Find Your Home's Hidden Potential

Potential | PROPERTY

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Find Your Property’s Hidden Potential... Between the recession, the banking crisis and the latest Budget, most of us are feeling the pinch right now, particularly when it comes to our homes. Selling and moving are not viable options for many so the focus has switched from ‘moving on up’ to ‘make do and mend’. Over the coming issues, I’ll be looking at your homes and the problems you’re facing – uncovering the hidden potential and showing you how to get the most out of your house as cost-effectively as possible.

Who Lives Here Hans and Clodagh Heagney Property: 4-bed semi with garage and large garden Where: Skerries, Co. Dublin Problem: Current room layout has left many rooms dark and unusable. Budget: €25k

Hans and Clodagh bought their home in Skerries four years ago, after several years on the move. They were attracted to the location as it was close to the sea and only 35 minutes by train to Dublin where Hans works; an ideal spot to raise their young family.




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PROPERTY | Potential

Property Pros

Garage - used as store

• • • •

Utility - too dark to paint!

Living Room Long & narrow

WC Playroom - dark and used as corridor to Kitchen

ORIGINAL LAYOUT

1970’s 4 bed semi-detached house • Garage attached Large living area (originally two rooms but now knocked together) Kitchen with separate dining room • Playroom • Good sized garden Rear extension providing two additional rooms – the kitchen and dining room - overlooking the garden and eliminating the need for them to take on the time, effort and expense of building an extension themselves – perfect!

Property Cons • Although they love their home and the amount of space they have, time has shown them that it doesn’t quite meet their current lifestyle requirements. • The extension that seemed such a bonus was in fact not well built – there is no insulation in the walls, making the rooms very cold and almost unusable in winter. It is also built across the full width of the house, meaning the rooms originally at the rear aren’t as accessible and no longer have any natural light. • The living room is long narrow and dark - it acts as a through-route to the extension, making it difficult to place furniture or to sit comfortably without being disturbed. • No Work Space - Clodagh is an artist (www.artbyclo.com) and the only place where she can work within the house is the make-shift utility area and cloakroom that evolved over time at the rear of the garage – a cramped space with limited natural light. • There is no room for guests, particularly Hans’ parents, who visit regularly from the Netherlands. • Upstairs, the compact bathroom combined with three small children makes bath times chaotic and there is little storage space.

Very dark here Kitchen - No connection to Garden Dining Room Cold - no insulation Garden

OUR INITIAL CONSULTATION Hans and Clodagh spent a long time trying to figure out how to make their home work for them – should they knock down the extension and start again, extend to the front of the house, convert the garage or extend over the garage? My initial assessment was the property itself had a lot going for it – something they recognised themselves when they bought it. There was lots of space, a good sized garden and an attached garage – all of which

reduced the need to add more space. Hans and Clodagh’s willingness to embrace new ideas, together with a fresh approach opened up a whole range of solutions – some of which weren’t obvious because they’re living in the space every day. As with most projects, their biggest issue was budget. When we originally spoke, they had hoped to spend €50k, but one month and an Emergency Budget later they decided €25k–€30k was a more

realistic and affordable figure. But this meant some sacrifices would have to be made. We very quickly ruled out the option of removing the extension to the rear of the property and adding any new building – in fact we eliminated anything that required extensive changes to either the structure or the services – water pipes, drainage etc – they simply couldn’t afford it.

“We have a large extension to the back of our house and inner rooms with Summer Sun

little or no natural light

Summer Sun

because the extension absorbs it all.” Winter Sun

House as originally built

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Decorate & Improve Your Home

Winter Sun

House after extension

Potential | PROPERTY

MY ASSESSMENT From my initial consultation, it was now clear Hans and Clodagh already had all the physical space they required but needed some guidance on how to structure it to best suit their family’s current lifestyle. Their biggest obstacle was the lack of natural light. Although the extension added two rooms to the back of the house, this was to the detriment of the rooms behind, which became dark and under-used. The living room and play room became effectively land-locked in the middle of the house with little natural light coming through. This is a common mistake for home owners when extending – adding space, without considering natural light and the impact elsewhere in the property. This can often devalue a property by restricting usable space. Home buyers should also watch out for this when viewing a property – as Hans & Clodagh found out, you could end up paying twice for the extra space. The other thing that struck me about the property was the fact the family could only access their lovely garden from the dining room in the extension, which itself was rarely used. One of the most sought after features in the family housing market is a multi-functional living/kitchen, overlooking and opening onto the garden. Hans and Clodagh recognised this after our initial consultation and moved their sofa into the former dining room, to create a brighter, albeit smaller living room area, overlooking the garden.

Storage space for Clodaghs tools TV/Guest room New family Bathroom Front Entrance New Courtyard giving natural light

More usable Living Room

New stud ‘dividing’ wall

New Playroom with natural light

Family Kitchen opening to Garden New wall

NEW LAYOUT

“Angela presented us with an idea that we never would have thought of ourselves... which will cost us less than the original extension we were considering.”

MY RECOMMENDATIONS By removing a small part of the existing extension, Hans and Clodagh can bring natural light into the unused part of the living room and open up possibilities for how this space could be used. • Remove part of the rear external wall and roof to the existing extension; build a new wall approx. 5ft from the side boundary and add insulation to exterior of extension to make rooms usable without losing any further floor space. • Knock down the dividing wall between the kitchen and dining room to create one large open family kitchen; re-organise and re-use existing kitchen units; convert existing window to French doors and add windows to new side wall.

• Insulate the existing garage, utility and WC area and reconfigure the space to provide a new guest room, a large family sized bathroom and utility area. Roof lights can be added to the existing flat roof to provide natural light to these rooms. • Erect a new stud partition wall to divide the long living area back into two rooms – a living room to the front and a new play room to the rear that, with a new glazed doorway, now opens onto the garden. Alternatively, keep this open whilst the children are young with the option to erect a partition at a later date to create a separate study / den.

• Close up the existing doorway to the living room and create a new doorway further down the hallway – this will allow Hans & Clodagh to organise their furniture and create a comfortable, usable room again. • Change small window in former play room to a full height window looking out onto a small courtyard creating more light at the centre of the house; a customised storage wall of cupboards could also be incorporated to create a functional work space for Clodagh by housing all her painting equipment.

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Potential | PROPERTY Storage space for Clodaghs tools

TV/Guest room

New family Bathroom

Front Entrance

Courtyard giving natural light

Family Living/Dining opening to garden

New Playroom

Central Kitchen with natural light

New wall

ALTERNATIVE OPTION

The above diagram shows an alternative open plan layout for home owners with a similar style property. My revised floor plan for Hans and Clodagh’s house (page 35) shows how modest changes create a completely new layout, one that will meet all their needs now and into the future. Everything proposed is covered by Exempted Development - the alterations to the existing structure are minimal, as we’re mainly using

existing window and door openings, with the exception of the one new-build element – the new side wall to the extension. The kitchen and bathroom are located in areas where there are existing services, so alterations to these would also be minimised.

Planning Permission vs Exempted Development Initially, they liked the idea of extending to the front of the property - creating a new porch and adding space onto the garage to make it more usable. However, I was concerned this would take up too much of their budget, without addressing their real concerns. Also, making changes to the front of a house requires Planning Permission – a process that takes a minimum of 12 weeks, with additional costs involved. Under Exempt Development guidelines, however, it is possible to make limited

changes to your home, subject to restrictions, without applying for Planning Permission - and this was the option that I felt was more suitable. At present, you can add up to 40sqm in ROI and up to 70m3 or 15% of the original house volume (whichever is the greater) in NI. Contact your local planning department for more information or take a look at my series of articles explaining the ROI planning process at www.livingroomblog.ie or in NI visit www.planningni.gov.uk

DIY: Assess Your Home • Make Your Home Work For You Look at your home from the viewpoint of how the shape and location of rooms meet your individual needs – it’s not necessary to use them for the function they were originally built for, eg. main living areas can be located to the rear of a property, where they might enjoy a sunny south facing orientation. • Think Laterally In this instance, taking away part of a badly conceived extension will give Hans and Clodagh back the full use of their home – more is NOT always better. • Play Around Reconfigure rooms or re-position furniture as Hans and Clodagh did with the old dining area. • Bigger Space or Smaller Furniture? When working to a tight budget every penny counts and, given that one square metre of additional floor space costs between €900 and €2500 to build (depending on region), it’s worth considering whether smaller pieces of furniture could give the illusion of more space. This can be a more cost-effective solution which also creates a brand new look for your home!

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