So, Luke, just to recap, you want them to do a U- turn on the U bench?

Thanks Luke for the advice. We wanted that entry from the hallway so that when we had groceries, the walk to the kitchen from the garage would be a bit shorter instead entering from the family room entrance but that can be changed.

It looks pretty good. I would consider giving some thought to improving, if possible, the "look and feel" of the entry/hallway. At the moment, when you enter through the front door you will just be looking into an almost never-ending hallway that either ends in a closed door to the rumpus or if that door is open, a glimpse of a wall in the rumpus.

I'm not sure what can be done without opening up the kitchen/dining/family/rumpus room as an open plan space, although I presume that was deliberately avoided for heating/cooling or noise/privacy reasons. Is there any scope to increase the ceiling height in the hallway? Or any area not covered by the upstairs floor for a skylight? Or could you have a double-height area around the stairwell perhaps?

I would ensure that you have good sound insulation between the guest bathroom and the pantry/dining area. I would also consider whether the size of the kitchen is sufficient for your needs. It looks disproportionately small when compared to the size of the family and rumpus rooms. That's fine if you don't spend much time in the kitchen, either when cooking or entertaining, but it might be something you want to reconsider.

I'd also consider swapping the location of the pantry door and fridge space. With the fridge door open, the immediate access to the kitchen would be blocked. That could turn out to be an annoying aspect in the future if you live with someone who likes to peruse the contents of the fridge at their leisure.

Also, you may want to give some thought as to how you will use the family room and how you intend to furnish it. I'm not sure if you plan to have a TV in that space, but if so, unless the sofa is positioned far away from the TV, you could end up with some dead space at either end. Unless that space would be used for a study area. Or maybe a reading area.

If you're planning on using the rumpus as a home theatre, then you may want to think about cutting back on the number of windows and doors if you like watching movies in a truly dark room. That's only if you're a pretty serious viewer!

The alfresco looks somewhat long and narrow. Again, I would give some thought as to how you want to use and furnish that space. If you're just planning on having a long table with bench seating, I think it would be fine. But, if you wanted a nice outdoor lounge, you may have trouble finding one (although there are plenty of modular options).

Good luck!

Thanks for the feedback haephestus.

With the space being closed off from the hallway, yes, we
wanted to be able to close off the main family/kitchen/dining room to avoid
excess heating/cooling for those areas, the house is in Canberra and as such
can get pretty cold, as well as closing off cooking/food smells from the rest
of the house.

The kitchen sink was deliberately placed there so we can
watch the tv while in the kitchen as well as view the back and the side of the
house for monitoring kids in the backyard and the rumpus, which we have planned
for it to be a multi-purpose room. We
have been to so many friends’ homes where kid’s toys are all over the house, we
want it all to be in that one space. For
now (no kids yet) it will be an exercise or another tv room, the windows in
that room are just highlight windows and so are not big.

In the stairwell, we have large windows on the three walls
above the midway landing, so hopefully that will bring some light into the
middle part of the ground floor. Good idea
about the higher ceiling though, not sure if we can provision it though, as the
upper floor landing is there.

We too thought that about the fridge space needing to be
swapped with the pantry door. So we will
be doing that.

The alfresco will in the future have an outdoor kitchen and
so one side of it will be utilised, so it won’t feel as long as what is
pictured.

We will definitely be taking your other thoughts on
board. Thanks heaps!

Make kitchen a bit bigger, 3000 wide is great but 3500 is looking a little short. Extend towards the double CSD's and shuffle them down a bit too. 4200 would be fab. Also without knowing the window heights (or north) it seems like it'll be a bit tricky laying out furniture in the living and rumpus.

which way is north? if you are concerned about heating and cooling in Canberra you cannot afford to have poor Passive Design.