thanks, I do appreciate that & yes I'll think about doing that ;) I think it's important to understand that "help" in with this stuff involves critique to a certain extent. I'm all for helping people, that's kind of inherently what my job is all about, but in order to do that in the best way possible we need to be appropriately positioned to do it, and give it the time/attention it deserves and we're not going to tell you the answer for nothing. You can't easily sort this stuff out via a forum. You're building a house that's going to cost you hundreds of thousands so I beg to differ, you can afford to get the design right, perhaps not a full blown architect service, but I'd argue it's false economy cutting corners at the design stage. Investment in design is money well spent. What Retro and I are saying, and clearly you are seeing it too here because you're still struggling with it all, is that design is a 3 dimensional process. Form follows function and the facade will reflect the plan solution. When you get to this point and the facade's not working, then the plan's not working either. You need to be working with someone with the capacity to understand the consequences of the floor plan spatially. But in your case what I'd argue is that if this is a serious priority for you the designer needs to understand this aspect back while they're planning the layout, NOT tweaking it afterwards. Building design is a skill that is incredibly underestimated in it's complexity. Ultimately until we understand exactly what your comprehensive brief requirements are we are limited in capacity to either critique or suggest a better option. Hence my suggestion that you best engage a competent designer who delivers the contemporary style that appeals and is integrated rather than applied to the floor plan. honestly that's the best advice I can give you here - I'll be in touch :) PD

I don't think it will look bad when landscaped, perhaps with a raised bed in front of the window. It would be nice to introduce another hard finish but I think maybe timber....one of the photos has a large timber step/ platform which might work here. Whar sort of fence are you planning?

Ashjean I have had a play with your house and suggest the following very basic layout at this time to see if you like it I would have the garage on the Battleaxe drive way along with laundry, bathroom and study, this could be built on the boundary with the eaves on this side reduced if needed, Windows would be high light up under any eaves. I suggest that the bedrooms are on the western boundary which will be quieter and cooler with plantings, the hard surfaces of the driveways will store any day time heat that will be released over night Keeping the floorplan simple with removing the extra passage to separate the bedrooms and bathroom and using a simple roof without too many extra ridges will save you money. Can you please confirm the front width of your block and the length

if the main restriction is the existing slab my suggestion would be to demolish the existing garage and it's portion of the old slab and build a new garage with suitable structure for upstairs kids accommodation and renovate the main house to improve floorplan for family activities.. but unable to read all the dimension you will need a builder and designer to survey the existing house to determine what's really possible