Kitchen and laundry reno design help

Wow, those ideas are excellent!

Do you have a sense as to which would make the property more rentable / saleable in future?

 

What are the proposed demo graphics and infrastructure for this area?

 

It’s a family area, near Cheltenham High in Cheltenham East. Mostly single storey homes built in the 1960s or 1970s.

It’s about 2km from a major Westfield shopping centre and a train station and backs onto a park with tennis, footy ovals and cricket. On the edge of an industrial area - but the feeling is neighbourhood residential.

Here is a summary from the council website (2016 census):

People: Cheltenham's population is 18,830 people.

• The population is forecast is to increase by 29.6% (to 24,404 people) by 2036.

• There are 4,253 people in Cheltenham aged 35 to 49 years old comprising 22.6% of the area's population. This represents the largest population group in Cheltenham.

• People aged 35-49 years are forecast to have the largest population increase with an additional 1,218 people forecast by 2036.

Housing: The number of households is forecast to increase by 28.8% from 8,122 dwellings in 2016 to 10,460 dwellings in 2036.

• 27% are 2 bedroom, 44% are 3 bedroom, 16% are 4 bedroom, 3% are 5 bedroom dwellings.

• 68% of households are purchasing or fully owned, 23.8% are renting privately, and 1.6% are in social housing.

• 37% of households with a mortgage are paying the highest loan repayments ($2,337 or more per month).

• 33.1% of renting households are in the highest rental bracket paying $417 or more per week in rent.

• Average household size in 2016 is 2.4 people, declining to 2.36 in 2036.

• 32.1% of households were made up of couples with children in 2016.

 

I have been to both Southlands and the DFO nearby

Whilst it's common to say "a four bedroom house needs two living areas" the reality is that the housing stock in the area rarely does have that extra living area unless it's been extended or a knock down rebuilt.

I feel 3a might be the best but it's also the most complicated so it depends really on how much you want to spend. I'd talk to some local real estate agents but I think getting a 4 x 2 in the size of the old 3 x 1 is worth losing that formal lounge/dining.

 

@Westminster got me inspired.
I like the idea's so far (though for an IP the costs may outweigh the benefit of an extra bedroom and extra 1.5 baths).

So this is my alterations above (if it fits).
The cavity slider to the bedrooms to block off noise from removing the wall to the new living area, leaving the toilet with a hand basin for easy access from these bedrooms.
Larger/longer island bench, the fridge side wall should probably be on the living room side, but was one sided to allow for varing size fridges.
Double shower to the ensuite and a cavity sliding door access to save room.
The "linnen" is small, but the main bath could be rearranged to make it bigger.

 

If you do decide to change to 4br by sacrificing the second living area, just add tv/data outlets to the bedrooms
As this is where the kids will hide mostly (with their own tv and gaming).

We have two lounge rooms, but one often sits empty.

I have a tv in the master to also hide from the kids, so I retire early and watch Netflix (ok, mostly the inside of my eyelids lime a grandpa )

Just our experience that the second lounge/living area is wasted most of the time

 

Nice one!

I'm so used to working in Perth with it's internal brick walls that I'm always scared to think about moving walls

 

I really like @Westminster sketches.. and have a slight variation.. I think 3 x showers is an overkill.. so I'd just convert the central Laundry to an Ensuite off the main with a walk in robe on the way through. Kitchen + island as per Westminster's.

 

@vbplease I really love this option.

It gives a dedicated laundry which you could run longways and be quite decent. Could even make it L shaped with linen along the short part.
Then the area which currently has the cooking and oven stuff could be the butlers pantry and then island and cooking zone up the top.
I think I'd want a little bit more robe space in the main bedroom but an inline robe could go either side of the door or the robe area extended into the room to make it bigger.

PS @Joynz with the minor bathroom I haven't mentioned but considering it's now a 4 bedder you might want to put a shower over bath where the vanity is and then a vanity where the current shower is. I think a bath might be well received.

 

It looks as though you could fit a bath under the window (1800 width i'd guess) and put a small vanity between the shower and the bath?

Main bath dimensions would be handy.

 

The measurements for the main bathroom are definitely 1828mm wide and around 2660mm deep - the original plan and the reno plan show the rear wall as being on the same line as the laundry (the REA plan shows it slightly bigger, but can’t be trusted).

 

So they took out the bath?

2660 is a great length, 1700 x 750 for a back to wall bath under the window, 900 wall mounted vanity and 900 shower.

Also, the master is about 6m long, perhaps a linen cupboard in the entry, or you could widen the entry to make it a foyer etc.



You could perhaps widen the WIR also to allow 2 runs of hanging space.

Space for a big shower in the ensuite as well.

 

oh wow that main bathroom is bigger than I thought. I didn't think it was big enough to separate it all out but with the old original layout or what Archaon suggested it would be an improvement.

 

A huge thank you to everyone for your thoughts, suggestions and drawings.

It’s got me thinking in new directions and I appreciate it very much.

 

Greatly prefer @Westminster ’s Option 3.

I think that, in all the following versions, the living/dining area is simply too small for a 4 bedroom house, and the floor area of the main bedroom and en-suite proportionally too big. That is, if the target demographic is a family home.

Of course, if for structural reasons the laundry area can’t be demolished, this option may be impossible.

 

Good questions. In short, I could get a bit more rent if it was a 4 bedroom. The house next door is smaller and has no garage but gets a higher rental because it’s a 4 bedroom (at least that’s what the agent said when I asked why the disparity with mine!)

The cheapest option is probably the option to create an ensuite out of the laundry because the waterproofing is already done and there is a drain.

An in between option would be to add a door between the lounge and small dining area and a toilet to the laundry if it fits (and change the door opening to the laundry to open off the hall).

This would allow the lounge to be used as a bedroom (or not) and gives a second full bathroom (albeit not very fancy).

Some of the options could easily cost quite a bit and not lead to much increase in rent but would increase the viability in the long term. But they would incur more than a little cost.

However, since I am expecting to redo the 35 year old kitchen, I wanted to see how best to make some tweaks in the short term and look to the longer term too.

The size of the bedrooms is an issue for this house. Previous tenants used the lounge as their bedroom with their kids in the other bedrooms. They didn’t even have a door in the opening to the hall (just propped up a bit of plywood) or the opening to the kitchen (left as is).