oklouise and dreamer, thank you so much for your input! Sorry I disappeared for a while, the weekend was a little crazy, also a lot to process after your suggestions. oklouise, your idea to turn the island 90 degrees is genius! I was obviously mentally stuck on the existing wall and could only imagine the island going along (instead of) it, not across it. I can see the beauty of the suggestion to use that whole "left" wall for the kitchen. I have even walked the rooms imagining how it could work. However after much thinking and discussions with my husband, we prefer to have the living/TV area in that corner rather than in the open area as suggested. Again, I see how this suggestion will work beautifully for many families but not for us. Also, the window in the living area (on the left wall) is 190cm wide and floor to ceiling, and looks into a park. It's the top floor and no neighbours on that side, the view is lovely and we would really like to keep it unobstructed. dreamer, thank you for the idea of a portable island. However, I am very keen on having a second sink and there seems to be no other place for it (provided I'm sticking with what ). Also I thought I'd have a couple of power points there to be able to use my appliances, also it'll be around 2m long, so probably either way too big to be portable. For now I've used oklouise's fantastic suggestion and rotated the island, and made it smaller, now it perfectly aligns with the window on the left and the door at the bottom of the plan. It now looks like there is quite enough space to have a proper dining table to the right of the kitchen. What do you think? I'm providing the current floor plan with the dimensions, the grey area is the existing kitchen/dining footprint. This plan is accurate (done by an experienced person) but my design is probably off as I'm not experienced at all, was just playing with some ideas and a design tool.

D'Cruz Design Group Sydney Interior Designers Thanks for your suggestions - much appreciated! 1- We decided against an open staircase, which I agree would be beautiful! But we are still a young family still to have more children and we're trying to minimise any opportunities for children to drop things from upstairs/staircase. 2- I chose a smaller vanity as I wanted somewhere to put in an indoor pot plant, so that space you can see between the door and vanity is where I'm thinking of putting it - that way when you walk in you get a bit of pretty greenery. But I will definitely rethink, perhaps I can go with a longer one and just sit a plant on top of the vanity. Hubby also thinks we won't need 2 basins in there, the kids can share he said :D 3 - Hubby is also against a laundry chute as it only eats into our WIR or ENS. Our Void is our laundry chute haha oklouise: Sorry I couldn't get the numbers showing clearly. We have 2.7m high ceilings hence the steps. Sides of the house is 2m away from the boundaries and we have about 7.5m from rear boundary for the backyard. Yes Study is for working from home yet still have visibility and connection to living space and beyond (the pool). I will have a think about weather we do need an external laundry door or not, given we have 2 doors there. And good idea about swapping the study and laundry, however we do very much want the study to be in amongst the living spaces, and laundry does indeed look very big but it will be our pets quarters, plus mud room & shoe storage etc.

I have a basic 4 burner induction. Cast iron pans work well. I have a large oval cast iron dish I have used with two burners. That has worked well for me on my cooktop. Other cooktops may not work like that.

The idea to extend out under the eaves was to add and use available space under the existing roof. you will see the 3 eave extensions marked with circles Both bedrooms would continue the bump out wall next to the robes for a desk space or other by using the bricks from the exterior wall and the return/Nib wall. The Nib wall between both the robe and desk would be framed out with timber and Gyprock so that all the original bricks ca be used in the new wall. A concrete base of approx 600 deep will need to be added to both new desk spaces. The third bump out wall suggested was in the laundry space which would reuse the existing sliding door and bricks and bring it inline with the kitchen wall, once again it will need a fill in concrete slab of approx 600 deep but no extra roof expense applies. The Carport I think has no walls so nothing to demolish there it would however need 3 new walls of brick or cladding as previously mentioned plus the extra narrow concrete slab on one short wall and part of the long wall. Stepping from the old now wider laundry into the new Master you would need a new small slab across the end of the old Carport. This section would need a small section of roof to either sit up to or under the corner eaves, this could be slopping glass or Metal. All renovations/ extensions will involve a need to match exterior walls which can be done by rendering or cladding, in particular the new walls ( the bedroom extension walls would include the existing robe walls) All of this only requires the addition of a small roof section in the corner of the laundry and the carport Eaves, a small sloping glass roof here would add some Wow factor plus the aspect is perfect.. A few small additions can make such a difference for a smaller outlay. A new double carport can be factored in to be done in the next stage as you have plenty of space to work with You mention the use of a Modular system, along with OKL and my suggestions you could have a livable shed costed by local Professionals. would be interested to see what the difference is