What would you prefer?

[AnyDream]

Can you do some sort of flexible wall arrangement like a hutch thru to the den/dining, so that you can open it to preserve an open-plan feel for future owners? Something like wooden shutters that slide across, you could opt to keep them closed or open depending on what's going on.

[Arimeh]

I'll forward this thread to my DH - he's an architectural technician and always comes up with solutions

[The_Gudism_Master]

hello

Camme-Lot's other half here. I work as a architectural technician for an architect (obviously) so I have a fairly good idea about these sort of things.

After reading this, I personally would go with the extra bedroom idea. After all, if the intention is to sell the house, then you should do what will make it easier to sell. Not always is making more money the reasoning to do certain things in a reno, you have to appeal to what people want, and help the property sell quickly and, more importantly, easily.

Yes, the majority of people love 'open plan living', but I believe 8 out of 10 people would rather 3 bedrooms than 2, rather than having an extra living space. Our old house had only 1 living space, and yes it was hard but we got by, and it was only one small living space (whole 3 bed house was only 100sq/m (or 11 squares)).

From looking at your plan, I can see your hesitation in the kitchen feeling a little closed in. The house we owned prior to moving to Tassie, was basically a galley kitchen open at one end, and it was a pokey feeling space. We ended up cutting a big hole in one wall and making a servery with a nice piece of stained timber. It worked amazing to improve not only the space of the kitchen, but also the living space as well, and it was only a small living room too.

Am I right to assume that the new wall your DH wants to put in is the one between the kitchen and the dining?

If I were you, what I would do would be creating the extra room by closing in the dining room entirely. Forget the french doors or sliding doors or any other alternatives....costly and it makes the new 'bedroom' not really a bedroom.
If you have a heap of these types of doors, the room wont be soundproof and have no privacy and it just wont work. Make the new bedroom as small as is usable (smallest should be 2.7m x 2.7m [with a built in robe]...2.7m x 3.3m [without built ins] anything less is too tight). then use the extra space for the kitchen so it may become a littlle wider and improve the crampiness factor.

Then, reconfigure the kitchen so that you can cut a hole in the wall and act as a servery into you lounge room. Structurally this is an ok thing to do, the builder would put some sort of lintel (beam) above the new hole to support anything above.

Obviously this would most probably require a new kitchen fitout, but these dont need to be pricey, do your research and dont put in top end appliances and finishes (if you are selling what does it matter?).

Thats my 2 cents, though without having a better picture of the layout, where power points are, the tv sits, etc etc, this all might be a whole pile of poppy**** and be absolutely pointless help

Hope this helpls.

Limeslice: I too hate 'open plan living', but only what most builders call 'open plan living'. Yes, all they do is make 1 big space and call in the lounge, dining, kitchen etc. And it doesnt work. Nothing to differenciate the border between the rooms. Yeah you can have a big open room, but it is how you make the spaces work that makes the differences, and how they connect. Now thats the challenge

[Ahurani]

Thanks so much for your reply.

I think the problem with not having the french doors is that at the side there is a big window where alot of the light comes from.. also there is double doors that will fall into the "3rd bedroom" area. so if we made it a room the kitchen wouldnt have much natural light. There is a skylight there but I dont know whether that would be enough. :/

Oh and we'll be fitting a new kitchen

[LimeSlice]

So glad I am not the only one TGM! lol
And yes you are right and more often than not, they screw it up to make stamp out houses.

[The_Gudism_Master]

yeah the last thing you would want is a dark space.
Having no natural light is a bugger, but a fairly cheap off-the-shelf product like Solatube would provide alot of natural light (they are basically a skylight but reflect the light, making them very effective.

and yes limeslice......I am NOT a fan of the typical project builder.
some are good....most....bad....very bad.