Help with Art Deco 1940's Adelaide home renovation floorplan
Hi all
Looking to get some ideas for what you might consider changing to the floorplan of our current 1940 Art Deco double-brick house in Adelaide's inner west. House is approx 130m2, on a 689 m2 block, with east-facing street frontage.
We purchased right at the start of COVID, knowing we would likely do renovations on kitchen and bathroom, but then building costs went through the roof putting those out of reach, and we've been living with it as is for the last several years. We are now looking to either commit to cost of renovation, max budget approx $300k, or buy something that better suits our needs (likely also out of our budget).
We are family of 4, including 2 young children who currently share a room in Bedroom 2. I now also work from home full-time, and have a home office set up next to ensuite in Bedroom 3. We regularly have family visit from interstate and like to have a dedicated bed for them, hence keeping kids in same room.
Current main issues with the floorplan (circled in red in img 2):
- Main family bathroom extremely small, given age of kids, we often have 2-3 people in there at a time helping, and it is so tight. My eldest is already too big for the tiny bath, and there is hardly any storage.
- Although the combined kitchen and meals area is a decent size, the design and floorplan makes it difficult to utilise, as it is the main thoroughfare through to the toilet, backyard, rumpus room, and Bedroom 3. The doorway between the kitchen and laundry is the main bottleneck, and also where the previous owners placed the main kitchen pantry and drawers(!). The entrance to Bedroom 3 is also directly next to the stove, meaning I currently can't extend a kitchen bench across to the wall, and get my dream chef's cooktop and oven in current location. It is also dangerous, splashing oil / boiling water as people walking right past or standing next to it.
- Bedroom 3 was extended, and had an ensuite added around 25 years ago (img 3). It is still not really functional as a bedroom due to L shape, and the ensuite also really only functions as a 2nd toilet, as the shower doesn't have a tray/base and no shower curtain or screen, so the whole space gets wet. This extension placed a door to this bedroom from the deck, which we currently don't utilise, but could potentially help with floorplan issue if we used this instead and sealed off main internal entrance to the room.
- We use rumpus room as a kids play / storage area mostly, it currently isn't suitable to utilise as much of anything else as it isn't insulated, low ceiling and pretty shoddy construction. Previous owners used to have a 2nd kitchen in the rumpus room, but it was unapproved / dangerous and we removed the freestanding stove / oven, although there is still gas and water connected.
What I am hoping to achieve with renovation:
- Bathroom - increase footprint of main bathroom, to be able to fit either a full shower and bath, or larger shower over bath, and larger vanity. Alternative to this is to transform it into ensuite to master bedroom, and potentially turn laundry / toilet into a family bathroom with Euro laundry.
- Kitchen - remove bottleneck in kitchen / laundry doorway, fit a kitchen island in (only if it doesn't reduce flow), increase benchtop space and install my dream chef's cooktop and oven.
- Outdoor flow - improve access to deck / outdoor area - ideally a sliding door where the current kitchen sink is, but I am aware moving these utilities start to get very expensive.
- Rumpus room - utilise the rumpus room as potential 4th bedroom or home office.
Or do we just pull down existing back of house (kitchen / laundry / 3rd bedroom / rumpus) and build extension of new kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and home office that converts to bedroom for guests. Or do we convert existing dining room to a bedroom and create space for open plan kitchen/dining?
Open to any and all ideas. We will be booking in some meetings with building designer/draftsperson soon, and wanting to have a bit more of a cohesive plan for what we are after.
Thanks all :)
Comments (10)
2 months agosubject to all the extra information my suggestions include extending the original bathroom, renovating the rear bathroom and creatig a wiw /office with a MPR guest room... creating wide openings without removing whole walls can allow for a new kitchen, dining and lounge that could later convert back to an extra bedroom and media room if needed when kids are older and funds allow for a bigger kitchen and family room in place of the alfresco and old rumpus
Cassie Sanchez thanked oklouise- 2 months ago
subject to all the extra information my suggestions include extending the original bathroom, renovating the rear bathroom and creatig a wiw /office with a MPR guest room... creating wide openings without removing whole walls can allow for a new kitchen, dining and lounge that could later convert back to an extra bedroom and media room if needed when kids are older and funds allow for a bigger kitchen and family room in place of the alfresco and old rumpus
Cassie Sanchez thanked oklouise - 2 months ago
Thanks so much everyone for the contributions, questions and ideas, it has definitely given me a lot to think about. I've gathered some of the extra info as requested by a few posters:
- Google Earth image of block / house below
- Ceiling heights as follows:
- 3m for all the original rooms in the front of the house (Lounge, Dining, Bedrooms 1&2, Bathroom, Meals).
- 2.5m for the kitchen (not meals) and Bedroom 3
- Laundry and toilet has what I guess to be the original lean-to sloping ceiling, sloping from 3m - 2.5m.
- 2.4m rumpus - perhaps I was wrong about not tall enough ceiling, but ceiling is in pretty bad shape (worse than image, definitely need to redo ceiling anyway, regardless of other renovations).
- Have we had an expert review the structural integrity? Not since we had building inspection done when purchasing 5 years ago. At that stage, there were no major concerns, although we have cracks, nothing enough to warrant immediate fixes at that stage. Is this the next best step, before proceeding to a draftsperson for planning any renovations?
- Approvals of the extensions - I believe the one completed 25 years ago was all approved. I don't know about the approval status of the rumpus room, I believe it was built in the 70's, along with the carport (the 70s-style arch being a dead giveaway) and we have always assumed it was not considered part of the actual house, but rather classified as more as a garage. It was definitely not approved to use as a kitchen, no exhaust, etc.
- Image of rumpus below.
- Re the comment about just buy a new place, that is definitely in the mix of our decisions, but I thought it was best to get an idea of what is possible with renovations for our budget before ultimately making a call. Selling and buying would certainly be the easier option, but would probably need a lot more than 300k to get what we are wanting, and we genuinely do love this home (minus a frustrating floorplan).
2 months agoHi Cassie, As the extension was enabled to the boundary that's a plus and a keeper, even though you think it's not wonderful it would make a lovely master, the ensuite would have a high window in the carport wall or better an opening sky light, the large sliding door can then be used at the other end looking out into the rear garden, because this faces West you would need exterior blind, pergola or just suitable planting. The new kitchen family would have splash back windows to allow the nothern light into that space. The guest room can have Night and day lounges etc to accommodate family. Your office would be behind large sliders and would also look out to the alfresco, this is a dedicated space and you won't have to move when family arrives
Cassie Sanchez thanked siriuskey
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