Leave laundry. Remove storage to laundry in between sink and doorcavity.( you may have to turn sink around.) With storage removed, you have that whole back area of kitchen to play with. Plumbing will have to be tapped through the to laundry so keep in mind with layout. Bedroom door gets moved closer to hall. Existing bathroom/wc remain same. Just an idea. Good luck.

Good luck with your reno, just wondering is your place a unit or town house, if so this will make things harder

How big is the hot water system can this be moved into the store or else where.

would you consider

1) placing the shower over the bath

2) removing the bath and put the washing machine in the bathroom behind doors

3) leave the toilet as is (saves a lot of money) as you will hopefully have a second toilet in your ensuite

4) expanding the store space into the kitchen for Laundry cupboard, so that the new ensuite laundry runs along the full length of the kitchen wall,

if you don't make an opening into the possible new laundry cupboard from the kitchen run a narrow wall of Pantry cupboards from the current bench top to the wall within the kitchen

Opening up the wall between kitchen living will certainly make everything feel bigger, hope you can understand my ramblings cheers

ditto varns

Hi Paul,

To be able to help I need to understand how your place is situated, apartment block, etc? I see you have a balcony is there also a level above you? Can you extend out at all? How big is the laundry?

Yes its a first floor apartment. i think that rules out moving/adding toilets?

Thought so, are their other apartments above and below that same layout, or is there a car park below you which might allow this as long as the Body Corporate agrees The only other way to get a second toilet is to back another one onto the existing toilet sharing the plumbing, you would have to re arrange access to the 3rd bedroom to do this. Unbelievable that a 3 bedroom unit has only 1 bathroom/toilet

some are the same some are different. only a small block of 12.

Saniflo is an American company that produces a toilet that can be installed any where, don't know it it's available or approved for use here, google it, Your problem is getting access to toilet waste pipes

Is there a car park directly below you that would be handy

think its dead space, some storage space, and some parking

You might be in luck with that as it would give you possible access to plumbing, speak to the body corporate good luck, the joys of renovating

Hi Paul, I think it is great you have a separate toilet and I would keep it that way. I don't know how big your laundry is but my suggestion would be to extend that room to the storage cupboard wall. Hopefully you can put in a shower and basin and perhaps laundry.

Move fridge to the back wall of storage cupboard and remove wall from to lounge room from just past cooker and wall in passage way, so just that corner section. This way you incorporate the lounge/dining with the kitchen at minimal cost with no change to the functioning kitchen area.

Hope this helps.

Cheers, Christa

So one would potentially create an ensuite from the laundry without a toilet? a shower & basin?

Yes it's looking that way,the plus at the moment is that you do have a separate toilet and keep it,

unless you can find a way to get plumbing for a toilet into that laundry space and across to the store area you would end up with a shower and vanity, which isn't all that bad as you have the separate toilet to service both bathrooms.

Do some measurements to see what would fit, your laundry just needs the space for the washing machine and dryer on the wall, cabinet style would suit your apartment

Still have a chat to the body corporate, as changes could be effected by the Strata Plan

That's right, you see fortunately you have a toilet that is separate, and in the ensuite /laundry you can install a basin that is functional for both laundry and hand washing. Change the sliding door to open into the extended section from the bedroom and change the direction the door opens into the bedroom.

Thanks for all the ideas, some interesting oprions

@oklouise unbelievable plans!! I would prefer to knock out the bottom right of the kitchen to totally open it up, & have slightly less bench space, that is a non brick wall there.

It should be OK to remove some of the wall across the opening leaving a beam to support the ceiling but i suggest keep the back of kitchen cabinets facing the living area with a section for stools and media storage and it would be best to keep the short wall at the end to screen the bathroom from the kitchen and a door to close the hallway from the living area

Screening the bathroom from the kitchen is an interesting point

Paul, did you check out the Saniflo company because it looks like you could fit this toilet system into your ensuite, looking from the bedroom toilet to the Right, Vanity centre with door opposite ,Shower Left. You would need to take some of the large laundry space to allow for this, but can imagine 2 bathrooms 3 bedrooms would be of more value than 1 Bath 3 Bedrooms

http://www.saniflo.com.au/

You mentioned wanting to open up the corner of the kitchen to the living, I did see a British renovation of a studio apartment , the front door opened into a small passage looking along to the open plan single room.

First on the left was the bathroom and then at the end of the passage, the corner, 2 large sliding doors Pulled back from each other to expose open up the kitchen. You could add a small bench within the kitchen space.

This shows how the metal sliders are hung

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

@gardentime thats the idea, but unfortunately sounds like plumbing will just be too problematic/expensive to undertake!

@pauls you're sounding a bit defeated , have you actually had a plumber/s come out and look at what you are trying to do, wouldn't hurt. Hopefully you can find one like our's who's a can do man "never give up"

haha yes @siriuskey you are right!

HI Paul

I agree. First step is figure out the design. Second step is to see if it works.

Show a plumber the design you are working to and let him know the solutions detailed above and he will be able to see if it can be done, or whether there are other ways depending on what he sees.

Cheers

@pauls, enjoy the weekend and then get 3 or 4 plumbers/quotes to come and look at what they can do to HELP you to achieve close to what you where wanting to do, it might surprise you how different they can be cheers

Your rooms are a little on the tight side if you don't mind me saying so - do you need three bedrooms, or would you do better with only two larger bedrooms? Otherwise I like OkLouise's ideas very much.