ᐅ Layout planning for an extension to a 1970s bungalow – no additional floors desired

Hello everyone,

A few years ago, my partner and I bought a bungalow from the 1970s. At that time, the size was perfectly sufficient for us. Over time, you notice what works and what doesn’t in everyday life. For this reason, and considering our plans for children, I would like to extend the house. We also considered selling and building a new house, but due to the current interest rates, I am not willing to invest that much money and prefer to plan with the resources we have.

I’m attaching the current floor plans for the ground floor along with some of my thoughts. We are still at the very beginning, but sometimes you just need feedback from a different perspective. So, please don’t be surprised by missing windows or similar details. This is about the big picture, not fine tuning.

Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size 2,100 m2 (22,604 sq ft), of which 1,000 m2 (10,764 sq ft) is designated as building land
Slope None. The house is slightly elevated. The extension would either need to be at the same level, or there would be a step difference of 3-4 steps.
Site occupancy index 0.2
Floor area ratio -
Building window, building line, and boundary -
Border development -
Number of parking spaces -
Number of stories Ground floor and basement
Roof type Currently a flat roof, but a hip roof or gable roof would also be possible
Architectural style - Solid construction, red brick
Orientation
Maximum heights / restrictions
Other requirements Extensions are only allowed on the long sides of the house since the short sides already have a 3 m (10 ft) setback from the property boundary. Extension towards the garden is also limited (still sufficient in my opinion), as part of the garden is designated as meadow.

Homeowners’ Requirements
Architectural style, roof type, building type - Currently solid construction; extension in timber frame construction is also possible
Basement, floors Maintain basement, ground floor with extension
Number of residents, age 2 adults, 1 toddler, 2 more planned
Space requirements on the ground floor 3 children’s rooms, 1 office, 1 master bedroom, 1 guest room, 2 bathrooms, 1 toilet, 1 kitchen with dining area, 1 living room
Office: home office
Open or closed layout Mostly open layout, but living room and kitchen next to each other; must be separable
Conservative or modern design
Open kitchen, e.g., opening to the terrace is possible; kitchen island preferred
Number of dining seats - 10
Fireplace Already installed
Additional wishes / special features / daily routine: There is a 3 m (10 ft) distance to the neighbor on the left side, who built a 1.5-story house and placed a semi-enclosed carport directly on the boundary. Because of this, the view from the window will probably not be pleasant, looking onto a gray wooden slat fence. For this reason, extending the house on that side makes more sense to me, as these neighbors are closest to us. On the right side of the property there is more space between the houses, so sitting on a terrace feels less exposed. However, I’m really open to all ideas.

House Design
The extension plan is my own as I work in the field but am not a professional. I would also like to learn from others’ experiences. Perhaps someone has done something similar and can reassure me or give advice against certain ideas.
The current heating system is gas, which still works fine but would be replaced at the same time.

If you had to give up some details / additions,
- Which ones could you live without:
- Which ones are must-haves: a separable kitchen

Why does the design look like it does now?
Initially, it was only about extending the front, as the kitchen is currently too small and the dining area next to the kitchen is not ideal. We only wanted to remove the wall between kitchen and living room to enlarge the kitchen, but the remaining living area (6.84 x 4.09 m [22.5 x 13.4 ft]) is not sufficient due to window locations, the double door, and the stove next to it, and cannot easily be furnished without many compromises.

For this reason, we considered a larger extension for additional children’s rooms and another bathroom, and this led to the versions you see now.

What do you think? Extend fully or only the kitchen? Or build completely new?
The kitchen definitely needs to be done, as I can no longer "put up" with the current situation.

I also look forward to hearing about similar building projects that have already been completed and the insights gained from them.
Thanks for your advice.

For me, it is too difficult to tell what in the designs is the original structure and what is an extension.

wiltshire schrieb:

For me, it’s too difficult to tell what is existing structure and what is an extension in the plans.

Thank you for the feedback. I have highlighted the existing structure in color.

If more children are expected, I only see option 1 as viable because option 0.0 will no longer be sufficient. I would clearly prefer changing the property over options 2 and 3 since these seem to me to represent a fundamentally different house and also involve a significantly larger expansion.

wiltshire schrieb:

For me, it’s too difficult to tell what in the designs is existing structure and what is an extension.

Options 0, 0.0, and 1 add a new kitchen at the front, while options 2 and 3 keep the original street side and extend differently into the garden.

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At first glance, I prefer option 1 the most.
The kitchen stays close to the entrance and has a usable size. It’s hard to say how well the vestibule will work, but since the hallway space remains, it should function quite well. If you build a “service window” between the vestibule and the pantry, you can unload groceries into the shelves from behind. From the hallway side, you can hide this “window” with a mirror. Logistically, that would be a nice feature.
I wouldn’t design the route from the bedroom to the bathroom like that in a new build, but it should still be acceptable. I would already install the connections for an en-suite bathroom now, in case the adjoining room is no longer needed.
The walk-in closet in the bedroom follows the current trend but is far too small to be really practical. You won’t be able to dress in there because there’s no space to move. In practice, it’s more like a walk-in wardrobe that takes up a lot of built-in space without adding value.
I especially like the room with the large windows opposite the living room. It creates a sort of atrium, which can become a wonderful outdoor space in the design. Spontaneously, I think of the elegance of a Japanese garden. At the same time, the wide transparency maintains a sense of openness. I would maximize the windows facing the “atrium” on all sides — but you haven’t really looked into the windows yet, have you? Or does each room only have skylights?

Since I’m not really an expert in floor plans, I’ll hold back on that here. However, with the planned extensions, I would seriously consider whether moving to a different property might make more sense.

We have a relatively large house; before the extension, it had a basement: 120 m² (1,292 sq ft), ground floor: 120 m² (1,292 sq ft), first floor: 130 m² (1,399 sq ft), attic: 75 m² (807 sq ft) of living space, or in the case of the basement, usable space.

Then, on the ground floor, we added 45 m² (484 sq ft) along one side of the house and completely gutted the ground floor interior, moved walls, rearranged rooms, and changed the type of rooms (for example, what used to be the bathroom, toilet, and part of the hallway is now the office; the new bathroom was previously a children’s room, etc.). I don’t know exactly what you plan for the existing structure, but I couldn’t imagine living in the house during the extension/remodeling. We lived on the first floor during the renovation. That way we were separated from the construction site, which obviously isn’t possible for you.

I would also spend some time thinking about how to practically carry out and implement all of this afterwards.