ᐅ Floor Plan Change Dilemma – Experiences

Hello everyone,

We are about to renovate a semi-detached house built in 1984. We are considering changing the layout on the ground floor. The following changes are planned:

• The wall between the living room and the entrance area will be removed, making the living room larger and integrating the staircase into the living room.
• The existing conservatory is quite old and will be converted into a terrace (the garden is very small, so this will make the garden appear larger).

Basically, from our perspective, there are two options:

Option 1: The kitchen remains unchanged; the advantage here is that the dining area is integrated into the kitchen.
Option 2: The kitchen moves into the small room; the disadvantage is that the dining table will then have to be placed in the living room.

Now for our big dilemma: at the back of the property, the previous owner built a storage room. Both exterior walls lie on the neighboring property and are constructed from Ytong blocks, with a building height of 2m (6.5 ft). There are two considerations here:

• Remove the storage room (the roof is leaking anyway) and convert the area into a small garden or courtyard, which would bring more light into the office and kitchen.
• Keep the storage room, enlarge the light well (the existing entrance area will be connected to the light well), add a double glass door to the light well, thereby increasing the light in the kitchen.

Thank you very much for your opinions!