By viable I mean workable, functional. A chimney sweep or a builder adept in chimneys will give you a report. Certainly enquire about a future gas fitting rather than logs if possible. I say this as a fireplace anywhere is delightful and, if downstairs, it could heat upstairs through the house, to a certain point too. If you look at the quality of the brick laying, you will see that its not meant to be a feature which is why it was rendered, but that is choice only. Certainly seal the bricks. Good luck and stay with it if you can. Everybody loves the romance of a fire.

Great space to work with! As you know the best way to proceed is very subjective. It would suggest making it more personal than simply adding mirrors. Mirrors add a sense of depth to a space but it looks to be an already large space. Why not add a really lovely large painting above the fireplace (keep in mind there will be a bit of smoke regularly surrounding the painting). Then design or select wallpaper for the two nooks on each side of the fireplace. Then hang framed and non-framed items that have meaning to the family. Play with the scale of the items and think of each section as an exhibition of your family with large and small images, framed items (metals or ribbons and tapestries etc.). It will really depend on the items you have. Another ideas is to start a collection such as artworks of fruit/still life artworks from a few visits to antique shops. Keeping them beautifully framed is key to maintaining a sleek, timeless and elegant look.

Hello Jane! I work for an architectural firm (I am a postgraduate architecture student) in Canberra that specialises in small, smart and sustainable homes. Our homes similarly achieve around the 8 star mark - your 8.2 is going to be so comfortable! Fireplaces are a tough one, and I am still torn! If your architect is legitimately across the energy performance spectrum, they will/should have had this discussion with you: in Canberra the heating load required for homes greatly outweighs the cooling load. While they are beautiful and satisfy our comfort and sentimental values, often fireplaces in homes of this performance (7+ stars) are overkill (heating-wise). This being said, I grew up with a wood fire, and love the atmosphere they bring, so it's a tough one! The 'overheating' can be managed through careful zoning and ventilation through your beautiful double glazed windows in 'tilt' mode. Unfortunately furniture layout is the least of your concerns in this situation! In homes of this performance, the building envelope is very well sealed (ie minimal to no gaps connecting inside to outside). As you know, fire requires oxygen intake to fuel the flames. With a fireplace like this, in the centre of the room and (presumably) open, the interior oxygen will be the first to burn. Essentially, a fireplace in a home like this will need an external source of oxygen, or it will go out and leave you all a little lightheaded. This, or extensively open up your home when the fire is burning (which seems a little counter-intuitive). My professional advice is to mirror the lounge room: move the fireplace to area A, with an external oxygen source. Room 'zoning' through clever placement of rugs, dining tables, lounges and half-height joinery can give structure to open plan situations and soften the tendency of these spaces to feel cavernous. Please don't hesitate to ask any further advice - always happy to help!

These drawings are not to scale so may not work, but this is what I would be striving for if it were my house. Retain the 3-way bathroom but move the shower to a lovely large open shower and add a toilet opening off the laundry. It reduces the laundry size, but I would rather a second toilet over a larger laundry any day. And this shouldn't be a hideously expensive remodel as it leaves much of the existing in place. The biggest issue would be plumbing for the new toilet. You could eliminate the basin in the second toilet if you designed the laundry so that the wash tub doubles as a hand basin. I've seen that done in ways that are quite attractive. (Apologies for the rather rough drawings).