Louise, sorry but u are messing with a good design - have a read of the design notes at yourhome.gov.au. The design is a 7star design including reverse brick veneer (fancy term for bricks on the inside..thermal storage), the roof line is changed - have a look at the high up windows which provide light and warmth, the bedrooms are now at the back of the building (cold and darker). the whole design is now changed, airflow is affected as is the wonderful views that the building would have from each room (except the media room - and who cares with that anyway?) Also I am proposing a double garage/carport with a nice breezeway to connect the house. Also the study is now gone! As I suggested above, the trees on the east may have to make way for the home, but in the long run they can be restablished, and the garden modified to suit the contours of the land, and the look of the new building.

Thank you for the lovely comments! The clients brief to the architect was to have water views from every room. This was a large undertaking and meant that the over all design and external look was not as important as the WATER VIEWS! Using cleaver angles and glass this was achieved for the client who is extremely happy with the outcome.

That’s good news. I doubt it’s load bearing but once you’ve confirmed that you could remove it without too much trouble. It’s been a while but steps I took were roughly to remove the plaster (v v v dusty), and then start at the top and chip out one block at a time and work my way down. I left the metal exhaust in situ thinking it would be short term but it’s still there 10+ years later without a problem (but a full reroof is on the cards in the next couple of years).

Hi Patrick, i live in Sydney too and was looking at KDRB options a few years ago. It was going to cost more than $400k. I think by the time you add in demo costs, house build, upgrade, council and rental costs for a year will be closer to $600k. Sydney building costs seem to be to be much higher than other areas of Australia judging by the posts here. I think the project builders should be able to give you a ballpark cost if you can select a house plan that would work, while they will probably have a service that will custom design something that will fit your block it will probably defeat the purpose of using a bulk builder. They are no doubt the cheapest option though. Good luck...