Oh wow, you are very kind to spend the time helping me with this. Let me answer a few of your questions. 1) We are going to owner build (it's on my parents block). It's south of Perth, temperate climate. 2) The block is 55 acres on sandy, flat soil. We have to put in rain tanks and septics too. Can basically put the driveway where we want but the access road is in front of house. 3) 2 adults and 2 teens. No special needs but definitely entertaining. 4) What I love would be the kitchen view with big windows looking outside. It will be a scullery type of thing at the end of the bench. I love light and lots of it which is why the positioning of the garage is where it is (even want highlight windows in my WIR). 5) What would I change? Well this is our 2nd house plan. We had to scale it down to save money. The 1st design was about 500sqm. This house WILL NOT BE SOLD. IT is a FOREVER AND EVER HOME. It has to serve us at least 20 years. I just want to make sure there are NO pokey or small areas. My preference would be a additional bedroom as we have family overseas that may stay with us - hubby said they would have to use the study so that room will have to be multifunctional. 6) Ive ALWAYS wished for an INTERESTING roof - but practicality and money may win. We will go for a pure white colourbond. My "look" is a Coastal / Hamptons look so now we don't have toddlers, we can go beige and white! Double brick also! Typical for us Perthies but I want this thing SOLID! haha! * so my question for you is... is this your passion? Are you in the industry?

Hi Creativelychallenged, thanks for the feedback and I love the floor tile we have chosen too! It’s called Riverview Stone and has a really nice feel underfoot. We are doing the Reno very much for us, we bought our house about 4 years ago and have no plans to leave it. After years of moving across the country as a defence family (12 houses, lots of very neutral bathrooms) I am on a mission to use a bit of colour, especially as it’s a kids bathroom and deserves to be nice and bright :). Our kitchen and ensuite are on my wish list, hoping to give them an update in the next few years, so this is our first venture into renovating territory....

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

We intend to use the current study as a fifth / guest bedroom and study (hence wanting an updated bathroom downstairs too). We do have guests stay quite often (older step kids etc.) Some good ideas to think about, appreciate the feedback