Thanks for the reply Claire I think that the fact that you plan to live there a long time warrants a substantial commitment. 1. I don't know if it possible (depend how much you cut into the slope and lower the level - may need to build a bit of a retaining wall) but the first think that I would look at is the possibility of making bedroom 4 into the main bathroom with a separate toilet. This could be on a concrete slab and on the same level as the rest the bedrooms reducing having to do the stair (at night) when members of the household are sick or injured and well located in the middle of the house. 2. I would turn bedroom 1 into an ordinary bedroom and add a new master bedroom with a walk in closet (you may like to have a look at the walk in closest I designed for one of my clients in my Houzz site "Tarneet north QB") and En-suite making use as much of the existing as possible - possibly make use of the area under or extend the carport area roof. 3. I would extend the laundry by using the existing bathroom area and improve store areas that may be lost by as new corridor leading to the new master bedroom. 4. If the kitchen needs too be renovated or rearranged then I would open the area between the lounge, dining, family and kitchen area - this will include the lounge area visually to the main living space.This might give rise to heating and cooling issues which might need to be considered, however for the immediate few years it could make a good study area for the children (retaining supervision from the kitchen) and later be used as a lounge. Please note that these comments are made without any real knowledge of the site such as north point, slope, possible reference to views; both within the site and external to the site, or the geographical position of your house, or the materials used in its construction. These issues may significantly alter the above comments, furthermore you would need to take at least two measurements (say one of the bedrooms overall length and width and ceiling heights) so that the drawing can be scaled into a cad program) to begin the design process - photos of the site would also be needed. I hope this is of some benefit, I would be happy to become further involved with the project, contact could be via email and Skype and PDF documents on an A3 format which is easily printed in any local printing service - Regards Michael.

Hi Do you need four bedrooms? If not, turn main bedroom into a kids room. Turn the lounge into main bedroom with en-suite, knock down the wall between the kitchen and the bedroom at the back of the house and then create one big open plan kitchen living dining across the back of the house. I envisage you would need to knock out the back wall of the house and add some square footage to get the space you would desire. You could also build a patio across the back with stacking sliding doors to create a beautiful indoor/outdoor living space that overlooks the pool. Good luck!!

Kate: - I like the idea of a door at both ends of the new central bedroom doorway - maybe some kind of thin sliding door or a foldable shutter door might be best? - house can’t be knocked down/rebuilt due to location in a heritage conservation area OkLouise: - thanks again for doing this - I’ve loved all of your updates, they are so well thought out and hope to incorporate them all into the build - will send you a token of appreciation when the build is finished! - we have already been thinking about whether to rotate the kitchen island 90 degrees as you have drawn - i think it might look weird? but i’m not sure - theres a lot for us to process with your new updates so we'll need to spend some time thinking about them! - i’m resistant to reducing the size of study 2 as that’s the most important room for me as i will spend a lot of time there and it is doubling as a work productivity office/man cave so really want that room to be fantastic! - i thought the laundry chute was above the laundry but will need to ask the architect Siriuskey - I also think there may be too many bathrooms in the house - due to the good location of the property i think it is hard (within reason) to overcapitalise on the property so believe it will grow well in value in the long run so would rather overdo it than underdo it - FWIW the other houses in the street/adjacent streets are kind of similar to our proposed plan so its not out of keeping with the area - am still wondering about combining the downstairs powder room/adjacent en suite into one big bathroom for a bath - variable number of family members staying but 4 to 11 over 3 generations at various times of the year - the plan for the mudroom is for it to be the entrance into the house that we use most so it can also act as a cloak room too so that’s why its not near the laundry - i don’t want a lift in the house as it seems unnecessary for our needs and fi we ever ended up in a situation where we needed a lift we would just sell and downsize Dreamer: - i think we (parents) might end up living downstairs when the kids get older/noisier - they are in primary school currently Pleased to Bijou design - point taken about number of bathrooms - i don’t really have a good answer Paul Di Stafano & Dr Retro - i can sense and empathise with your professional frustrations :) - thanks for the good luck wishes, I agree we’ll need it - fortunately I’m a lifelong/relentless optimist and things always seem to work out ok in the end (and if they don’t, I’ll take it as a positive learning experience) - thanks for the insights into dodgy busy practice business models mummagabz - thanks for comment about small robes - will look into making them larger

Okay Kate, to quote my client..."Go for it!!! Will be the best make over Yet! " So the view is out through the sliding door that you see from the doorway into the bedroom. I felt the entrance to the room didn't do the room justice, so we are creating the new wall there which will become the back of additional shoe closet and travel section. The custom mirror on the new wall on the landing creates a sense of arrival when you get to the top of the stairway, and pause before entering what will be a lovely retreat. We will move this door across a little so that the room isn't completely exposed before you enter from the top of the stairs I really wanted the bed to face the view but the patio sliding door only gives space for a 350mm deep bedside table- it's a little compromise, but worth it to have the bed next to the window and view. Then, opening up the wall to what will become the TV sitting room has the bed centred to that new room. Then the Walk in robe will be accessed by a new doorway and with the additional storage room we've gained from the landing, there'll be plenty of space for shoes, luggage and linen. The new doorway position for the walk in means the client doesn't have to walk all the way around the room to get to the walk in wardrobe which saves a lot of walking after coming up a couple of levels from the laundry. In the video, the wall and door to the luggage room is removed so you can see the storage :) This is what I love about site visits- the client just wanted me to replace the existing wardrobes, and when I saw the potential in the room and threw these ideas around they were at first a little blown away by the change I was suggesting, but now they've started demolition and super excited.