Your plans seem expansive and maybe costly. Id spend just a bit more and get a proper professional plan done.

Hi Lilith - your cottage has lovely charm - and a fascinating past! I can see you are seeking to introduce some contemporary elements - but my strong suggestion as per some of the above is to keep the heritage front and reinstate the bull-nose verandah. The verandah and front 2 rooms are 'the face of the house' - it's how people understand the style/period of a home, and helps place a house in context, and belong to a neighbourhood, even in country areas. The traditional design of the bull-nose verandah across Victorian cottages is not only an identifying period element, It also has practical purposes like providing an appropriate entry point, cover from rain as you arrive home, a threshold for greeting guests, as well as providing shade from the hot summer sun. Trust me - keeping and reinstating the bull-nose verandah will maximise the eventual resale value in your home especially as time goes on. I thus have several comments and a few big-picture suggestions for you! And I am deliberately not asking what your budget is; think of these as masterplan suggestions! 1. Don't just keep the verandah as is - reinstate it for its full length by removing the entry portico and built-in wardrobe. Tile it for the full width with your lovely tile pattern, and a selection of plant pots of lavender and succulents, or balls of lily-pily etc. Source a second-hand victorian doorway with stained glass above to let light into the corridor, and reinstate the north-facing window into your main bedroom - you won't regret it! 2. Ahh but that means you've lost your walk-in? The current walk-in actually blocks the north light, and removing the walk-in will radically transform how this room feels..........Building a built-in robe along one wall would be the cheapest option, for only the cost of the robe itself. However if you MUST have a walk-in, it will cost about $3-4K/m2 to add in a small new area of walk-in to the side. HOWEVER.... 3. Radical suggestion.....I observe that the contemporary addition at the back of the house reflects a large, modern-sized open-plan space, and yet 2 big chunks of it are taken up by bathroom and laundry. In fact the bathroom corner, poking out from the side of the house, actually looks like it gets north sunlight throughout the afternoon. SO..... 4. You could plan for a renovation that moves the bathroom, laundry and walk-in robe (accessed from the main bedroom) into the living-room zone, extending the corridor through it. Then you have created a large open-plan kitchen-living-dining at the back for the entire room, which has access to a north-facing wall in the corner perfect for afternoon entertaining which you could link with an extended deck! Just add big double-glazed doors to this corner. (I know I know - it will be looking straight at the water tank, but you could relocate this to the other side OR just landscape in front of it). You could modernise the back verandah to look more like the verandah images you posted above. All of the above can be done without adding any new floor area, just the relocated bathroom and laundry/robe, plus the cost of new floors, plaster repair and painting to the rear space.. Anyway hopefully I have given you some ideas about the possibilities over the longer term! Good Luck!

The original house was a modified Californian Bungalow with lovely high ceilings and generously proportioned entrance hallway. Unfortunately the house was dark and inward focused. The layout did not make the best use of the available space with thoroughfares and passage way through the house. But it had great bones and was really well maintained! As an architect I love the idea of remodelling and re-purposing space instead of demolishing and throwing away. It also helps to know what the structure underneath is doing – so that modifications can be done in a cost effective manner. Here we changed the position of the lounge and dining, swapped the kitchen and bathroom, opened up a few internal walls and added a rear veranda. I love the view of the lemon tree as you enter the house and all the spaces appear well integrated. It is no longer dark with Northern light streaming into the kitchen. Best of all the kitchen has truly become the heart of the house and you can simply walk out on to the veranda with your coffee. Exterior Before Exterior After Kitchen Before Kitchen After Let us know your thoughts below!

I actually really like the fence... it gives it a country australiana sort of look. I prefer it open to a fortress of corrugated iron. Look, there's not a lot can be done to change the house... it would look even more of a hash. It IS the style and age it IS and it has a charm of its own. As long as it's all tidy and in good repair that's great. It's a good solid house by the looks of it. Instead focus on landscaping the yard. Pull the eye forward to the fence line with some plantings on either side of the wire fence. I'd do a low floral border that sits belownthe top of the fence and then maybe something like agapanthas on the other side so you can appreciate them from the street. I'd favor natives like grevilleas and bottlebrush. large shrubs flowers in a large bed in front of the house. I'd maybe put a few standardised bottlebrushes on either side of the path for height. It would all bring the gaze forward to the lovely native garden which would attract birds. natives tend to have shades of grey in the foliage which would look good against the roofline which is more dominant anyway. https://www.abc.net.au/gardening/factsheets/cottage-garden-natives/12904492 https://www.australianplantsonline.com.au/blog/post/cottage-garden-with-natives