Different strokes for different folks, as they say. We have a butlers pantry, smallish, with a sink in it. The pantry has become effectively a walk-in pantry, with storage, a wine fridge and the toaster and microwave. It's very useful, but we almost never use the sink because there isn't enough practical counterspace and because, well, who wants to do dishes in a closet? We also have an island, with a single basin sink in it, and of course the dishwasher. That's where we do prep, and it works just fine for us. We can watch TV while pealing spuds or washing those dishes that don't go into the dishwasher. Even with the sink, there's still plenty of prep space, and we have a good work triangle between sink, oven on the wall directly behind it, and fridge, oven and pantry on the end wall. In practical terms, the arrangement works for us. When we entertain, we clean up and load the dishwasher as we go, dump the pots and pans in the butler's pantry, wipe off the bench, and we're good to go. And since it's only a single basin undermount sink, the look is clean enough for us.

Hi Paul In apartments, the killer for layout changes are always drains, then water supply, then load bearing walls. Before you consider doing any changes to the layout, I would advise you to locate the drains (pics would be good) as they will likely restrict you. The drains are important for obvious reasons but also important is the fall (ie downward slope) of any drain you wish to install in a separate location. It means you have to take into account more height the further away from the existing drain you go. It is likely that your existing laundry trough/basin has a drain going down to the floor, and this is going to interfere with the proposed ensuite entry location. Ditto if it is going into the wall. The big one is the new shower. It will need to have a 50mm waste (drain) in the centre of where your washing machine now is.... and the question is where is it going to go.... I would suggest swapping the vanity and shower over to access the existing trough waste if it is large enough. In a lot of these older apartment buildings, the waste sizes are down at 38mm, which is not going to drain fast enough for a shower. If your existing waste is that size, you will need to have a hob to the shower as it will fill up, and you will also need to check health regs to see if it is allowed in your state. To get the drain for the new ensuite vanity and new laundrette sorted, I would punch through the new kitchen wall and run drainage along the wall behind the new cupboards and around to the existing kitchen sink waste. This will give you plenty of fall and a place to hide the pipes. For the new basin to the existing, you will need to see if you can get it around to the existing basin waste in the bathroom adjacent by running it around and under the bath. Cheers

You have a lovely young family they only get bigger. I'ts a shame that you can't find another position for the TV as it would be good to be able to see it from the Kitchen via your peninsular, so as to keep an eye on what the kids are watching especially as they get a bit bigger. I'am feeling a bit over the WIP and the idea of walking into a small often dark space, I really like the narrow hidden pantry (Running parallel behind the kitchen). I also like the full length pantries that can be shallow or with draws to make it easy to find things, with either sliding or opening doors. What height is the wall between the new dining and kitchen

I thought we evolved from the closed in kitchen to the open plan kitchen so that the cook and dishwasher (usually women) could be part of the family rather than tucked away in solitude and separated from everyone else. It would drive me crazy collecting ingredients from the pantry and fridge, lugging then to the scullery to wash and chop/prepare then back to the kitchen to cook, then all the dirty dishes back to the scullery for clean up. The upside is that I would easy get in my 10,000 daily steps with all that walking so that’s a bonus. But seriously, consider your workflow carefully. Think in terms of zones. Food storage all together (pantry and fridge) then prep and compost disposal, cooking, serving, clean up. If your messy in the kitchen have deep sinks with a cover you can hide the mess in until you’re ready to do the dishes after you’ve eaten or finished cooking. All the best.