In both renderings; the kitchen is too large compared to the LR & DR and you have no wall space in the LR for the TV etc.. I see no reason for any windows on the driveway side. I do however, see the need for a service door from the driveway into the house (groceries). It would be helpful to have measurements...especially for other contributors who have the ability to modify your drawings.

Thanks for the feedback

The drawings are not really to scale, they are just quick sketches I did. To give you an idea of size, the current kitchen and dining rooms are each 12 x 15 ft and the current living room is approximately 16 x 12 ft.

It is true that no matter how I arrange it, the living and dining areas will not be huge. I will have probably about 350 - 400 sqft of space combined between the LR and DR. That’s one main reason why I want the space open to the backyard with big glass doors, for more light and the connectedness to the outdoors. Also this house is in a warm climate so I anticipate spending a lot of time outdoors, and the backyard can serve almost as an additional room for hanging out.

The windows on the driveway side of the house already exist, I would not be creating any new windows there.

We don’t watch or own a TV, so that is not a consideration for our LR. It would be nice to have a full wall of bookshelves somewhere though.

Here are some photos also.

1. view into the entry when you first walk into the house. To the right is the “dining room”, to the left is the hallway going to the bedrooms.

2. Here’s the view from down the hallway (standing by bedroom #3) looking back out towards the entry

3. This is the room that is marked as “dining room” on the current floor plan (to the right when you first walk into the house). It’s a bit confusing, but the current owner of the house is using the dining room as the living room and vice versa

4. View from this room back into the entry hall. I’m not crazy about the columns, maybe we could change this to a simple arched doorway? On the right you can also see the current doorway from this room to the kitchen.

5. This is the room that is marked on the current floor plan as “living room”. In both proposals this would be turned into a bedroom.

6. The current kitchen. The existing door to the backyard is just to the left of where the photo cuts off. The wall where the stove currently is would be cut for a large glass door to the backyard.

I do not like either one. You need the kitchen close to the driveway. It is poor planning to have to carry groceries through a room to put them away. And if I were spending money, I would figure out how to get the bathrooms en suite to all the bedrooms. One question, can you enclose the front patio?

@bellburgmaggie thanks, any specific suggestions for how to accomplish what you are suggesting?

Yes, we could potentially close in the front porch / balcony. How would you use that space?

An initial idea. Expand the kitchen out, tie in the garage and create a laundry room. A connected garage is more desirable than your other ideas and I did not see a laundry on this plan. If you can put the laundry back by the bedrooms. Then you can use the space as pantry storage. I think you said this house is in California, so you can put in a retractable Nano Wall.

I realize this does not address the backyard access issue, but I live on 3 acres and my access to the back yard is from the breakfast room (next to kitchen) and my conservatory which is off the breakfast room. Is there a pool involved that is an issue with coming in? Moving plumbing and electrical for a kitchen along with sewer will be extremely expensive and it also makes sense to keep the kitchen there since is next to driveway and garage.

With a vintage beauty like this, I think it would be best to hire an architect that specializes in restoring and updating period homes.

It looks like some unfortunate adjustments have already been made through the years and a thoughtful architect can restore your home to its proper glory while accommodating your most important wishes for how you will live in the house.

A real jewel you have there!

Manon, I agree but not everyone goes the architect route. I doubt the columns and arches in the home now are original.

@bellburgmaggie thanks! Unfortunately our yard is quite small (the dotted line around the house represents the property lines). It’s a ~ 5100 sqft lot, and we only have approximately 17 ft between the back of the house and the wall separating our property from the neighbors, so I’m reluctant to make it any smaller. This is an urban house and we really need to maximize every inch of outdoor space we have. I wish we had 3 acres!

Maybe we could do a covered patio area between the back of the house and the garage though.

For laundry, I was planning to do a stacked washer and dryer in the kitchen.

@Manon, thank you! And we are looking for an architect to work with. Just wanted to crowdsource some ideas as well.

Most of the time it is better to keep the spaces for what was originally intended. I usually find this especially in houses from the 20s and 30s as they are well thought out.

In your case it is all about slightly opening up your living area, as you want, and concentrate on the finishes. Here are some inspiration pics.

Leave the entrance nook, but widen the arched openings into the living area and the dining area, keeping them the same size.

On the large blank wall on the far left of the living area, install bookcases, ceiling to floor - wall to wall with a library ladder.

In the plan two sets of french door are indicated, but after looking at the space, take a look at the one set of french doors with windows on either side with the frame painted black. You indicated you are in a warm climate, so you may want to consider the folding patio doors that completely open also.

For the dining area consider an oval dining table with a banquette under the offset front window. When entertaining more people, you can turn the table lengthwise for more seating. The extension of the kitchen counter also serves nicely as a buffet server as well as additional kitchen workspace.

I agree with the post above that you would want to have easy access to the garage or parking area to the kitchen. If you are not using the garage access then you may want to consider making the center window on the kitchen cabinet wall an actual door.

There are so many options for kitchens, but consider keeping the overhead cabinets to a minimum and treating the entire back wall with some sort of treatment (flagstone, wood, brick) That finish will need some research.

The original living room turned into a bedroom is a perfect idea. Switch the door to the room across from the hall bathroom to keep the bedrooms private.

You have a beautiful home and the layout is really nice as is. Hope this helped.

Floor Plan

^ ^ Full wall of bookcases wall to wall ceiling to floor with rolling library ladder

^ ^ Simple seating with large lounge chairs with large area rug to anchor seating area

^ ^ Back french doors to backyard. Black painted frame.

^ ^ Banquette / bench at oval dining table.

^ ^ Simple white kitchen with brick wall detail

^ ^ Simple white kitchen with focus on stove and stove hood

^ ^ Simple kitchen with white overhead cabinets and wood lower cabinets and unique island

^ ^ Simple kitchen with dark lower cabinets and soapstone counter tops.

Buy a different house. Don’t ruin this one with 300K worth of remuddling that ruins its originality. Those original details add tons of value. People want to buy these houses precisely because they are NOT open concept echoing caverns.

You don’t really like the house. So don’t buy it. It’s just like that boyfriend that you want to change. He won’t. You’ll be frustrated. And youll be wasting money and effort to end up much worse than where you began.

I totally agree with Denise and Sophie. If you aren't willing to love the house as it is, why buy it? Look for something more modern if that's what you want. Or find one that someone has already hacked. There are plenty of those around.

I've been looking at older cottages/bungalows lately, and believe me, two well-planned small rooms disemboweled ≠ one cool contemporary open plan. It's almost always a failure that just trashes the house to no good purpose. Small is still small even when it's 2 x small.

I think option A is a brilliant use of space with the least amount of disruption of the house.

However, why not leave the kitchen where it is? Just switch the bedroom with the living room. Like you said, you want the living room to open to the back yard.

Those columns! Knew I had seen something similar before:

[SPANISH MISSION APT[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/spanish-mission-apartment-eclectic-living-room-sydney-phvw-vp~12608300)

Prefer B over A.

Have you checked which are load bearing walls? Recommend you involve a pro with ensuring your roof is supported. You can do that and still open up the kitchen/dining and/or even the kitchen entry provided you incorporate support posts within your room divider cabinet and/or bar:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/84794405453960805/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/40813940346867994/

or add the right posts and/or right beams in the right places.

http://designingidea.com/open-concept-kitchens/

This is not something for a first time DIY builder/remodeler; be safe.

I hate when people open up old homes. That being said, we've added on to ours while keeping the separate spaces. We worked with an architect to make our work sympathetic to the layout and era of the house. Also, as others have said, original features help vintage house values.

One thing you should know about opening up old walls. You will find things. Hopefully they won't be too expensive. In our case, we DIDN'T find the lath - because not only did the termites eat the frame, they also ate the lath. If you haven't remodeled a vintage house before, make sure you work with a contractor that know's what to expect so you can budget accordingly.

I am betting that the wall between the kitchen and dining room is load bearing, since that wall continues the entire length of the house. Your architect will be able to tell you.

Living in the home will teach you a lot more than you can imagine. I hope that you do decide to live in it for at least a year before you make decisions about how to change it.

For load bearing you can add a lam beam or keep a wall that will serve as an art/console wall at the entrance.

The thing is that if you haven't closed yet, you're going to spend a lot more buying a small house and adding on than buying a bigger house in the first place.

Update: after consulting with multiple architects and structural engineers, here's our finalized new floorplan.

As many people suggested to me, we are only removing one wall, the wall between the kitchen and what was previously bedroom #1. The kitchen stays where it is. We'll be adding in 12 ft wide glass patio doors from the new family room to the backyard, as well as opening up a 3 ft wide arched doorway from the entry to the family room. This arched doorway will match the one on the left that leads from the entry into the hallway. That way as soon as you walk into the house, you will have a line of sight through the family room into the backyard. I think with these changes the public areas of the house should feel more open and light-filed, while still maintaining the original feel of the house.

The only other major change we are making is to split what was previously one gigantic master bathroom into 2, so now we have two ensuite bathrooms (https://www.houzz.com/discussions/gigantic-master-bathroom-or-2-ensuite-bedrooms-dsvw-vd~5234032). All of the rest of the remodeling changes are cosmetic, like changing out kitchen cabinets / countertops / floor tiles / bathroom vanities.

Thanks so much for everyone's feedback and thoughts! It was all very useful.

Good direction and best wishes for your remodel!