It's an idea I've been contemplating myself so I did a search on "island with dining table", this was probably closest to what you described. I plan to convert our (never used) dining room at the front of Calif. bungalow into a bedroom and enlarge current kitchen into adjacent informal dining area so this option would work well (if I can get H to agree that is!)

thinking about hot Darwin weather removing the hallway might improve ventilation to the bedrooms so building on Siriuskey's original open plan idea my kitchen suggestions includes swinging the entry door against the new fridge pantry location then the fridge and dishwasher (with storage for everyday linen, crockery and cutlery in island drawers) keeping the corner work areas free of traffic, stacked MW and oven then pantry although, depending on precise kitchen window location, the fridge and a narrower pantry could alternate and, with a 900 x 2400 island with space for 600 deep base cabinets with knee/stool space and generous walkway behind stools with wall of storage against the bedroom wall but the bedroom door needs to be moved to allow for better circulation space which can be easily done when removing the hall wall the standard corner cabinet is usually 900 x 900 (with 300 doors) but if you specify 1050 x 1050 that allows for wider 450 doors and much easier access for storage of big appliances, also include extra shelves in most cabinets ie cabinet floor plus two shelves instead of the usual one shelf will make better use of space and, if you have lots of trays and cake coolers etc the cabinet above the microwave is a good location for vertical dividers with saucepan drawer below the oven and leaving out a cabinet under the island opposite the sink allows for a convenient place for bins

Thank you everyone for your valuable feedback! Gary - great ideas, I agree with the stairs, its got that bottom landing that looks good but is it practical? The space in (4) is the master shower. And I love your easy switch with the fridge and pantry as the fridge has extra room to open out to - shouldn't cost much for this change. Will chat to the builder about swapping the pantry around and the costings for the change of stairs. Oklouise - the new upstairs arrangement you have created works so much better! Does the first floor change require a change to the stairs like Gary has suggested? Your upstairs main bathroom placement works better as it sits above the guest bathroom downstairs. I also like your idea about the guest bathroom. RE: Kitchen, I'm concerned with having both cook/sink stations facing away from the pool area. If I keep the sink in the island, would our existing 2.8 sink bench space surrounding be sufficient space to hang around? Kate - You have made invaluable points around the garage and the simple change in the guest vanity without the added cost. Min garage dimensions in NSW is 5.4x5.4. With our 17.4m frontage, this garage dimension is the max we can go to. I'm torn between the house with a more open foyer space, or reducing it to a smaller one to allow for bigger garage... we haven't lived in a house with a double garage, so for us this seems huge. We will also have an outdoor shed to store our lawnmower etc. Thank you again, really appreciate the responses so far!

You could add the 30 cm to the drawers making them just over a metre each. They would likely house all your crockery, cups and cutlery- much more accessible than cupboards and easy to unstack straight from the dishwasher. This would ‘push’ your bin to the end of the run - handy for people outside the kitchen to use and easier to empty bins as well. This set up would also move the sink closer to the end leaving a larger uninterrupted bench space. It may also be worth considering whether you need a double sink. We have had a single in our island for more than 15 years - including recent replacement during a kitchen reno) with up to 4 young adults living with us at the same time (6 of us in total) and never found it an issue. This would free up more bench space and give you an extra cupboard as cupboards with the sink in them don’t have a lot of room.