Adding some light in

Our lovely home has an incredibly odd shaped garden. We’re on a triangular shaped plot which slops downhill. You walk in straight off the ground and come out the lounger on to deck which is a floor above the ground to the left. Move further to the right and we’re a storey and half above the ground. The boys and dog adore it. It makes it a great garden to run around in but!

The but is that we want to extend and add to our house and it’s a little tricky when an extension to the kitchen also requires a room below. We a little wish list of things we’d like in our home. More light – we have a corridor with no natural light, an orangery style kitchen, new French doors – currently they are very retro! And I would like some new windows. We knew buying an older house which has had a variety of dodgy DIY would be a project and we also knew it would take us 5-10 years to make it the dream house but where to start!

The corridor is a pain. I love it from that it links one end of the house to another (it’s a bungalow!) but the problem is its awfully dark and tends to suck all the light out of our hall way. We’ve looked at a variety of sun tunnels, or Velux’s but oh my gosh have you see these roof lanterns? Just imagine a circular glass ceiling above the entrance hall? I think it would offer a huge amount of light to the hallway and corridor? Plus, it would add height and I think a lot of character which is needed in a bungalow.

Also, to add character to the house we would love to change the internal doors – again to add light. One of the DIY projects was to create doorways around the free wood doors they had been given. This means that when you turn the door knob to certain rooms your knuckles get the skin taken off! I think this might be one of my more urgent needs to change as the bruises and grazes look a little odd! So, beautiful hardwood doors with glass in the reception rooms and nice doors which work properly in the others!

And from internal doors to external…Remember those good old 1980 slide doors? Yup we’ve got those. They are great nothing wrong – apart from aesthetic but we live outside a lot especially in the summer and I just love the idea of bi-fold doors which sweep back and would allow the whole side of the lounge to open into the garden. Plus I saw the most beautiful windows on pinterest! Arent they fabulous. Just imagine being able to sweep these back and have the roses hanging down around the kitchen window? Perfect no?!

And of course, the highlight…the extension. It would connect the lounge and galley kitchen together and I have had huge envy over a friend’s gorgeous orangery. It would be incredibly to have one which connects the two and is multipurpose. A laundry room underneath and then the orangery above with windows to view our gorgeous Sussex countryside. All of these would be amazing and would add so much to our home but they rate between the somewhat essential to the dream list! Roll on those lottery results. So share with me, what would be on your dream list to improve your home?