Thanks Jayme, I get what you mean, it's just not really practical for our house & will make the renovation a lot more difficult & expensive if we start moving walls like the to gain an extra couple of feet. It's possibly a load bearing wall too. But that area which is currently our kitchen where we are thinking of putting the fire place isn't the main living area, it's basically the centre of our living area which is a long room from one end of the house to the other, so we were thinking having the fire there will warm the house better being that it will have the kitchen & dining table one side of it & the lounge the other side. I think we could it a couple of cozy arm chairs & a small coffee table or we could just put a love seat up against the section of wall opposite the fire?

We live in apartment in which the second bathroom also doubles as a laundry. We had the developer put a bench over th he washer, which is in an alcove, and opted not to have a dryer. There is a good sized overhead cupboard for storing detergents, hardware, tools etc. We are also currently building a holiday home where we have opted to put the toilet and laundry together in one room rather than losing space to a separate toilet or losing convenience by having the toilet in the bathroom.

Thanks siruskey, I love this idea, I might use it for the future to creat a small ensuite for bed 1. I always thought about an ensuite but never knew how we could do it and with this you wouldn’t loose much at all from bed 2. I’ve been looking at the ideas from everyone and the space and I think changing the orientation to face the court yard with glass doors out that way and laundry/ toilet then along the back wall might be an idea. Like oklouise said a toilet off the kitchen isn’t great but without major construction elsewhere in the house it’s not possible and budget wise not an option now. My only issue with glass doors facing the court yard is we won’t get as much light in.

Thanks siriuskey, similar to another suggested layout which works well in the space. Will definitely put in a mirror shaving cabinet and replace the horrible 70's spec shower screen currently there. oklouise, thanks for another great suggestion. I'm open to moving everything at this stage (subject to plumbers costs). The entire property is only around 100sqm (double storey barn conversion) so there really isn't another space for the "laundry" to go. Having said this, we did contemplate a European laundry in the kitchen, but again, we'd still have spacing issues plus additional costs that we don't have the budget for. I definitely have lots to discuss with Mr Danielle!