't know anything much about extensions though...

 

They most likely are, so we’d probably need some LVLs or similar as well as some extra supports to do it, but to open it up I think could be worth it.

Given that no one has said anything very negative about the proposed plan I guess it can’t be that bad

 

Main bathroom is a little tight, maybe you could crib some space from the ensuite or kitchen (yeah, the old bath window is a PITA).

If you move bed 1 door close to ensuite wall you could put a robe in (as shown), this would allow bed 3 door to move making the robe's a little bigger to 2&3.

Cavity slider to seperate off that end of the house (when the TV is to loud)

 

Thanks for the feedback - our main challenge at the moment is trying to work as much as possible with existing walls, but it looks like that’s quickly becoming quite a challenge haha.

As a couple of people have mentioned, I do like the cavity slider idea, I hadn’t considered that.

 

Are your thoughts to put the kitchen in the sunroom? Or to have it running along the side wall?

 

I would suggest running the kitchen along the side wall so it does not cut across the living area.

I also like Stoffo's plan for the bedrooms. The original layout is like a maze of corridors that waste space.

 

Thanks for the suggestions guys, lots of great input. Here are a couple of real estate photos of the house as it is now, the space next to the sunroom under the existing roof is where we’re thinking of moving the laundry.

I like the idea of having the kitchen along one side, but not sure how it would work with different ceiling heights.

if anyone has any other thoughts though, happy to hear them.

 

Wylie, there are some great ideas there - definitely some food for thought. Thanks

 

I'm not a structural engineer but I wonder if any of the outer walls of a house in critical parts eg corners can be removed whether you use LVLs or not etc.

And if you aren't going through council, will structural engineers agree to draw up a plan? Possibly not in writing I'm guessing.

 

Yeah we’re still looking into all the permit requirements etc. The VBA site suggests if it’s not a load bearing wall and you don’t change the floor size (I.e anything under the roofline) you don’t need a permit. So maybe we’ll put in a cable truss before removing the wall so it’s not load bearing... But a few consults with a structural engineer probably won’t go astray. Finalising the floor plan as we’d like it is the first thing to take care of though.

 

Now that we have the photos for reference, it appears your sunroom is really an enclosed patio. I assume you would have to adapt it before it can be turned into a habitable living area, at least checking with council/town planner. This may be a simple fix, or it may not. It would depend how it was designed and constructed originally.

Given the original kitchen is fairly new, you could leave it alone and cut a large window through the back wall just above the bench to "open" up a space into the existing sunroom. I dont think I would relocate part of the kitchen across to the right-hand wall - that would probably "close in" the current flow to the back sunroom.