Hi Sophie

Nice layout for you proposed home, I like the laundry and its relationship to the kitchen and the rest of the house, the pantry is also nicely located and a good size, a couple of things that you might like to consider;

1. I know that it is nice and conformable to walk from your garage to your living areas however your cancerous exhaust gases from your car will also inhabit your living areas. As fumes from your car are generally heavier than air they will be most likely be inhaled by your pets and children which are closer to the ground. In someway you have to get an airlock between your garage and your living areas, not good air to breathe over as long period of time for you your pets or your children. Maybe changing your entry to allow an entry to your garage so as to form an airlock may help.

2. I do not see a linen shoot from upstairs to the laundry - this is simple 500x500 cupboard, if its not there you might like to consider it as it is a great assets for dirty laundry to be fed straight to the laundry.

3. The study nook is a little small, maybe a rethink could help in its location so that its a little bigger and definitely away from noise areas.

4. Placing furniture in the plan will give you a much better idea of the space functionality. This might help in regaining some space for storage which appears to be a little light in the proposal especially for non linen items - garage etc.

5. I would look for a different place for the downstairs toilet - be difficult to use with any comfort without the applause of the people in the living areas. (bit of jocularity)

6. Your toilet door in the upstairs toilet opens inwards - not comfortable for use and not legal unless you have removable hinges.

I think you need a little bit of "design planning for functionality" the rest seems to work relatively well - furniture placement seems to be the Key.

downstairs toilet is opening off kitchen dining and living area!!!!....simply extend the wall along from the stairwell and rotate the guest toilet and create a hallway so that you can come in from the garage closer to the kitchen and also create private access from the little hallway into the toilet, master bedroom or garage

Hi Sophie, I immediately agree with the suggestion to remove the angled/chamfered wall to the bedroom entry and create a small lobby, although a good alternative is to consider a straight-run stair and adding a corridor wall to create a 'private' zone - then toilet can stay where it is, tucked in under stair, and privacy (and acoustic/smell separation to the toilet) is created for living and master bedroom. This might mean widening the kitchen room by 100mm or so (noting some reductions mentioned below) and mirroring the bathroom/rumpus arrangement upstairs - it does create a bit more circulation but adds a lovely sense of space when don't have your main circulation through the middle of a room.

The laundry pantry is not the usual arrangement - and the distance needed to travel to the linen cupboard is excessive. I would definitely flip the arrangement of laundry /pantry and try to turn the linen into some kind of study nook off the new corridor - and get rid of the tiny desk near the front door!! Imagine that lovely living space with light coming in from the porch which is facing north.

That brings up the final comment that north is where the garage is and the main kitchen is therefore south-east facing, this is fine for morning but it is darker for the afternoons. This is a bit harder to change, but the kitchen could be reworked to turn through 90 degrees to face the garden but extend across to the west facade to allow afternoon light in. The nook could be deleted (which blocks afternoon light to deck) and the deck could extend or wrap around the corner for afternoon light. A little corner of deck in the afternoon sun you would never regret! Your draftie designer would need to look at this in detail as the west external wall would might need to shift inwards and south widen into garden, but if afternoon light is important to you then I would encourage you to consider this change too.