Thanks Kath. From the splash back to the left of the wind running right to the end of the bench is 3.2m (and another 2.1m is the width of the dining room area). From the end of that bench to this end of the island bench is 3.2m. (The island itself is 0.87m x 1.65m). Cheers, Col

In addition to the above comments, here are a couple as well. Remove upstairs balcony, waste of money will rarely be used. I'd also have concerns of children climbing/falling off/etc. Remove sitting as its (almost) impossible to furnish and will just be a circulation area. I doubt it would be used even if designed perfectly, theres better places to be such as downstairs, over looking pool....etc.... Get 3/4 bedrooms upstairs instead of the sitting area/balcony. I'd also get another full size bathroom upstairs and reduce the downstairs to a powder room with a shower only. Make proposed down stairs bed 3 the lounge and shuffle the pantry kitchen area up into where the proposed lounge is now. That will allow the living/dining to also shuffle up saving floor area. Sitting and study is ok as is garage. Relocate laundry to perhaps be between pantry and powder room spaces. You'll need a proper Laundry close the household. oklouise's plan downstairs is quite good too. Have a look at 'evermore.co' they have a great website and some inspirational pictures. The current plan would be quite an expensive job and upstairs a bit ordinary as well. I'm not familiar with Toowoomba council regulations nor your budget/requirements. To have a cottage in Queensland is a great starting point. Thats the stuff dreams are made of!

I've been playing around with a pantry location. Originally, I was going to move the pantry into the laundry with some custom shelving and cut the laundry space in half. Now, Im thinking of cutting into the study area and building a wall there, and converting the new space into a long and narrow walk in pantry. Either that or build half a wall and put built in shelving in the study. Building the extra wall will reduce the need to cover in the door way that is currently in place and instead utilising it. Thoughts? p.s. this isnt too scale.

anything is possible with enough money but with such a modest budget you might achieve the new bathroom and kitchen OR the extension but it would be difficult to achieve both at the same time but you haven't answered the questions??? what is the distance from the house to the back fence, what are all the floors, walls and roof built out of (ie inside and outside walls, concrete slab on ground, or is it a timber floor with crawl space underneath the house?? and NB where is north? ...what is the shape of the roof (hip or gable tiled roof or??) ...do you have an aerial photo of the roof like Google earth??...extending over the retaining wall shouldn't be a problem with proper cosntruction and there isn't anywhere else to go without losing the best outdoor area that has easy access to inside...the extra lengths of pipe isn't the biggest cost of new plumbing and a ventilating skylight will make a great light source for an internal bathroom...