Hi Renai - its great to see you so excited about starting your house plans! It is an exciting time for clients, and a designer will be able to follow your instructions and draw this for you, however I would encourage you to pause at this point, as the plan has a slightly internal feel, and the following suggestions should help; 1. The lounge does face north however on the narrow dimension, and underneath a 2m deep balcony, with diagonal views to the reserve blocked by both the garage and the study.... rework this so the north light and views aren't blocked and open up a little through the rest of the house.... 2. The dining area is very internal - I would encourage you to relocate this, always try to avoid internal spaces. The living room window is south-facing near the boundary and light to it's west-facing doors is blocked by an alfresco (the kitchen windows are also covered by a patio). South-facing rooms drain energy bills - although not as hot in summer, they feel cold in winter and never get the 'joy' that a little direct sunshine brings into your home during the day. 3. The 'indoor-outdoor' connections could be improved 4. Consider your plan as a good starting point for the 'zones' that you have created - a master-suite zone +study, a formal lounge zone, an informal kitchen/living/dining zone and a bedroom 2 & 3 zone. Take these to your designer and brainstorm together. An L-Shape or even 2-storey design could work, and check out some of the volume or pre-fab house-builder plans for ideas which will improve solar orientation in an affordable way. Some links; http://www.yourhome.gov.au/passive-design/orientation https://www.rawsonhomes.com.au/homes/Brookfield/floorplans -(this one very close to your original plan - just a few teaks needed for the study) https://www.pinterest.com.au/explore/l-shaped-house-plans/?lp=true -(just for some ideas to better connect to the garden..) metricon for floor plan ideas (although many have internal rooms and deep alfescos that block the light!) https://modscape.com.au/blog/creating-sustainable-home-passive-design/  Good Luck with your project Renai.

siriuskey, Yes, the courtyard is open to the sky (no roof over it), I assume this is what you mean by double story. Ref. below photos, I would love to get this look, especially the first and last photo, where you can see family living space from the first floor. I can't achieve this in my plan as it eats a lot of floor space upstairs. The referred plan (photos) has a very big void combining staircase, hallway and dining area. I know it is not easy with cooling and heating when you have such a big void. So, I explored a few ideas (with my limited knowledge on this topic) before achieving the current floorplan. I have also thought about, in my current plan, extending the void on the staircase to the dining area (it is more like L shape) but i wasn't sure if that makes any difference. keen to hear your thoughts.

You are going to have to spend some money to make it look seamless. Doing it cheap will always make it look like a crappy addition. There is no easy, cheap solution to your problem, and you will regret it as soon as it is finished. Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls

i have a problem with the awkward location of stairs that wastes the sunroom, makes the rumpus room difficult to furnish and the front door has a view of the toilet ...beginning with central stairs and potentially modifying doorways to allow for the stairs without having to walk across the rumpus or upstairs living room attempts to avoid the big wide hallways affect without useful locations for furniture ..the rumpus room now has space for comfortable furnishing and private access to a full bathroom and good sized laundry...using the old sunroom for a compartmented bathroom retains the original walls and windows and includes space for a bathtub and shower with big views.. we should always include real scale sized furniture to establish the best walking paths across rooms and my suggestions also retain the size of the original kitchen to keep more of the original walls and ceilings and retains the proportion of the bay window and allows space for an alternate access to bed 3 (preferable the linen cupboard would remain in this location) and consider avoiding the enclosed pantry (would the door ever be closed?) in favour of a more open space for better light and ventilation and maybe a herb garden window box in the bay window with external blinds to exclude western sun.. there's a fridge closer to the outdoors, stacked wo and MW to define the pantry and only a small sink in the island for more useful set down space for shopping and serving meals