If you are after plans of architecturally designed homes, magazines may be your best bet (try libraries as you are unlikely to get most at the newsagent), however there are also a number of open homes and architecturally designed homes that are open to the public, including the Rose Seidler House. Also, if you are trying to get away from the kit-home look, take note of how the architects and designers use everyday material creatively in unexpected ways to achieve a highly polished look. As for your floor plans, further work is needed to the downstairs plan. I would seriously question whether you need two bathrooms downstairs. The bathroom for the guest room could be used by everyone (maybe consider setting it up as a three-way bathroom). You can remove the doors between the pantry and the butler's pantry, it is already hidden and just uses up space. As MB Design & Drafting has said, there is a lot of empty space on the downstairs plan and there is going to be an empty void around the meals area. Also of note, try to have continuity in your windows - that is, try to minimise the number of different sized windows and ensure they are standard sizes where possible (its cheaper and more cost effective to make 10 of one thing rather than 10 custom sizes); and try to ensure that the header and sills have a relationship. You have engaged an architect as you feel they are able to successfully design you ideal home. I would suggest giving the architect the ability to experiment and push your brief, otherwise you are doing yourself and them a disservice and you should have gone to a draftsperson how would have simply just drawn up your ideas as you stated them. You are on the right track, so don't give up! Often a design needs lots of discussion between the client and the architect before a great design can be achieved. Whilst it is wonderful that public forums such as this exist, ultimately the discussion needs to occur between yourselves and the architect as you are the ones who will be living there. Take time to listen to their ideas, and don't be afraid to question something you don't understand.

I’m no real estate expert but I imagine that if you think something is appealing there are others who will too. It may not be the family market, but other empty nesters and people who haven’t got children living at home, or who never intend to have kids. I’ve read quite a few articles about the difficulty older people have finding just what you are describing so you could be on to something. A building designer we talked to lately who specialises in solar passive eco design said most of his clients are empty nesters wanting to downsize and reduce their reliance on grid provided gas and electricity as they contemplate living on fixed incomes. Although resale is worth considering you need to live in it and be able to manage the upkeep both in terms of labour (cleaning, gardening, maintenance etc) and cost (the home itself, heating and cooling, maintenance, Home help services) so go with what is right for you. If it is well designed and a quality build then others will recognise that when it comes time to sell.

OP, OKL's plan is better from an energy efficiency point of view than your plan (your plan wastes the northern aspect with bathrooms). But DON'T just flip OKL's plan, as the orientation would then be all wrong! It's important to get the orientation right, this will greatly effect the comfort of your home & your heating/cooling requirements (& hence your bills). Read this. It's all very useful, but maybe focus on the section about orientation first. http://yourhome.gov.au/passive-design Below are some generalisations. As has been requested, it would be nice to know your general location, as climates vary across our big country, so building requirements change. But generally, you want your living areas (& a large proportion of your glazing facing north). If possible, have a smaller portion of your glazing facing south & east, for cross ventilation, & try to eliminate western glazing. Bedrooms to the south & east (if they won't also fit in the north), & rarely used rooms, like garages, bathrooms & laundries to the west. Your verandah is south facing, good, as it won't shade your home in winter. Hopefully you have north facing eaves & they aren't too large. If they are the right size you'll get sun through your northern windows in winter, but the eaves will shade the house in summer, when the sun is higher in the sky. So can you knock out windows & doors wherever you want? Would be good to know where they are currently, the size of the verandah, the block dimensions & any other structures which will influence shading & privacy. I'd also be looking at some tiny house blogs/websites. 72sqm isn't tiny, but you really want an efficient house that works well, & you'll find some ingenious storage solutions that are used in tiny houses. Well designed built in storage is definitely very important in a small home. Can't see if it all fits now, while using the app on my phone. But I'd aim for something like this. The kitchen in the NE corner, running down the eastern wall (so you get good morning sun). An island bench for dining, separating the living area on the northern wall. Master in the NW corner, with the ensuite on the western wall (if it fits - important not to have the master bedroom window facing west). Minor bedrooms (& windows) on the south wall. Main bathroom or powder room somewhere on the southern wall, in the SW corner would be nice if it fits there. No idea is that all fits, just some ideas. If you're not fussed about an easy facing kitchen, you could flip this all, & have the kitchen in the NW corner, & the master in the NE corner. If you're taking off external or internal cladding, this is a good time to insulate you're walls. Also up insulation levels in the roof cavity of they're inadequate. It will greatly effect comfort, is quite cheap & the walls are very hard to do at other times. Edit: as I got the verandah location wrong, then added to my post.

Sorry to say but I'd suggest it's worse in some aspects. The doglegged entry flow (still) from front/street is not ideal and entry position blocks prime light into the sitting. Generally the planning still could be more streamlined. It's not ideal having the main access flow from the stair through the upper level living space. A more centralised stair would be far better, for both levels, now it involves moving into the secondary formal sitting space to access upstairs. I'm actually working on a project at the moment where the previous architect did exactly this rendering the front sitting space pretty much useless (slap forehead), and so now the new owner clients are faced with having to unpick/pull it apart to get the stair properly configured and positioned so the associated spaces flow and function properly. Imagine here wanting to move from the pool to your master bedroom - you'd have to move through essentially the whole house - it's not efficient movement configuration. You have in some areas of the design arguably oversized and undersized areas/spaces for the function, which means the balance is not right in the planning. For example there's an abundance of voids upstairs and massive swing room in the master bedroom, but then downstairs the laundry is tiny and there's unusable flow space between the dining and the living space. You still have issues with overlooking from the alfresco, which would mean screening on the north. Site restrictions are not an excuse for obviously compromised planning, rather they need to be negotiated cleverly so they're not obvious or noticeable and the design is not forced.