I miss mine! I had one over the bed when I lived in Wales best thing ever, nice and safe in bathrooms as well so depends where they are but I say keep them if you can re-cording is easy enough and places like fragments sell replacement "plastic bits" if you need to refresh.

answering your questions: change the sliding door to a bench height sliding window and use the salvaged sliding door in the western end of the dining room where the best entry position is for the deck, you MUST have a proper legal drains do not consider anything else...the drain pipe for the garage laundry can be on top of the concrete floor, behind the washing machine and through the sink cabinet and/or under built in storage and only needs a few cms not a whole floor and no stepped up area that you would see or trip over.. the laundry can't be in a separate room as there's not enough space for a separate laundry without compromising the size of the garage...a laundry cupboard 80 cm deep is enough for the washing machine (allowing for the drainage pipe) you could use the old line cupboard to store anything you want but it's not cost effective to change, the entry foyer is already as big as in many modern homes and there's generous flatpac biw space in the small study.... the family bathroom is 2380 x 2370 (ie the old study minus 1m for hall way and wall thickness and, arranged exactly as shown to allow for the wide window there should be space for a bath up to 1800 x 750, vanity about 1200 x 500 and shower space 1200 x 800 and leftover space makes the small linen cupboard with the door deliberately opening towards the shower to use the back of the door for hanging racks for towels and clothes....btw i understood your priority was maximizing separate sleeping rooms and minimising costs...my last plan has five separate sleeping rooms plus the lounge with sofa bed totalling sleeping places for at least 10 people plus the potential for bunks in the garage so you need to decide what is most important and where you're prepared to compromise

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

So, I' e been having a think about each of the three designs and what I like about each and thought I'd give some feedback to see if you have any more thoughts because you have been so helpful. I think my favourite one is the third one, with swapping the bath/shower over and being able to get storage into the hallway. But I am really unsure what to do with the laundry, I can't see any option to make it work without moving the external door. I also wondered if I made the sower 1200, then the toilet could be closer to the shower and then this makes even more space for the storage with could even be in the laundry like a coat/shoe area OR would it be large enough to put a wall hung toilet in there with small wall hand basin. I don't know if that might feel like the toilet is in a tiny box :) But I do love how we have managed to gain some extra space from the bathroom in that design. I also really like this second option particularly the laundry layout and extra toilet space (as it has a window in the toilet area). But I am still unsure about the shower next to bath and wonder if it would work to swap the shower with the toilet in that space? I'm just concerned about a shower next to the entry door though and if it makes it a bit tight with toilet next to bath for bathing kids etc. But I do love the space in the laundry and extra toilet room. And then this last one I think the bathroom layout could work really well but I am not overly keen on the powder room with door tot he hallway because there would be no window in that room, so I'm wondering how to shuffle that laundry/powder room space to fit with that bathroom layout. Thanks for you help.