I have recently purchased a late Victorian mid-terrace villa type house (single story over garden level). The house is approx 1900 square feet.
The house has entrances at the first floor and ground floor. The ground floor entrance is at ground level (i.e. not subterranean).
All the living areas are on the first floor. Currently there are 3 rooms - a sitting room (approx 5.5m x 4.5m), a dining room (approx 5.5m x 4.5m) and a narrow room on the 'first floor return' (5.74m x 2.3m). The sitting room is at the front of the house, the dining room is behind the sitting room, and the narrow room is at the end of the hall, to the left and behind the dining room.
Downstairs there are three bedrooms (each with a small ensuite). The entrance to the garden is also downstairs.
There is no kitchen.
I hope you get the general picture. I am looking for some bright ideas. These are my primary concerns:
Question 1: Where should the kitchen be located?
Option A: The narrow room on the first floor return is the obvious place. But this room is too narrow to incorporate a dining area. Our 'modern' style of living would prefer not to have a separate formal dining room that you have to enter further up the hall.
Option B: I considered putting a kitchen into the dining room, but I have been told that it would be a sin! (due to the high ceilings, cornicing etc in the dining room).
Option C: The kitchen could go downstairs - though is it a bad idea to separate the living areas?
Question 2: If the kitchen goes in the narrow room, how could we 'link' the kitchen with the dining room (they do not share a common wall)?
Option A: I considered a modern suspended box-like structure that would attach to the side wall of the kitchen and the back wall of the dining room.
Option B: Extend out the back of the dining room (and bedroom on floor below) so that the dining room and the kitchen now coincide. Though this doesn't seem right either.
Option C: Extend out the side of the narrow kitchen room (and bedroom on floor below) so that the dining room and the kitchen now coincide. This is potentially the best option
Option D: Anything else? (maybe we should live the original layout!)
Question 3: (Finally!) Any ideas on how to link the upstairs living areas with the back garden?
Option A: External Steps
Option B: Incorporate Internal Steps into the narrow kitchen
Option C: ???
Thank you so much for any advice that you may have. I really don't want want to make a mistake and do the house an injustice. It is such a lovely house.
The house has entrances at the first floor and ground floor. The ground floor entrance is at ground level (i.e. not subterranean).
All the living areas are on the first floor. Currently there are 3 rooms - a sitting room (approx 5.5m x 4.5m), a dining room (approx 5.5m x 4.5m) and a narrow room on the 'first floor return' (5.74m x 2.3m). The sitting room is at the front of the house, the dining room is behind the sitting room, and the narrow room is at the end of the hall, to the left and behind the dining room.
Downstairs there are three bedrooms (each with a small ensuite). The entrance to the garden is also downstairs.
There is no kitchen.
I hope you get the general picture. I am looking for some bright ideas. These are my primary concerns:
Question 1: Where should the kitchen be located?
Option A: The narrow room on the first floor return is the obvious place. But this room is too narrow to incorporate a dining area. Our 'modern' style of living would prefer not to have a separate formal dining room that you have to enter further up the hall.
Option B: I considered putting a kitchen into the dining room, but I have been told that it would be a sin! (due to the high ceilings, cornicing etc in the dining room).
Option C: The kitchen could go downstairs - though is it a bad idea to separate the living areas?
Question 2: If the kitchen goes in the narrow room, how could we 'link' the kitchen with the dining room (they do not share a common wall)?
Option A: I considered a modern suspended box-like structure that would attach to the side wall of the kitchen and the back wall of the dining room.
Option B: Extend out the back of the dining room (and bedroom on floor below) so that the dining room and the kitchen now coincide. Though this doesn't seem right either.
Option C: Extend out the side of the narrow kitchen room (and bedroom on floor below) so that the dining room and the kitchen now coincide. This is potentially the best option
Option D: Anything else? (maybe we should live the original layout!)
Question 3: (Finally!) Any ideas on how to link the upstairs living areas with the back garden?
Option A: External Steps
Option B: Incorporate Internal Steps into the narrow kitchen
Option C: ???
Thank you so much for any advice that you may have. I really don't want want to make a mistake and do the house an injustice. It is such a lovely house.