For my five cents worth......i don't think the kitchen setup works....looks like a thoroughfare, and could be worked better...but I'm no architect or kitchen expert.

Good luck........there are some great people here that will give you ideas.

FlooringVision - I agree, I just haven't quite figured out how to move things around.

oklouise - Sorry, I appreciate homesteading is not a common discussion point in Australia, but this involves living off the land. I'm looking at building on a 5+ acre block in the Victorian Goulburn region. Most of the properties I've been eyeballing have had a 50m frontage or greater, so the 24m requirement you've sited shouldn't actually be a problem at all - nor should the protruding garage. I am curious though, from what have you inferred the roof line? Surely you can't be suggesting there is only 1 roof line for any layout? I appreciate flattening the facade will simplify any roof line, which is why I was considering shortening the library/sitting to a library/snug, but I'm not having a hipped roof and will instead be opting for high gables. As for the apartment - the only reason I included this comment was to indicate there's going to be an entire second story as bonus room and loft storage with plumbing 'future planned' for this to be converted into bedrooms and the apartment. Not for me to convert. For resale value.

Hope that clarifies things a bit

I've got some lovely friends in Goulburn, well one in particular.........................just love that place.

So I'm still struggling to figure out how to infer a roof line so I can start planning the future bonus rooms and attic spaces upstairs... but I've made some changes and plotted out an option for the first two phases of this.

what do you want to have upstairs and what downstairs room will be sacrificed to the stairs

I'd mostly be using upstairs for storage space - you have to build up pretty large dry food stores if you want to stay self sufficient on a homestead - but given where I'm looking at building a bunk-room for visitors unexpectedly trapped by heavy rain would probably be a consideration so I want to make sure I plan my plumbing (for an accompanying bathroom) according

At this stage I've marked the stairs here on the first floor plan. The footprint of the storage room would be (I think) 3.2m x 2.8m and the staircase would eat into this.

Edit: I also have the general impression most people see themselves having larger families than what I personally consider right for me, so I imagine future homeowners would probably be appreciative of being able to turn upstairs into a 'kids zone' with additional bedrooms,rumpus room etc

a roof high enough to be used for a bunk room would have to be constructed at stage one and need a very steep roof with the ridge more than 4m above the ceiling of the great room and especially constructed to preserve usable space to yield a very long skinny room but there would probably need to be dormers to create enough headroom to add bathrooms and separate bedrooms and i suggest that this is a very expensive way to achieve a simple bunk room and storage space that could be much more economically achieved at ground level especially when the house is not to be restricted with a narrow block of land..perhaps it's time to invest in some professional drawings that will help clarify the available roof space

Good to know. These are all definitely considerations. Dormer windows are adorable but what you've described doesn't sound overly practical or functional.