An architect, a building designer or an interior designer (not an interior decorator) should be able to work with you to create a design you love and get the most out of your interior space. You (or your designer) will also likely need to consult with an engineer, or possibly a good builder, regards load bearing walls etc.

obviously there are some "professionals" operating to arguably less than professional standards and unfortunately they contribute to the confusion of the value of what we do, and make it harder for you guys to trust us at the time that you actually most needs us. There is also a significant difference between a Pro who knows what their doing properly clarifying/translating information as required throughout the design process, to having the subtleties and complexity dumbed down for the sake of "plain language" that risks misinterpretation and underestimation of what's involved. I completely agree, it's often made way harder than it needs to be, and I think again it's horses for courses and certainly there are many professionals who would arguably be best utilised for their skills specifically contained to within the professional industry boundaries, yet others who are naturally better at "bridging the gap" and liaising/working/communicating seamlessly with both the clients and the industry. Unfortunately, to the average punter it's very very difficult to distinguish and gauge these critical key differences between the various Pro's.

Hi Renai, there are a couple of things about the kitchen that trouble me. To me in some ways it looks like a hybrid of 1990's kitchens and the current direction design is taking. The L-shaped return looks like it has a breakfast bar, but so does the island bench - a duality that does the kitchen no favours. I would ditch the L- return. This achieves a number of things: 1 - It facilitates better traffic flow between the kitchen and dining room; 2- it eliminates the awkward corner cupboard, always a problem that none of the many high tech "solutions" address adequately; 3 - it simplifies the construction of the kitchen, with potential savings; I would move the island bench up the page (possibly even make it longer), providing a free wall for tall storage cabinets, and or alternative fridge location. The door to the walk in pantry would need to move slightly to best achieve this. The corner location where you have the fridge now is not good for one main reason: you will often need to open fridge doors up wider than 90° to pull out drawers and shelves for cleaning, and even at 90° most modern fridge doors require more space than just the fridge recess allows.

siriuskey, Yes, the courtyard is open to the sky (no roof over it), I assume this is what you mean by double story. Ref. below photos, I would love to get this look, especially the first and last photo, where you can see family living space from the first floor. I can't achieve this in my plan as it eats a lot of floor space upstairs. The referred plan (photos) has a very big void combining staircase, hallway and dining area. I know it is not easy with cooling and heating when you have such a big void. So, I explored a few ideas (with my limited knowledge on this topic) before achieving the current floorplan. I have also thought about, in my current plan, extending the void on the staircase to the dining area (it is more like L shape) but i wasn't sure if that makes any difference. keen to hear your thoughts.