It all looks like it is coming together nicely. I would suggest moving into the 'black' metals for the chandeliers and sconces and more into the blacks for the dining suite. This will bring some drama and depth to your scheme, providing the elegance.

Hi Carole Loe You have an interesting house proposal, you are very lucky that you managed to get a corner block, there are advantages in a corner blocks, and like all things some disadvantages. It would be helpful to get an idea where north is in relation to your plan, its difficult to give constructive comments without knowing the position of the sun in relation to living areas and windows. Looking at your first plan the position of your bedrooms are relatively well placed, Bedroom 1 robes are a bit of a problem as they may be exposed from excessive moisture from the ES Shower even if you have a strong exhaust. This generally results in moldy clothes and shoes that smell. Its always good to have the Walk In Robes closed off from the ES. Looking at your second plan I would consider bedroom 2 to be a very difficult bedroom to use, especially if you are aging or young, not a good selling item in the long run. You have to cross a living area to get to the toilet and you are constantly bombarded by living room noise. The proposed separate toilet, with internal opening door is very difficult to use (illegal in Victoria unless you provide 'panic hinges') and not very friendly if you are aging. Some redesign of this area could be beneficial in the long run. Your front entry is shown at 1330 and this is at the stud positions with an 820 door (I always make my front entries min. 870)- (that is incredibly tight for a porch area entry something like 1880 to 2400 with a 870 front door and a bit of a sidelight might be a bit better), you may wish to look at this further, it seems to be terribly tight - measure some of your friends entries and your may wish to revisit this part of your design. Also I think its a good idea to provide access to the the garage from the house - but it must go through an airlock (e.g. through a well ventilated laundry or an open verandah) then to your living areas. This would avoid mixing exhaust fumes with your lounge furniture and your kitchen areas. These toxins build up overtime and are certainly not very good for your health, especially if you are you or old or small like a child or a dog or a cat. Your kitchen and butlers pantry design is certainly ample for two or three people, but it would consider fronting the 'front kitchen bench' towards where you have your TV. Also the kitchen counter should not have a stove on it. The stove should be places about 800 from the sink so that in an emergency you can go from your stove to the sink and not have to cross a from the front bench to the back bench via a travel space. This would make your kitchen bench a good entertainment area or even a good eating area if carefully designed. It would be helpful to know the position of the neighbor houses, houses windows in relation to the site, especially for overlooking and possible overshadowing to open areas. Also it might be helpful for you to define the brief a little more, so that you can be a little more positive of your requirements. There is no mention of fences, gates, driveway extent, extent of porches over entries front and back entry, external paths to drying areas, clothes drying areas, BBQ position or garden areas, vegetable garden area, external storage for gardening tools, letter box etc. these are all items that should come in the design phase and discussed and have proper space allocations. A reassessment of your design position may be fruitful and financially beneficial in the long run especially if you are willing to do some of the legwork to reduce some of your costs. I would be happy to consider your design proposal further. Wish you the best in your design pursuit. Regards Michael Manias - (03)9347-7347 - Designing online using Skype, Pdf and Paypal - mm407p@gmail.com

my suggestion would be to keep the new kitchen in proportion to the size and scale of the whole house so i prefer option 2 with cabinets only as high as the top of the window, tall narrow fridge (less than 80cm wide) next to the back door with wall mounted mw and wall cabinets all round, no tall cabinets, more counter on the fridge wall then stove, sink and dw along the window wall to make sure that there is counter on either side of the stove and sink and locations for a toaster, kettle and other appliances..but exact location of appliances depends on budget and sizes of all the cabinets you want to use.. but, if you plan to remove gas in future, why not start with electric appliances and best insulation ready to add solar power at a future date? ...eg check out the electric air sourced hot water heaters and consider an electric flame heater for the kitchen fireplace and save the gas heater for the hew rear living area although it may be possible to have one heater with hot air connected to the other rooms with an in roof ducting system and, if you have long term plans to alter the rear lean-to research options for renovating the whole house and then plan all the work in stages...eg i would have the new laundry/bathroom next to the refurbished bedroom (master suite?) and have the future new rear living area with the north aspect

Ground floor we are thinking of going with this one. I am not worried about northern sun now, as with our landscape it is bit hard to try another shape and we feel like this layout of kitchen/dining/living gives us the most usable space. We might put a tall window above the kitchen bench instead of an overhead to get more light in. I have added a hall way table at the entrance, A bigger study/office, Linen/broom/storage space, laundry has external access. For the First floor we are leaning towards this one, which gives more space and big robes in bed2 and bed 3, also a WIR for his&her. 1800mm vanity, walkin shower and bathtub, a small balcony enough to put chairs and a small coffee table, we may make the balcony a little bigger as the master bedroom is now 4x4.7m. What we think is with this configuration 3/4 people can use the family bathroom area at the same time. I am not much worried about the bed orientation, this configuration work for us, anyone buying, its big bedrooms, they can put it anyway they like. Thanks to all specially to @oklouise and @differentways who went above and beyond to draw the designs for me, we wouldve put the toilet at the bath with window as differentways. suggested, but. then its too messy with robes and bedrooms get small., We dont want any robes sticking out, a wall to wall robe will give that luxury feel. We also like @dreamer ensuite design but again i think this one gives a different feel, something out of the box, what we usually see like in hotels. Also thanks to @macyjean & @Kate some of your advices were very valid and got us rethinking a lot of stuff. And thanks to all the others who spend there time looking at the design and reading the long messages and giving there much valuable opinions, every little suggestions are important. I know its not finished yet but we are almost there, if there is anything to improve or if i miss anything please let me know. We really value your thoughts and suggestions. We are very happy this turned out this way.