I just finished my kitchen with Laminex riven wood grain in sublime teak, Caesarstone buttermilk bench top and splash back, and Preference oak in parana colour. It is an earth tone brownish hue and am quite happy with that. Your greyish colour theme with dark wood accent is nice. There are many shades of wood floor that you can choose to match or contrast with the rest of kitchen.

Hi Lauren L Thanks for posting the information, it all helps, it would be good to get the north position shown on the drawings this helps a lot with orientations and planning of living areas. Sewer easements are quite common on properties, most of the times they occur at the back of the property and you are right - you cannot build on them and there are special building considerations when you build next to them (eg. eccentric footings for foundations) I have designed extensions on a number of properties where the sewer easement had to be considered. It all depends how deep the sewer is located, however you seem to have a good quantity of land at the back and the property that you can make use for development and you might be able to use the easement for open external entertainment depending on the deign and location of north. A footprint of 50% will get you a considerable dwelling - so I do not see why you could not extend, you may even be able to do a one story extension depending on your needs and the information on my first post. Some pictures of the house would help and some details on the existing structure of the house - brick or brick veneer etc..? I would be happy to continue advising you on this project, wishing you the best results. Michael Manias e: mm407p@gmail.com

Hi there Dave, sorry for not responding sooner, I have been a bit unwell. I would like to add the following ideas. 1) You mention going to a kitchen company and showing your current kitchen plan, the better thing for you to have done would to have taken your floor plan with measurements and asked them what they would suggest, as long as they didn't want to charge you. This way you would get more ideas, not just them politely agreeing hoping to get your business, and why not, 2) I would contact several builders to come on site and give you their ideas of what needs to be done and advise if you would need to involve council and the building costs involved in doing this. The builders will have their own trades electrical and plumbing that work as a team 3) You mention flat packs, they are a great option and can save you a lot of money, Bunnings will do a kitchen plan and cost in store at no charge, Ikea will do the same but not sure about any charges. You can also go online to both and work out a plan, but I would strongly suggest you speak face to face them as they know their product. Bunnings run in store programs where they show you how to assemble their cabinets, both stores have video tutorials, believe me it's worth watching as flat pack anything can be a nightmare. If you can assemble your own cabinets in your own time it will save you a.lot of money, starting sooner than later would be a very good idea I didn't get up to mentioning in planning the layout of your kitchen that the larger the cabinets you use will also save money, ie 2 x 900 as against 3 x 600, the cost per unit plus instead of paying for 3 cabinets to be installed it's 2. It's also makes for a simpler looking design. Most of our Bunnings kitchen is made up of 900 units 2 x Drawers & 900 units 3 x drawer. The exception is 800 cabinet for the sink. 5) Cook top, I would strongly suggest you work a 900 into your kitchen (this would mean having to use a smaller cabinet either side or just between the cook top and the wall). 900 cook tops give superior space to use especially when using large pots/woks and fry pans, they also help to protect laminated bench tops from accidental put down and burns, 6) Range hood, the best look for your kitchen wouldn't be a large stainless wall mounted unit and that's good news as the intergrated ones in over head cabinets would not only look better, give more storage and would cost less. 7) The Island, you have been trying to decide what size, well if you don't have plumbing installed, the island can be free standing with or with out plinths and can be moved if you decide you need more space. You do need to have a couple of power points but make sure they have a longer connection. Our Island is 2.7 x 1200 and has both a cook top and oven with power points and can be moved approx 500m in each direction due to having longer connections. 8) Bench tops, you mention laminate due to cost, we had that problem what with the size of the island. So we went with Plywood (not Marine) We went to Mr Plywood who when the next delivery came in chose a piece with a beautiful grain, had it cut to size and delivered. The plywood sheet came in a 3 meter length but not all do, we had enough to do the sink bench and a top for a tressel table & legs my better half made. cost with delivery 2hrs approx $400. We did a shadow line bench top which had a smaller size white set back under lay. You need to use a good two pack pot sealant on the Plywood. Finally I don't know where I got the picture of the retro coloured kitchen cabinets, but look online at both Bunnings and Ikea cheers

I have renovated 2 kitchens in 2 different homes over the last 15 years. Both times we lived with the original kitchen for around 2 to 3 years before we decided on the layout of the new kitchen, although 1 year would probably be enough,, but I think you need to experience the house in every season.. Living in a house for awhile makes clear how the house works for you or doesn't work and sometimes this is not immediately obvious. A kitchen is a big expense. You want to be sure you get it right first time. The current kitchen looks perfectly usable, so why not see how it goes for awhile? Also, 're the wine wall. Wine needs to be stored in stable conditions, away from heat and sunlight. I would be very careful about storing any quantity of wine in a kitchen or open area with abundant natural light, unless you are using purpose built cabinets with temperature control and some way of blocking the light.