hi Emily, lose the hallway from the garage and add the space to the bedroom and come in from the garage through the laundry and pantry and lose the walk in closet in the laundry to enlarge the pantry for the new access. Rethink the kitchen as there is almost no bench space!! What about swop the ensuite and the walk in wardrobe or just move the ensuite window to the side so that it wouldn't look like it's at the front. best of luck with your plans

I think what Oklouise is saying makes a lot of sense, why not make the corridor run only up to your bedroom door and make the WIR/ensuite longer. Then lose the WIL in the garage and make it all a scullery storage space combined with the laundry and make that the entrance from the garage. Also put a small garage store in the garage by borrowing space from the WIR in the master. To add additonal bench space, the kitchen could be a u shape running along the window and or if you prefer an island, moving the kitchen over and having a third counter with a full height pantry at the end (to meet with a pocket sliding door) If you would like even more bench space you could push the kitchen wall back as well, and or make the island bench deeper. At the entrance section of the house, I question the validity of having a WIL in that location. Its always more practical to store things where you use them. (Unless that is going to be a sort of a mud room, in which case, my apologies). If you would like an entrance hall table, or somewhere to hang your coats hats etc..this could also be turned into a recess. Now I dont know the make up of your family, but if you have kids, that space made up of the WIR in bedroom 2 and the WIL could easily be re configured to create a nook, where kids can play/study and still be within earshot. If you move the wall that runs along your family room to be inline with the living wall, so it also aligns with the hall closet, this can then be converted into a built in in the second bedroom. The nook can have storage in it to compensate losing the hallway WIL. And you could turn the WIR in the third room into the linen store and put a normal robe in the bedroom. Ive created a very badly photoshopped mock up (sorry! :-)) to explain visually. Not sure the kitchen/scullery/laundry combo is entirely resolved but you get the idea.. and I need to put the kids to bed now! :-) hope this helps in some small way.

Wow, thank you, i love the kitchen and laundry changes.

do you have any ideas re my ensuite please?

We are a family of two adults and two kids. Kids aged 6 and 8. I would have loved a kids play area, but not sure how to get that into this design.

Yes near the kids rooms, but i dont think i can without too much cost.. thanks again for your tips, i love the laundry, kitchen, wir ideas. I think i will move the toilet window to the side of the bathroom, and if windows are frosted it should be ok..

Your ideas are amazing, you have serious design talent, thank you. Where would you put your study area if you converted your bed two to a kids area? As the study would need to be a bedroom.

You could always borrow some space from the new bedroom 2 and have the study come off the living space but just a tad smaller. Or have bedroom 2 be a combined bedroom/study.

I will also add that the back of the house faces west... any advice on design re the orientation on the block??

Oh no, really? Is there a reason the whole house faces the setting sun? Is there a view, or some sort of physical barrier to it facing another way? The bedrooms on that side are going to roast, and you won't get any northern light at all.

Consider starting again. If you need to stay with this approx shape, shift the garage to the south side of the building, and run the living area along the north of the property. Keep the alfresco on the west, to provide shade, but you'll probably need even more shade in summer. Put the laundry and bathrooms along the west side and as many bedrooms as possible facing east.

Hi, we have mountains behind us and they block the afternoon sun from around 4.30 in winter and not sire what time in summer. Do you think my house will be dark? I wonder if we could move the garage and bedrooms around to take in your advice.. i wish i had endless money so i could have had a custom design especially designed for my block. Trying to make a project home in our budget work on our block.

You say you on acreage, can you rotate the plan 90 degrees so that most of it faces north? That would make it much more liveable. I realise that the block may not let you do that though.

Thank you, our block is 40meters wide and 100meters long.. i will see if that will work, but i think from the street it would look better front on. I will talk with my builder for advice re this. Thank you

kjs is right. You really need to start with taking north into account, not considering it halfway through the planning. Are you in an area where you are required to meet a minimum energy rating? It seems very common nowadays but I do not know if all councils require it. If your council does then what is the builder doing to achieve it?

We chose a builder's solar passive display home as the basis for our house and with a small change were able to fit it on a large suburban block. There were at least 3 or 4 other builders that we looked at who included some solar passive designs in their range and 2 builders who specialised in solar passive. Surely things have not gone backwards in the last 30 years?

Thank you, i will look into this tonight. I really appreciate everyones feedback.

No full study, not sure I understand, what is the room shown as study on the plan?

I know there's people who like the convenience of carrying shopping straight in and being able to hear the washer while working in the kitchen but for others the proximity of dirty clothes and garage smells and food is off-putting so that's something to be aware of for resale value, but if that configuration works for you and you plan to be there a long time do what suits you.

I think a raked ceiling would look really good. Worth the money? Who knows. You said you're on a budget so it's an obvious item to save on. It's not something you can add later so it's an obvious item to do now if it's something you want and save on the things you can easily add later (does anyone live without curtains for the first few years any more?).

Emily

A permanently roofed al fresco will reduce some summer heat gain (although sitting out there may be uncomfortable) and will do the same for winter.

From scanning the comments it appears that you are at a point where you can still may major changes; I cannot recommend strongly enough getting the orientation of your new home right, it will be warmer in winter, cooler in summer and be significantly cheaper (if not free) to run with some appropriately detailed insulation.

I do understand the appeal of a floorplan that seems to be all you have aspired too but have seen many a case where people have later regretted those decisions.

If you are unsure about the pros and cons of various floorplans then get a design professional (building designer/architect) to give you guidance on an hourly rates basis.

good luck