Thanks siriuskey and Jen! I have been toying with this idea already.... also with making the current main bedroom into a living area (as it would make a nice sitting room, it has a great garden view). Actually, since I originally asked for help on here we have booked the job in with a builder & plumber.... still have to line up other trades but it's not happening until June next year. Below is the plan I ended up giving to the builder for his quote... but of course I am likely to change my mind about 50 times before we go ahead! Especially since as you'll see, the planned ensuite is too narrow, we will have to make it wider. RE having a WIR for the maswter, we decided a BI would be ok instead since we dont have many clothes and we'd rather use the limited space for bigger bedrooms. Also we had to double our budget to $100k as $50k (our original) wasn't going to cut it!!!! ( & we'll still have to be very careful with our spending).

ok, here's the new floor plan, I've taken your advice and did some adjustments. with the bathroom I'm very happy now, thanks oklouise, I've just done a few changes to better suit the way we live. moving the guest bath over gave me more room for the pantry, although on paper the entrance/pantry area looks a bit awkward now so I'm hoping for some more of your great ideas (ps siriuskey, I know the pantry corner in the kitchen is a bit of a space waster, I just fell in love with a picture or two, so if I just search enough I should be able to get my head - or rather heart - around a more practical solution ). I'm not sure about moving the kitchen door to the left as it's the main access also for the living and dining room and would direct traffic through the work zone. and oklouise, you asked for an overall vision of our house, so here it is: we live in a beautiful valley with no close neighbors and most of our lives happen outdoors. it will be only my husband and me living there with occasional overnight guest. while we build we'll be living in a granny flat so one spare bedroom will be enough. the living, dining and master bed windows will face north towards the view and the sun. as we spend so much time outside we want our house to be a cosy home with the occasional big entertaining happening outside. our plan is to build a strawbale house with open post and beam, I love the combination of warm grey and timber. just not too rustic and heavy, think scandinavian lightness (I'm from the north of Germany and spend most holidays in Scandinavia) and add some cheerful south American accents (where my husband comes from) we like to cook together, that's why we need a good sized kitchen. and it's my dream to come inside after work into a beautiful bathroom, where I can enjoy getting fresh and clean instead of trying to get out of there as quickly as possible ok, that was a lot, hope I haven't lost you half way through but I'm really grateful for your input and support

thinking about the rumpus and wine cellar my suggestions keep most of the original walls with the cellar built in the garage with no external walls to improve insulation and temp control, uses the old single garage door space for an optional entry porch and has the new bar in the old gym maybe replacing the sliding door with a servery window? and the opening to the rumpus could have optional doors to separate the rumpus and bar and keeping the angled wall (and matching ceiling?) in the rumpus could be a good location for a small heater and there's more wall space for enough furniture for a crowd and i've added some suggestions for the bathroom with a separate powder room with vanity and, based on family gossip, a wine cellar this size should have enough space for about 1500 bottles and a small tasting table and chairs!! avoiding changes to walls and adding new doorways instead keeps the original ceilings, avoids unnecessary demolition, is cheaper and saves money that will be needed for new finishes

Thanks Margot, north is to the right of the plan above, but the master and theatre (east) face natural bushland, and the master is not to the right of the design due to cars entering on each street coming towards that corner (street to front and right). Being a corner block we wanted to keep as much privacy for the master if possibly. We plan on a full fence to enclose the back bedrooms and following that a white picket fence or other permeable fence around to the front, with trees planned on the north and east sides. It can get quite hot in summer here so not hugely worried about heat and sunshine etc. Also wanted the master to face the natural bushland. The garage could go on the boundary, though adds more cost and there is a small power dome so the driveway would need to curve around that. We have taken on board feedback for the bedrooms and powder at the back. Will have a play around and see what we can shift to make the bedrooms bigger etc. Thanks so much for the help :)