No more thoughts or suggestions anyone? :(

Hi Louise, thanks for your suggestion, but the Alfresco area is already very big, I don't think I would need another area created. Basically I am not sure if I should transform the alfresco in another bedroom, or make it another living room or dinning room, or have it as a rumpus room. Not sure what would look better with the current house structure. It looks like the ideal scenario would be the redo the plant altogether but it seems easier to knock it down and do a brand new home, which is not in our plans at all :( I would like to know the best I can do with that space without having to do any major development. The alfresco is totally disconnected to the house at the moment.

Thanks again Amelia, yes, looks like we will going towards the rumpus room. And you are totally right, we can see the challenge in expanding the space without looking totally disjointed. One thing I don't understand is that the current dining room is actually very dark, there is no much light at all and we often have to have the lights on. I think is because we have lots of trees on the side and front of the house and an extension of the carport cover. From your message feels like you are thinking the area is quite light and nice, which is really not. There is more light in the living room and in the alfresco area.

Amelia has some great ideas so it's well worth consulting a professional to appraise your house structurally with the view to re-modelling to suit your needs: Renovating is more expensive - would you stay in the house? New build - you have to move. Essentially for a Reno the planning is the most important part of the process.

Understand your budget will probably need a contingency plan. How do you want to use & in live this home/aspect/orientation of your rooms makes a huge difference to everything! I would be careful not to block light from entering the middle of the house/kitchen. What about -

Make rear lounge into 3rd bedroom on left hand side/play room on right

Remove laundry to create access to bathroom & 2nd bedroom

Lengthen this wall on kitchen side for fridge

Remove current wall with sink if possible & build new breakfast bar with sink to overlook...

New dining room ...Fill in alfresco (can the current concrete be used or might have to be redone to be level with inside)

Enclose with new roof & glass doors from start of old lounge to garage line and back to house behind 3rd bedroom

Old 3rd bedroom is now new ensuite/walk in robe + laundry with external access)

Close off 2nd bedroom old door/build return wall in kitchen wall for pantry

Current dining becomes formal/adult lounge/entry maybe half wall or screen

Home now open to light & air flow through kitchen & old bathroom to dining & al fresco space

I'm not sure about any costs sorry but every home deserves to be the best it can be if you want to make it happen maybe you could do it in stages as budget permits especially if you commit to something this important.

8lila I'm not a professional but I hate to see a design dilemma like yours. I am passionate about design so I don't want to confuse you with ideas but I wanted to let you know that you will know what is right and do get advice from someone like Amelia who does this for a living so your good money doesn't go to waste. (I just completed a 14 month reno & love it & will share with Houzz when I get the time) Good luck! Louise

Just to add to the aspect I thought the north was for winter sun and the south was cooler so where your al fresco is seems to be north east to me & just right for capturing that beautiful winter warmth.

8lila you would definitely benefit from going to see Amelia :-) love where you live! Louise

i agree with Undercover Architect move the kitchen and laundry into the alfresco (with raised floor) Careful removal may allow re-use of the kitchen cabinets and fittings with only the need for new countertops...and then use the old kitchen space as a storage area with cabinets, wardrobe through to the bedroom, bookshelves, desk, computer area and try the new Solar Skylights (checkout on the Bunnings website) that are DIY cheap and don't have any opening in the roof..priority should be comfortable living for your family and leave cosmetic improvements for later eg if the windows don't leak do they need changing? best of luck!!

Hi 8lila

Forgive me for saying this but it sounds like you have a problem that I did until recently - you don't really like your home. I was stuck with whether to renovate (even before how to) because I was so stressed about what to do and cross at myself for buying the house to start with. A real estate agent told me to do some cosmetic things to the front of the house first because that was cheap and would add value if we sold...and it helped me love the house enough that I was prepared to seriously think about how to renovate.

I don't think your house is ugly- I think it could be cute and stylish without much effort or $$s (maybe without new doors or windows?) and this forum could give you all the ideas.

I agree with OKlouise that comfort etc should be paramount but maybe you need to love the house a bit first to get you over the hurdle of starting?And then if you have to move you will recoup your outlay I think.

re-reading this new post i'm wondering if there have been any changes since last August and if some relatively minor re-arrangement could make life more comfortable without spending too much eg 1. relocate existing kitchen cabinets to the old living room (with careful planning you may only need some extra benchtops 2. create a storage, study, library area in part of the old kitchen 3. create a master suite by expanding the small bedroom into the old kitchen with access to the ensuite/ guest bath through the laundry 4. enlarge laundry and create rear entry foyer and more direct access through al fresco to garage... btw the measurements on your plan are inconsistent so i've used smallest approximation for my suggestions

oklouise, you wont believe this. After two years only now we have decided that we definitively need to move the kitchen and started to plan for it. An architect just left our place but her suggestions are throwing our budget to the roof. Your last suggestions might be the light we needed to make some changes without investing too much. We did add an extra bedroom and another living room (I really want another living room so we have a space for the adults and one for the kids). We also added a WIR and a pantry. We will have to rethink everything again now :)

Thank you, thank you!

look forward to seeing the latest floor plan

We are catching up with the builder tomorrow and will mix our ideas and incorporate yours and see what he says :)

OKlouise, this is what we were thinking initially but we figured it will cost more to relocate the bathrooms and we are ending up with two big pantry and WIR.

Disregard the use of the garage for now. This is something to convert in the future as the budget won’t allow for all of it to happen now.

So, the idea was to make the front bedroom a master suite, convert second bedroom into pantry and WIR, then move the kitchen to alfresco; the current dining becomes a living room for the kids. We add two bedrooms at the back, open the walls between alfresco and living room and make it into an open kitchen/dining and a small living room.

We liked your approach better, which is to keep the two bedrooms and bath where they are and make the other bedroom a master with the existing bath. This will save us money for sure.

After chatting to the builder tonite I am sure this will all be different J

if there's room on the left hand side of the house for that new living area in this latest plan, ask your builder about adding a similar sized extension at the back of the house on the same side with a "flat" roof to copy the shape of the alfresco and that extension could have the master bed suite (this roof should be cheaper than trying to copy the existing roof and also cheaper than trying to re-arrange too much existing plumbing

the last plan you posted had another living room on the left which suggested that there was space available down that side so it's very confusing...i hope you're aware of the architects fees for every change of plan , i was concerned about suggesting anything that would change the roof but the builder will be the best person to advise about that

Hi Louise the area available is on the other side in front of the garage . E.g, near the original alfresco, to the right, there is a garage and a large driveway that goes all the way to the front of the house. Sorry for the confusion and thanks again for your inputs. I really appreciate your effort. Cheers

Ah, I see what you meant now. That added living room which you are seeing on the left, is the garage, which the builder suggested we converted into a living/rumpus room. We have already rejected that idea since it will increase significantly the costs.

al fresco included! i've allowed space for a side entry, relocated kitchen and laundry and minimised changes to existing bathroom until funds permit..The goal being to build the new rooms in the al fresco and move the kitchen and laundry, tidy up the old hallway and enlarge the bedroom but you could delay changing the bathrooms adding the powder room and all the new wardrobes (including sharing space from the original master to add wardrobe to the smallest bedroom to "even up" the bedroom sizes)

Very interesting, Louise. Below is what came out of yesterday's meeting (this is just my husband's drawings. We will get the architect to do a proper version once we are all happy with the results. Again, disregard the living space in the garage. My husband is keeping it there but I am 100% sure it wont happen as the costs will be too prohibitive. You do have great suggestions, slightly different from ours, which might help cut cost. Loving your inputs. Thank you so much!

just realised i posted the variation with the incorrect alfresco width

Hi everyone, so... 3 years later and after many back and forth we have decided to knock down the house and rebuild. The cost of renovating was just too prohibitive and not to mention the unexpected surprises that surely would come with it. We should start the building of the new home in a month or less. Just wanted to thank everyone who helped in this thread, your opinions were very important and helped us decide. We are not doing a custom build, instead we chose one of those pre-designed homes (Dennis Family) but we are very happy and excited. Cant wait for it to be done. Will post photos when ready.

I will soon open a post asking for help decorating it :)

Hi everyone just an update on this, we ended up doing a knock down and rebuild (easier and cheaper!). We moved to ou new home two months ago so you will see a lot of posts from me asking for decoration advises :)
Thank you all for being so helpful and honest with your opinions. It def helped us make the right decision.

Congratulations Lila! You must be thrilled.

We are JE. Very happy :)