Inspo ideas

I don’t think it’s a bad idea but, and I hate to always be that person, changing your facade will require plans and permits. These costs generally make a small stand alone job like that cost prohibitive. You can mitigate the paperwork costs by making sure you get the plans and permits done at the same time to include absolutely all work you may be considering at any stage in the future. Utilising trades for a one off job will also be about 30% more expensive than as part of a bigger job.

There is something a little off with your plans the rear hall between linen cupboards looks narrow, particularly in comparison to the doorway to front bedroom. Accurate plans are a must

plans should still be available from previous posts

I went on to real estate to look at your home pictures to get a better idea of frontage etc. your proposal is good, somewhere to put all your stuff that is currently hanging at your doorway, but it doesn’t give any privacy between inside of home and people standing at the front door, there is still a view straight into home.. Interesting: floor plan of your home when it sold in 2009. This was before external door to laundry was taken away, and guess what, there was an actual entry. And the kitchen wasn’t such an enclosed space. And it gives a better dimension of bedroom 3 which on your current plan is 1.8 x 3.3?

@bigreader - thank you. That’s good advice. Our builder was not sure if we would need to seek council approval or not as it is only shifting the front door and windows forward and is under the existing roof. Obviously we need to investigate this further!

@dreamer - yes we’ve seen that plan! We were considering to add a small entry wall back in but as we’re also planning to open up the kitchen this will move into the dining space a little and I think it will just be too cramped. But you’re right, it doesn’t solve the issue of front door still open straight into dining. However we don’t have a lot of people coming to our front door, and we live on a cul de sac, so may be something we can live with.

@Kate. Thank you. Yes the plans are just from realestate.com so not great! The hallway is 950 and the bed 1 door wall is 1050.

Personally I would like a hall to separate bedrooms from living zone for privacy and noise. Your new entry change will add valuable floor space. You will need a awning or roof over the door step to shield entry from rain

In the original plan , in your suggested new plan , and in the photos , there is a brick wall a metre or so long . But in the first plan you posted , as your 'before' , that wall isn't shown as solid .

Why I mention that is because it means that existing 'outside' area ( that 1 metre by 1.5 approx ) is almost certainly at a different height , almost certainly concrete floor , but also it will also likely mean there are bricks around the doorway maybe 300 or 400mm wide , as well as a 'sloping' doorstep ( which may be concrete , may be timber , almost certainly is higher than both inside and outside floor levels so as to seal for wind etc ) , and then presumably the interior floor is timber .

So simply moving the door out to the edge will be a big job , and will possibly still look like a dogs breakfast , but it may need concrete and/or brick cutters or removalists , trying to match 50 yer old flooring , possibly different ceiling heights .

'If it was easy , someone would have already done it' is probably an apt saying here . I don't want to be too negative , but just the sourcing of materials and the paperwork could turn this easily into a $20-30k job , whereas a simple door shift would be 1/10th that .

@siriuskey - thank you so much for taking the time to sketch that out. Much appreciated! I definitely like your idea for the deck and privacy screen. We definitely want to deck across that sloped concrete area, regardless of what we do with the rest of the renos - so great to see your ideas :-) The rest of your design is great too, and we have tossed around ideas of a very similar kitchen design. However, the kitchen is only 3m wide, and even if we could steal a little bit of space from the hallway (which not sure how easy that would be) it still seems like it would be very tight to fit an island? Do you think? We also had a builder tell us (off-hand, not formally) that it might be around $50k just to extend and close in that corner of the deck next to the laundry as would involve roofing and new foundations etc. :-(

We've also considered removing wall to lounge as you suggest. Which we've been told would be possible. The step down is around 60cm though, so we've been umming and ahhing as to whether it will be dangerous for the kids. It also means we lose a wall against which we currently have a cabinet for extra storage. And we need all the storage we can get! However, the open plan feel would be nice so that design is still on the cards. Appreciate your thoughts and advice!

@User thank you. you are pretty much correct with all of your assumptions :-) I don't think we are expecting it to be a small job though, and we may be prepared to pay if we think the result will achieve what we intend. However, your comment about 'it may still look like a dogs breakfast' is exactly what we're worried about! lol. As what we definitely don't want is to pay that much and it not achieve what we're aiming for!

Is there a reason you can’t leave the existing building as is, and enlarge and build in the porch?

Something modern.

@bigreader that was actually what I originally wanted to do! I had thought to enclose the whole porch area, and move the front door to the side, to enter from a new front deck. However, we had received advice that it would be better to work under the existing roof. As we have quite low ceilings as it is (2.4) so it would be difficult to extend under the existing roof and we would likely end up needing to re-roof. However, it may be worth going back to explore this and compare costs to the bump out option - as enclosing the whole porch would give us a bit more extra space as well.

Anytime you can avoid touching the existing structure or touching it minimally will be multiple times cheaper. If the roof is in good condition then reroofing wouldn’t be necessary- the porch may have a contrasting roof material (could match the gutter). The roof height looks doable from the pics. You don’t need to tuck in under the existing eaves.

This shows the wall between the dining living as part either timber slats or balustrade, this will also allow space for a desk. The kitchen being 3m and having the large covered alfresco, you don't need stools at the island as you have a table right next to that and when the doors are open to the alfresco you have great access to the island. If you haven't already I would spend money to screen the alfresco which will make it a more usable space in the Sth Australian climate year round.

Variation moving door across to right and pitting storage along new hall wall.

Thanks so much everyone! I'm just not confident a usable island will fit in the space. Maybe something like this would be more workable in opening up to the alfresco? But the lack of bench space concerns me, hence how we ended up with the other concept with the servery window instead of doors.

Definitely, still considering all your advice and thoughts on the entry and opening up to the living room - it is all so helpful - but somehow still leaves me more confused than ever! haha.

The distance between sink and cooktop is too far and would be a hazzard with kids, the bifold doors work though, you could still have the return or Island in front of them.. If you add a passage way to the bedrooms that only leaves 3m wide for the dining opening up the wall between that and the living as I suggested would make the space feel bigger plus you would have a desk to work from and still keep an eye on the kids.

Kate T, if you look at the length of your sink and bench in your last plan sketch, then look at the island proposed in siriuskey plan….you won’t be losing any bench space and the island gives a better working area. And serving space for entertaining. In my opinion your kitchen plan is cumbersome with no safe distance between sink and hot plates, as this kitchen is a thoroughfare to laundry. The island, in my opinion, is a “calmer, efficient less disorganised” option. I do like a straight line.

And if where ever to close in the Alfresco the kitchen would work beautifully.

It is a tricky space. I’m my plan the island can be movable as I don’t have sink in it. I added the built in storage we need accurate dimensions though.

My Floorplans are to scale so you can see how things fit or not. You could add your actual dimensions to this as the floorplan supplied is wrong as agents plans often are. My walls are 100.

Hello Kate, The island will not fit in 3m across kitchen: one m each walk way and 600 deep back wall leaves a 400mm deep island: not good at all! Neither is 3m quite wide enough for the dining with a walk way through it .... is will realistically only by 2 m wide and one of those is the table! You need more space than that. I want to ask if north is to the front of the home because the picture shows the sun beating down on the facade? If this is the case the screened area across the front of the home will block all the day sun from the FREE heating you will get in winter. I do agree that you need to work out what you want to do with all the plan for the paperwork (council etc) first even if you build it in stages. That way you are not throwing good money after bad and changing things you have already improved. The one thing I really do not like in your plan is the laundry through the kitchen. Dead socks and soup are a very unhygienic mix to me. Better to move the laundry into the back bedroom space and the bedroom behind the kitchen. Then the washing is right near where it is created in the kids bathroom! Access to the garden from there is easy too. In the kitchen a bench could run straight along under the window to the alfresco and straight along the hall. No dead corners! Opening the lounge wall is fine but you do need storage some how! Maybe in the master suite in the old garage: that might work best. I could assist by drawing up this for you: with options to tick all your requirements and ensuring there is everything you need. I am a whizz with plans (they are my forte'!) and have written several blogs on lots of things including of all things: laundries: great rooms that need lots more space and attention that most currently receive! Have a read on my website and contact me through there: I would love to help you get this right! Cheers Margot

Hi Margot @kitchenandhomesketchdesign - thanks for these comments! I understand your point about the laundry off the kitchen, but actually this isn’t really something that bothers us. I do agree that not having it there would make the kitchen layout easier. We have even considered closing up the laundry door, and moving it to only have an exterior door. This wouldn’t bother us much, but we ruled it out due to negative affect on resale value (it is unlikely this will be our forever forever home).