I wonder if you should look into this a lot further. I find it hard to believe that you can't sell a house in the kind of location you describe, walk away, and find a nice place maybe in one of the more peripheral areas, that will meet your requirements, give you cash in hand, and not touch your $100,000 nest egg. No, you certainly wouldn't end up in the inner city but you could end up in a situation that provides the facilities you need and gives you a financial cushion. That said, my real concern would be how to make this house workable for boarders while preserving your privacy. I think you need to provide a floor plan of what you have for anyone to make anything approaching informed advice.

Just trying to study your floor plans which unfortunately I can't read so can only guess at the room use. I have no idea of the room sizes either, but I'm just wondering if you have actually done furniture layouts for each room to scale. This is really important. It seems to me like you have some great ideas you have picked up but then tried to make the rest of the house fit around them. How many people do you intend having live in the house? You have a lovely generous ensuite with a private toilet area for two people, but then have a main bathroom for how many people, jammed into a space almost half the size of the ensuite. Even the toilet is in there with no privacy whatsoever meaning that entire space can only be used by one person at a time. If you are planning this for kids, that will translate into lots of fights and arguments. If you want to create a really luxe and practical space, create a separate enclosed toilet, the shower and bath in an enclosed space and the vanity open for use at any time. This would be more in keeping with the standard you have set in the ensuite and balance the house so much better. These sort of details have a major impact on the overall value and attractiveness of your home. I don't know what you plan for the open space upstairs, but with a window along one wall a passageway the other side and only minimal wall space your use of this room will be severely restricted. Similarly the room under it will be very limited in its use. All the more reason to plan furniture to scale. I have seen master bedrooms done with the double doors which look very grand in the right sized room but in the wrong sized room, it just looks ridiculously pretentious to fling the doors open with a flourish, take two steps into the room and fall over the end of the bed. I'm sorry if I'm sounding harsh here, just trying to use my years of experience to help you create an amazing house. I've seen many pitfalls and I know how easy they are to make. You obviously intend spending a lot of money and you have some great ideas judging by your Ideas Books. Create more Ideas Books to cover every room of your house, then go talk to an architect, show him/her what you want, your Ideas Books will be invaluable to understand your likes and tastes and let him/her create something unique and special for you.

Mirror splash backs would look lovely in a show home. Mirrors are only stunning when there sparkling clean. They would annoy me if they were constantly needing to be cleaned. I think you would be creating an on going chore for yourself, like Karen Mc, they would drive me crazy. Why don't you have a look at some of these https://au.pinterest.com/GDBully/kitchen-window-splashback/ There are endless choices, I wouldn't be making work for myself. Depends I suppose how long you are going to live there.

In my early twenties I designed kitchens for my mother and two aunts (Uncle built them and they worked), but when it came to designing my own - had to fit a constrained space and no possibility of extension - I chewed my lips for ages - like Nicole, I drew and measured ad infinitum, and used graph book walls, views etc. I did one extra thing - which I think worked - I listed all that I wanted to store, and tried to analyse how I liked working in the kitchen. Some things I had to settle for because of space (such as a smaller dishwasher) but most of it has worked. We have a corner pantry, which I (and the cat, husband a bit larger) can walk into, but have not put small appliances in there - they sit in a large drawer beneath the main working bench, which also works well. It all looks good to me Nicole and thinking carefully about needs and how things work in advance usually results in something you'll be happy with. Good luck!