The lights! Not to my taste... Then the pale timber cabinetry, this is a great alternative to boring laminex! & it looks good with the brushed stainless. I wonder if it would show fingerprints... my greatest bugbear in the kitchen

Hi Adelaide again - been giving more thought to my suggestions and they are not going to work. For some reason I just can't get my head around metric sized rooms, I have to convert back to the old imperial. So assuming you are going to build up the alfresco area to make it a walk out from the house, look at taking that right across the rear of the house. With the master bedroom I was looking at walking into a hallway with a walk-in wardrobe opening off it but you will basically want the whole 3rd bedroom to achieve a decent sized wardrobe and give you maximum storage. I'd have the ensuite where the void area is, which basically leaves you the laundry for the bedroom - way to small. However if you were to extend the bedroom across the alfresco area, this would give a great sized room, with large windows looking across the back garden and doors opening out to the alfresco area. I'd then extend the house and the alfresco area to the end of the Activity room, slide the family room to that end and put the laundry in at the void end, which could be accessed from the outside or from the family room, whatever suits. This also has the advantage of keeping all your plumbing together except for the kitchen. Don't think about excavating, it can cause massive water problems. No matter how much you might add drainage, or seal the structure, there always seems to be those on in a hundred year events that can cause unexpected flooding. Water problems have to be the worst nightmare.

Embrace the character of the house - trying to modernise homes generally ends with a house that looks like someone tried to modernise it. Homes don't need to be modernised to have character. Definitely agree with Cultivate, this is a great area to develop with a Mediterranean influence, arches look amazing. Bifold doors would make a huge difference, do away with the fussy curtains, add some comfortable wicker furniture with colourful cushions and pot plants. Remove the small solid wall and just leave the pillars to define the area. If possible remove the pillars opposite where I assume your front door is and close off the existing opening so the area is a definite room and not a passageway to make it more useful. Add a path diagonally across from the driveway to the new entrance, remove the pots from in front of the house and create a lush garden in the triangle that will be formed. Perhaps put the pots down the side of the house where a bit of greenery cool and soften the area. Buy a pressure washer - they are not expensive - and give your driveway a good clean, this will make a huge difference and buying one means you will be able to do it often to keep it looking good.

The plan looks a nightmare - bedrooms facing the street, a tiny internal bathroom with no window to the outside (is that legal?) and a "lounge" that looks like it was meant to be a third bedroom. If the internal walls are stud and don't support the roof you're in with a chance, but I'd say to do a proper job the cheap option is NOT going to work. I'd put two bedrooms where the current family room and lounge are and extend the bathroom into the boot room to give window access, or scrap the current bathroom altogether and use some of the space in what is now the kitchen for a new one. Keeping the WC separate is a good move. If you make the street side the social side of the house you can open it right out and create a big front porch that's a social spill-over from the kitchen/dining area, creating indoor-outdoor flow. Planting (two or three shade trees and some stands of tall perennials rather than a "green fence" hedge) keeps your front garden private yet inviting and stops your front porch becoming a stage set for the street. Good luck! I think you'll turn this very ordinary house into a much nicer place to live!