We're building 4x3.5 Two with ensuite and the others with a jack and Jill. Life has changed unfortunately and now everyone in the household works, kids stay at home longer and ageing parents sometimes move in for care. At the moment we have a 3 x 1 and really the only thing we really want for is a second toilet, which growing up we had because we had the one out the back with the red backs.

Hi Paul In apartments, the killer for layout changes are always drains, then water supply, then load bearing walls. Before you consider doing any changes to the layout, I would advise you to locate the drains (pics would be good) as they will likely restrict you. The drains are important for obvious reasons but also important is the fall (ie downward slope) of any drain you wish to install in a separate location. It means you have to take into account more height the further away from the existing drain you go. It is likely that your existing laundry trough/basin has a drain going down to the floor, and this is going to interfere with the proposed ensuite entry location. Ditto if it is going into the wall. The big one is the new shower. It will need to have a 50mm waste (drain) in the centre of where your washing machine now is.... and the question is where is it going to go.... I would suggest swapping the vanity and shower over to access the existing trough waste if it is large enough. In a lot of these older apartment buildings, the waste sizes are down at 38mm, which is not going to drain fast enough for a shower. If your existing waste is that size, you will need to have a hob to the shower as it will fill up, and you will also need to check health regs to see if it is allowed in your state. To get the drain for the new ensuite vanity and new laundrette sorted, I would punch through the new kitchen wall and run drainage along the wall behind the new cupboards and around to the existing kitchen sink waste. This will give you plenty of fall and a place to hide the pipes. For the new basin to the existing, you will need to see if you can get it around to the existing basin waste in the bathroom adjacent by running it around and under the bath. Cheers

Kate: - I like the idea of a door at both ends of the new central bedroom doorway - maybe some kind of thin sliding door or a foldable shutter door might be best? - house can’t be knocked down/rebuilt due to location in a heritage conservation area OkLouise: - thanks again for doing this - I’ve loved all of your updates, they are so well thought out and hope to incorporate them all into the build - will send you a token of appreciation when the build is finished! - we have already been thinking about whether to rotate the kitchen island 90 degrees as you have drawn - i think it might look weird? but i’m not sure - theres a lot for us to process with your new updates so we'll need to spend some time thinking about them! - i’m resistant to reducing the size of study 2 as that’s the most important room for me as i will spend a lot of time there and it is doubling as a work productivity office/man cave so really want that room to be fantastic! - i thought the laundry chute was above the laundry but will need to ask the architect Siriuskey - I also think there may be too many bathrooms in the house - due to the good location of the property i think it is hard (within reason) to overcapitalise on the property so believe it will grow well in value in the long run so would rather overdo it than underdo it - FWIW the other houses in the street/adjacent streets are kind of similar to our proposed plan so its not out of keeping with the area - am still wondering about combining the downstairs powder room/adjacent en suite into one big bathroom for a bath - variable number of family members staying but 4 to 11 over 3 generations at various times of the year - the plan for the mudroom is for it to be the entrance into the house that we use most so it can also act as a cloak room too so that’s why its not near the laundry - i don’t want a lift in the house as it seems unnecessary for our needs and fi we ever ended up in a situation where we needed a lift we would just sell and downsize Dreamer: - i think we (parents) might end up living downstairs when the kids get older/noisier - they are in primary school currently Pleased to Bijou design - point taken about number of bathrooms - i don’t really have a good answer Paul Di Stafano & Dr Retro - i can sense and empathise with your professional frustrations :) - thanks for the good luck wishes, I agree we’ll need it - fortunately I’m a lifelong/relentless optimist and things always seem to work out ok in the end (and if they don’t, I’ll take it as a positive learning experience) - thanks for the insights into dodgy busy practice business models mummagabz - thanks for comment about small robes - will look into making them larger

the narrowest walking space would be about 60cms (and there won't be a lot of traffic in the space and with 3800 (not 3400) the ens doorway can be pushed towards the front of the house, not centred and makes more standing room in front of the shower and easier access from the bedroom to the ens but also depends on the distance from the new wall to the side of the bay opening and that was probably centred when the house was built and before the wardrobe was installed so you need to carefully measure the room again... we now have three different widths for the room and the hall is shown as metres wide!!...is the master bedroom 3400 or 3800 or 4460 wide (ignoring the bay window) and what is the length of the whole room (ignoring the wardrobe) and what is the depth of the wardrobe from the outside and also measure from the outside of the architrave around the bedroom door to the front of the wardrobe ..could you gain some space by moving the bedroom door closer to the wardrobe and/or hinging the door to open towards the wardrobe to feel less cramped? ...we can make lots of suggestions but need to start with precise information about what you already have and based on new information and the size of an average king sized bed and the wider room my suggestion would be to place the bed in the centre of the room, lined up with the centre of the bay window and then measure how much space is available on either side for the ens and for wardrobe and bedroom door and you'll probably find that even if the bedroom door is moved there would probably be about 60-70cms between the bed and the new wall and minimal space between the bed and the door on the other side so try losing big bedside tables and use hanging lamps and mismatched side table or shelves ( a cut down stool makes a tiny side table) and keep in mind that, unless you remove the whole chimney (big job but will supply a huge number of bricks if you need some paving) the thickness of the brick walls will decide how much space is available in the chimney alcove for the vanity so measure inside the chimney not outside wall spaces but, despite limitations imo the ens is well worth the effort, cost for the improved resale value and quality of family life.. but, why not move the bed and add something to create a barrier to represent the proposed ens wall and see how it feels as something like this could work but depends on accurate measurements