Great comments Di Vinci, Feel free to please "stick your nose in" in relation to my request for advice. Re the idea to move B2 to line up with B1, this should remove more than one valley in the roofline which should simplify the trusses and lessen potential for leaf build up. If your builder is honest this should provide a cost saving which should help with the cost of any changes you make. The slightly wider truss will make the roofline slightly higher also, which with careful truss choices may make room for storage between trusses or even a small room in the roof, with a dorma window or skylight, if you are lucky enough to have views and don't "overlook" the neighbours. This straighter roof should make placement of any solar panels easier, depending on your orientation. These changes should not be very visible from the street. If the bath and toilet are ditched for the new laundry, the external recess could be removed and incorporated under the new roofline, or if you wish to keep the recess for outside of the new laundry, the new roof covering that section could provide some weather protection for a mini clothes line. Re the linin closet moving, the boxes ( I can't read what they are called) either side of the 'nook" could be extended to form a large nook, or better still, an addition box put at the other end would create a second nook for the dining room, either a matching size or slightly smaller in proportion to the difference between the living and the dining rooms. I love powder rooms very elegant (though you may need to consider what the vanity mirror reflects in case a open bathroom door shows more than you hoped). B4's new exec bathroom sounds wonderful, and should be worth more than any extra the builder/pumber/council wants from you. Hoping to hear from you Di Vinci. I hope Walee Ch, that you get a great home from some of all of the idea here and above, and you will know it's your own. Best of luck with the building process which can be as much stress as joy. Rae. PS my cheapest and best reno. only cost the price of resubmitting new hugely modified plans for a different house for our block, when we got cold feet at the last minute after the old house plans were already submitted and we decided they were wrong. A thousand or so before you start will make all the difference later.

I contacted the builder and got extra quote of $12,000 for adding small ensuite to bed4 and move bathroom to the middle of bed2&3. I can't afford this amount as it is top of our budget already. If 2K extra that would be ok. I already signed building contract but they allow me to have one more change at the stage of financial approval.

sorry Walee Ch, I meant the thousand or so was for redrawing plans and resubmitting to council (2001). Really sorry the work was quoted as that much. Could you just push the main bathroom back to line up with the ensuite. Remove the linen press and consider putting the toilet in that space facing the garage not the kitchen. The extra white space around the rotated drawing is available to be expanded into, making the bathroom bigger. My home has an internal loo like this and while not usual, it is more common is units, and only usually needs a exhaust fan connected to the light so they come on together. If you like this variation, please consider a bit larger loo so that you can incorporate a nice hand basin so guests can stay out of your bathroom. Move the garage personal door as shown if there is space beside the fence. This movement of bathroom will change the roofline and if that adds to the cost, see if moving the loo first and widening the bathroom sideways only to fill that space, the door will need to be moved depending on your design. I Would have been interested about the cost of just enlarging B2 out to line up with B1 and changing the roof, if nothing else you get extra space/storage, or room for twin beds while kids are young. Hope the image is correct and makes some sense, no changes just moved which is why the white spaces. Good luck. Rae.

Layout of the kitchen is good but I personally don't like the idea of having the bathroom so far from bed 2 and bed 3.
I agree with the suggestions given above. But if the cost is also the consideration try The following changes. This will also add the cost but might be comparatively less.

1. Change the orientation of kitchen anticlock wise so that it faces dinning and famiy area.

2. Shift the toilet from dinning area and try to squeeze it in between the bed 4 and kitchen. Since u already have toilet and sink, try adding a shower area. it should not cost much. This then can be used as ensuite to bed 4 and also as a powder room. Even if you can't put two doors, it will still be next to bed 4.

3. Interchange the position of WIP and laundry so that WIP is aligned with the kitchen.

4. Flip the whole area ( bed1 + ensuite + wir + bathroom ). By doing this you will have the bathroom closer to bed 2 and bed 3. You can utilize the old toilet space for a little IT area.

Hopefully you don't have to pay extra for most of these changes. You are keeping the total area of the house the same. I guess the only extra cost would be for an extra shower.

See how you go with this and good luck.

I really hate the idea of the kitchen being the first thing people see when they walk into the home. I think you should swap the family room with the kitchen area, and the nook can then become the walk in pantry. that way the kitchen is more central and practical. Would it be a problem to eliminate the laundry all together and create an area for it at the back of the garage (the plumbing is there anyway). Then you could use the little area behind the toilet for hanging washing. That would increase the size of the swapped family room, and then you could do wrap around balcony doors between the alfresco area and the interior of the house.

My suggestion would be to flip the whole main bedroom to bathroom section, so the main bedroom is up against the garage and the bathroom/ensuite section is down the other end. If you keep the wet areas together this should not cost any extra and the roofline would be less complicated. The bathroom entrance would be in the activity room and you wouldn't see the toilet door from the dining room. The only adjustment might be where the wall to the activity room is, because you'd probably want the main bedroom door to be in this area as well.

All you have to do is put a sliding door between the dinning and toilet/bathroom area. It would just mean adding a cavity for the sliding door behind the linen cupboard.

@firstnewhome- what a clever idea! & Thanks for all comments :)

Just a little playing with your floorplan.

@rinqreation -thx so much for doing this! If switch kitchen and activity that'd suit us more.

How bad do you need bedroom #4? Could it be combined with the activity room for example? Relocating the functions would create more flow (and daylight from both sides of the house).

I need bed4 because i got brother in law lives with us permanently so we want activity room closed to bed1-3 as private section for our family (Bed2 for my daughter, bed3 used as an office). Thx for the advice..cheers:)

In the pic, I am trying to minimize the change as i don't want the builder feel upset because the contract already signed. If I have only $3000 to have this change, is it possible? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Now I feel a bit stressful more than excited like before :D (ps. Top one is the original at signed contract)

FYI, bed4 is for my brother in law. He may live with us permanently. Otherwise I will convert to visitor room in the future that's why I want private area at the back part. And normally my kid use the bath in my ENS so I think I will leave the main bath as it is to avoid extra cost&upset my builder.

Walee - leave Activity room yes good idea to move IT area into activity room (that way kids can study/ do homework/ then off to bed) - switch kitchen and family room - nothing worse than having the food smells in the bedrooms! I like the idea of an en suite in bedroom 4.

I just giggled. Nothing like a brother n law walking through your house in his boxers towards the toilet.

In the Netherlands all bedrooms are near eachother and share one full bathroom (our modern houses have 1,5). Ensuites are quite fancy to us. But we do like to be able to walk into the bathroom without crossing the entire house first.