Yarnos I agree with Natasha. Your existing architect will have (well, should have after working on your existing design) an intimate understanding of your site, soil conditions and implications of levels on your design. He/She are in the best position (given his/her understanding of your brief and constraints) to illustrate to you how a design solution such as this can work. No one on this forum is currently in a better position than your architect to explain this to you and outline the affordability of it as an option, based on your site, your brief and your budget. You can visualise this concept by letting your architect demonstrate it for you. If they are not demonstrating it, then you have the wrong architect I'm afraid. And if you are not empowering them to use their expertise and provide design solutions for you, then you either need to get another architect, or be a better client. Architects and designers - the good ones - are creative problem solvers. They are design detectives in the art of living well. They spend their entire professional and personal lives and time studying how people live, and how to create environments (and homes) for them to support them living better - more functionally, flexibly, beautifully. The talent of a good architect/designer is invaluable in elevating your lifestyle ... of taking the 30 year mortgage you're about to wage on this bet of building a home, of taking this massive investment, and turning it into a physical building that is your heaven and haven, your place of sanctuary and inspiration. They expand your vision, interpreting both what you say, and what you don't, into a result that is beyond your imagining. That's why you hire them - because you can't do what they can, and you need them to bring your dreams into life in a way that's better than you could have ever anticipated or created yourself. As a client, you have a responsibility to brief them well, trust them to do their job, be open to their ideas, and be guided by their expertise. The not so good architects and designers are simply drawers and documenters. They 'convert' your brief, your expressed wishes and shopping list into a floor plan that fits, and can be built, but that's simply it. It's a house, not a home. It functionally will do the job, but it never reaches its full potential. And so your life in it never reaches its full potential. You unwittingly compromise, never truly aware of how different, how much better, things could have been. The catch is, you've made a massive investment, and created something that will outlast you and become someone else's home too. So the impact is generational. Your responsibility as a client to these architects and designers is to understand the difference, and ideally not work with them - not unless you can show design leadership yourself. Work out which one your architect is and make a decision. Trust them to do the job properly for you (and give them the ability to do it), or walk away and find someone else. Regards Amelia Lee Undercover Architect www.undercoverarchitect.com amelia@undercoverarchitect.com

Our house is full of cavity sliders. Twice they were all (but one) replaced due to swelling/warping and rubbing against framework when opening and closing. Some made terrible noise whenever we opened or closed them. Hubby had a hunch they were poorly manufactured overseas and discovered that was the case. Builder sourced a local manufacturer and the whole lot, bar one, was replaced and we haven't had any further issues. The one door couldn't be replaced due to it's location - a wall would have had to be pulled down, just as co-design has described. This experience makes me think it may be a case of ensuring you purchase well manufactured doors for your climate and particular environment, and take into careful consideration the particular location they will be installed.

Selecting furniture in a residential interior, we carefully combine it with wallpaper and flooring, creatively compose sets and choose her companions. I haven't been a furniture planner inside a house or apartment for a long time, but a big furniture specialist in the landscape industry. In fact, as far as I am concerned, garden furniture for the country house deserves the same approach. Instead of wallpaper and parquet, we will have leaves, flowers and intertwining branches, paving, a fence, and a house facade. As in the interior, the choice will depend on the cosmetic goals that you set for yourself. It will also depend on the quality of the furniture made. You need to choose the right furniture suppliers with whom you can continue cooperating. My biggest preference is https://www.gardenfurniture.co.uk. As for me, here you can order the best garden furniture.

Hi Austere. Thanks for your comments. I guess it depends on your scope really. This renovation combines three rooms into one, so a fair bit of reframing, and moving plumbing around to achieve the clients desired layout. The laundry is behind sliders, behind from where the pictures are taken from, so this is a very large room. $15k is achievable, but you would need to be working on a more regular sized bathroom, stick closer to the original layout to save on plumbing & electrical, probably scale back a bit on tiling and fittings, and go to a standard sized cabinet shower rather than a large customized walk-in shower with glass to the ceiling. There are certainly more modest options available to meet budget. Please let me know if we can be of any assistance 🙂