My 70's Bungalow Conversion Thread

[RoyalVilla]

It was really only a few months ago that my wife and I spotted this tired 70s bungalow not far from where we live. We liked our house and had spent a lot of time getting it how we wanted it, but really we wanted more space and in a quieter part of the city (Worcester) as we have 4 kids. Moving had been at the back of our thoughts for a while and every so often we'd have a look on Rightmove to see what was about. We knew we wanted a project as it was the most likely way we could get what we wanted for the £££.

Anyway, a couple of viewings later and something strange happened - we agreed on something! We took an architect friend round to have a look and he thought we could do something with it. So, we put our house on the market (we used an online agency - the 2 EAs we'd had look at it previously had undervalued it IMO) and within 6 days we'd accepted an offer on our house and had an offer accepted on the bungalow - who said selling a house was stressful!

I've been lurking a lot on this forum for ideas so I thought I'd start this thread

This is it:






Our plan was to knock down the conservatory, build an extension on the back and convert the loft





To give you an idea of size, the 'dayroom' is 6x5m

We will render the house and use a bit of wood cladding where UPVC cladding exists

Planning permission was no probs and we've appointed a builder who started 2 weeks ago. Hopefully all the main work will be sorted for Christmas. The garden will be landscaped in the spring and then we need to decide whether to knock down the single garage and build a double in the opposite corner of the front garden (was originally set on this but now not so sure from a £££ perspective!).

Key decisions:
Kitchen - Have bought cashmere gloss handleless from Wren (keeping fingers crossed!) - all new Bosch appliances. Need to decide on worktop
Floor - looking at LVT for all ground floor apart from bedrooms. Nearly decided on wood effect Karndean (wide plank) but have found a really good floorer and will now probably be going for an MFloor product - again wide plank wood effect (Hokido Ash - warm brown)
Bifolds - will probably 3 pane Schuco in dark grey (1 @ 3.3m, the other @ 3.5m)
Front door - will probably be a hormann thermopro 700 with a large side panel
Bathrooms - we need to decide on all bathroom furniture / stuff. We might also add a second ensuite upstairs into the front bedroom
Size upstairs - the builder reckons he can get us more space upstairs in the main bedroom by building the right purlin out a bit - we'll do this to grab an extra metre or so. We'll also steal some space from under the existing purlin in the front bedroom to make it into a good sized double

On the research list:
LED lighting - I hear Zep 1s are good
AV stuff - want everything built into the new lounge - 5.1 surround sound, maybe provision for projector and screen

Anyway, I'll keep this updated and probably pester you all with questions.
Let me know what you think!

[RoyalVilla]

Here's where we are at the moment. Builders have dug the foundations and have started building the extension



I've been clearing the garden - bought myself a chainsaw:

Then - boys exploring new garden



Now - still a long way to go!

[RoyalVilla]

I hear what you are all saying about the utility!

The requirement was that my wife wanted a utility room that lead to the outside and wanted a big, square lounge.
I also wanted the main living space at the rear to be extensible. So, I'll put in a large, sliding wall / door (maybe pocket door) that can separate the main lounge and the kitchen / dining / snug area. So it can be sectioned off, or open, depending on what is going on.

I thought about knocking the kitchen wall down, but we didn't want our kitchen in the lounge area. This way, the kids can be watching the tv in the snug and I can be watching a film in the lounge and my wife can be in the kitchen

We did think about putting the utility where the study is and building the study off the lounge.

The rear of the house faces west and we get great light. That's one of the things I like about these houses - they can feel very spacious and contemporary with a lot of light.

Here's some more internal pics
In the first I'll build a tv wall to the right of the fireplace which will make a snug area. We'll prob put an inset burner in the fireplace
In the second one you can see where you'd go through into the main lounge.
I wasn't sure about having to go through the dining area to get to the lounge, but having lived here for a bit now I know the layout will work.







Kitchen render - still deciding on worktop

[RoyalVilla]

jonah35 said:

Which online estate agent did you use?

House Simple. The board was up the next day and the pictures were excellent.
The only semi-awkward thing about the process was doing the negotiation ourselves. We had 2 really nice couples in for it straight away - we really liked both.
We went to best and final offers after a few days and got just over £20k more than one of the EAs wanted to put it on the market for - we couldn't believe it.
it was just a shame having to let one of the couples down. The saving in fees made up for it though

[RoyalVilla]

Thanks loads for all the comments!
Normally when I see a layout or am in a house I can quite quickly come to a decision as to what the best layout is. This place is a bit of a challenge (maybe because I'll be living there!). We have had an architect friend helping us think through the layout too.

Looks like the consensus is to open up the kitchen to either the 'dayroom' side or the dining / snug side

[quote]My tuppenceworth on the layout - I'd personally be losing the chimney and be opening up the kitchen to create one great big kitchen/dining/casual lounge space...

If you ever sell the place this will be the first thing the new buyer does. It's what the market loves and once you have a space like that you'll love it too. It's not the 1930's anymore, people don't go off into a little room to cook, they chat, have a glass of wine and enjoy the process with others.
[/quote]

[quote]Could the dayroom become a big eat in kitchen (with utility still as planned).

The existing kitchen could be demolished to make the large, square living room for the wife
[/quote]

Fairly early on we discounted opening the kitchen to the 'dayroom' side. This was because

• we didn't want to have to go through the more formal lounge to get to the kitchen diner space
• the outside patio would be on the left side of the garden (best for light) so we wanted the kitchen / family area to be on that side
• because of the layout, the dayroom makes a good 'destination' room - we'll be able to close it off to make it 'not open' if we want also

Initially my plan was to open up the kitchen to the dining / snug side to make a larger, open plan space, however:

• having lived there, we like the fireplace where it is
• we had an open dining / kitchen / living space in our last house (was Victorian) and my wife felt it was too open. I didn't mind but I can see where she was coming from - you could hear the dishwasher and could see any mess left on the side when entertaining etc. having said that in our old place our separate lounge wasn't quite as big and was also north facing so often cold

So we felt a solution was to open up the one end of the kitchen (currently there's an arch to get in there) and use curved units to make it feel more open and still part of the space and sociable, but its not completely open, so you're never relaxing on the sofa and looking at your kitchen.

We've actually come to this conclusion having lived there (and done a little entertaining) and think it will work well. Having lived in the space whilst still not being fully committed to the layout has been really useful and has changed our ideas from when it was just a paper exercise.

[RoyalVilla]

KTF said:

For me I would change:

• Why is the 'downstairs' toilet next to the existing bathroom. Is it even needed? Guests will have to walk through the whole house to use it to the 'personal' bedroom area and its next door to the existing bathroom anyway?

The personal bedroom area will be after the downstairs toilet. We will move the door to separate it. We need a downstairs toilet - didn't want it to be the kids bathroom and thought this was the best place for it - agree about the walk though

KTF said:

• The second bedroom upstairs seems a funny shape and a bit of an 'afterthought' - maybe use that as the study and remove the study from downstairs?

It's a consequence of the best place for the stairs to go. We are thinking of putting a small ensuite in the odd shape - or it would become a large cupboard. We will also cheat some space from the eaves to make it bigger - should be a good size double

KTF said:

• All the bedrooms - barring the new master upstairs look small (mainly single bed size) for a house of that size - hard to tell without the dimensions though.

The largest downstairs bedroom is about 4.5 x 3.4m
Second largest is 2.7x3m
Smallest is a single and about 2.3x 3.4m
The big bedroom upsatirs including the ensuite is about 6.8 x 4.4m (though we can have the new purlin further out so this will prob be another metre wider

KTF said:

• I would add a door next to the proposed study to seal off the hallway area as well.

Yep, that's planned, though I notice it's not on the drawings

KTF said:

• Why is the kitchen an L shape? Whats going in the gap and preventing it from becoming a U shape?

Strangely, after spending time with kitchen designers, this is what works best. It allows you to open the fridge (furthest left tall unit) and gives more floor space making it feel more spacious. we have a slightly updated design I'll try to dig out

KTF said:

• The utility off the lounge is just odd.

This is what everyone says. My wife just wanted to make sure it had a door leading to the outside. Its a big space so provides good storage and keeps all the cleaning rubbish hidden away. One end could function as a boot room space (by the door) if needed and we can keep the dog in there when he's muddy.

The only downside is that its a bit of a trek to carry the washing.the builder reckons he can make it quite soundproof.

Being open minded - what are the real probs with having it there?

[RoyalVilla]

B17NNS said:

If that layout works for you then really that is all that matters, you're the client after all. However, without wishing to be disrespectful, personally I think it is bad design and a fabulous opportunity missed. I find it hard to believe a competent architect had a hand in it. That said, that's just my opinion and my thoughts on the layout aside I wish you every success with the project and look forward to seeing updates.

No worries, I really appreciate all the ideas and feedback. I'm not precious and it keeps me thinking!
If I'm honest, I'd probably slightly favour your option. the good thing is it would be a fairly inexpensive change for a new owner or even us. I wouldn't say it's completely off the table either as we are still not committed to that bit of the build.

Having had a large, open plan dining / kitchen / living space for the past 10 years my wife is reticent to go back and would prefer something a little more 'zoned' - though this maybe bucks convention a little - though the space will still feel very open - esp with the big bifolds in both rooms at the back

[RoyalVilla]

Busa mav said:

Ps OP. Tell yer architect friend to get his staircase arrows correct , it's quite confusing when they are incorrectly shown.

I know In fairness we haven't paid him (other than a few bottles of wine) and bunged one of his juniors some money to do the survey / drawings

Busa mav said:

Have you seen an accurate section through the proposed first floor bedrooms ?

This is reasonably to scale (my own drawing in PowerPoint!), though my builder is checking with the engineer and will give me accurate measurements (along with how much wider we can push the right wall out)
Everyone who's been in the loft says it's a really good space for conversion. We'll also use velux windows to add more space and light. In the master there will also be a really big window at one end.

[RoyalVilla]

@KTF - all really good challenges and really helps me think through the decisions we've made

KTF said:

For a project this size, I think this was a mistake as he could have come up with many different ideas (assuming he is good). The person who did the drawings doesn't seem that hot tbh - arrows going the wrong way, missing doors, velux windows not shown upstairs, etc.

He's good and was very patient and did come up with a lot of options including the obvious open plan lounge / kitchen / diner space. In fairness we've tweaked around where we want doors and haven't decidied on position of veluxes yet.

KTF said:

I can see the need for a downstairs toilet but having it next to the existing one seems a strange place to put it as its normally in a different part of the house to the existing bathroom.

Pragmatically it's next to drain / services etc. It doesn't really matter that its next to another bathroom as that performs a different function, i.e. give the kids a self contained downstairs area (bedrooms and a bathroom) that we can shut off from the rest of the house. I can't think of anywhere else I'd prefer it as it would be too close to the communal living space. Don't want the toilet too close!

KTF said:

So you ave 2x ensuites upstairs instead now?

Ideally both bedrooms upstairs would have an ensuite as there is no communal bathroom upstairs(only thing poss preventing this immediately is budget).

The stairs need to be centrally placed and land towards the middle of the house due to the sloping roof. I wouldn't like the master any smaller and the other bedroom is going to be a good sized double.

KTF said:

I think the problem in general with the layout is that you have built everything round the kitchen

We originally weren't and this isn't what the architect thought also, but after going though all our requirements from a functional perspective, this is what we arrived at. Some of the requirements were like:

• Must be able to be able to watch tv in 2 different lounge areas and not be disturbed by kitchen
• Must have a large, square lounge
• Kitchen should be fairly open to dining space
• Kitchen, indoor dining space and outdoor dining space must flow
• Must be a utility with access to outside - ideally equidistant from front and back garden

Like I say, we used to have a large, open kitchen / lounge / diner (as well as another lounge) and wanted to solve all the problems this gave us whilst still keeping the space feeling open and light.

When pushed we couldn't think of any reason the utility had to be attached or near the kitchen or any reason the kitchen needed to have a separate access to outside. For me, the main downside of the utility is it should be a bit nearer to the centre of the house so you don't have to carry the washing so far

Here's a pic of a layout with a central kitchen (room within room) - obviously this is not exactly the same, is more open than ours along with being bigger and nicer, but it gives an idea of how the space is zoned and can work