Hi spmm, "I agree about getting help but be aware that building designers have NO accreditation in Australia and can be appalling practitioners and very expensive. i speak from recent experience in regional NSW. Architects may appear to be more expensive but are capable of delivering a better result." That is an appalling description of an Association that is registered on every state in Australia and has an Australian representative Association in Canberra, based on your personal experience - unless its based on self interest. To the best of my knowledge all Building Designers that do Working Drawings must have Professional Indemnity insurance to provide working drawings for a building Permits, which is the only accreditation in my opinion that carries some worth for the clients, and like all organization they can be included and expelled from their respective associations and are accredited by their organizations. As for them being "very expensive", generally I would say that the buying public is no fool and people that do not deliver are generally out the game very quickly . You might like to inform yourself a bit further on this by contacting any of the Building Designers Association in your state or the Australian body, some are included underneath: Australia: http://www.nabd.com.au/ Australia: http://www.bdaa.com.au/ Victoria: https://www.bdav.org.au/  (may include Tasmania) Queensland: https://www.bdaq.com.au/ South Australia: http://www.bdasa.com.au/ Western Australia: http://bdawa.com.au/ Northern Territory: http://www.bdant.org.au/ Michael Manias - mm407p@gmail.com Manias Associates Building Designers

The amended plan isn't too bad. These are my non-professional thoughts: - do you need a mud room? Does it need to be on view to everyone who visits the house? - the main bedroom WIR and bathroom looks like it needs work. The WIR is huge. The bathroom is also big, but the toilet is positioned near one of the two sinks instead of being in a separate room for visual and acoustic privacy (not to mention certain ... scents). Since you have a bath in the main bathroom, I would at least get rid of the bath to give the toilet its own "room" in the ensuite. But, I think the whole area could be re-done to much more efficiently use the space. - the hallway is LONG and dull and only offers glimpses of part of the kitchen. If it can't be changed, consider adding some wall niches for art, sky lights and other features to give it some interest. - I'm not sure why a three bedroom house requires two living rooms and a study. If the study is meant to be a fourth bedroom, then it should have a regular hinged door and a BIR. - the wall between the main bathroom and the living area will need to be soundproofed to the maximum extent possible. At the very least, I would swap the position of the toilet and the wet room in the main bathroom so that guests don't have to worry about what sound is filtering into the living room. - the kitchen is pretty huge. I can't quite tell what appliances have been placed where on the plans, but consider ease of movement between the fridge, stove and sink and whether the current locations will be practical. The space beside the pantry also appears to be pretty useless. I'd consider just expanding the pantry or reducing the size of the pantry and including a built-in desk / bookshelves / charging station beside the pantry.\ Good luck!

In all honesty, you are looking at a pretty expensive renovation so it is probably worthwhile getting some plans professionally done. The best alterations will be site specific, so will take into consideration the local climate, the path of the sun, where the best views are, anything blocking the sun anywhere, passive solar design, privacy from neighbours etc. It's just not possible to make a great design without all that information and it would be a real shame to spend tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars and not get the best result possible. Given that you haven't stated where you live, we don't even know whether North or South is the sunny side of the house, so it's impossible to suggest improvements! I'd strongly suggest taking your time figuring out exactly what you want to achieve and how much you are willing to spend to do so. Even with easy access under the house, shifting plumbing will not be cheap (from memory our plumber had the highest hourly rate of all our tradespeople when we renovated), so you want to be very certain that you're doing the right thing and will love the results. If you can possibly keep the same roofline, that will help reduce costs significantly. I'd also suggest using this as an opportunity to improve your house's performance, by insulating, improving the passive solar design, installing a heat recovery ventilation system, buying energy star appliances and LED lights etc. It's all the things that you won't see in the finished house that can have a major impact on how pleasant the house is to live in and how expensive it is to run, and they're easier to do when you're doing a major renovation anyway. Good luck!

Hey Juda. Good on you for getting opinions, both good and bad ;) My first impression of the plan is that it's a bit busy/rabbit warren like! Even though there are apsects I do like, I've mainly made notes about things I don't like, so hopefully they're useful. STUDY: Whilst the internal three-window hall section might look cool, it removes the opportunity to run a desk or cabinetry along that wall. GARAGE: Wouldn't you also need an outside exit door (eg. top right corner of store area)? KITCHEN: This is a tough one for me. The concept of a Scullery, where dirty dishes are hidden, washed & dried seems neat, but will said dishes need to be carted back out to the Kitchen cabinets all the time, or are some stored in there, and if so, will it be annoying to visit the Scullery all the time just to get some plates, etc.? Anyway I think the Scullery double sink needs to be centred more to allow space for the flow of incoming to outgoing dishes. The alternative sink position is the left side Bench where the dishwasher person also gets to enjoy an outside view as opposed to the inside Scullery wall. LAUNDRY: I think its position should be swapped with Bedroom 3, and have another internal access door to the Laundry placed where the Bedroom 3 Desk presently is. This allows for much easier access from the Kitchen area through to the laundry, then outside to a clothes line, etc. as opposed to using the only sliding door to this wing of the house. MASTER BEDROOM: Would it be desirable to have an outdoor shower/tropical fernery where the vacant top-right corner space is, that's accessible from the Ensuite? MASTER BEDROOM WIR: I think the central space is unneccesarily wide or perhaps the shelves/hangers should be wider. BEDROOMS 3, 4 & 5: These don't have a clear wall/position for a TV (if needed?) opposite the bed. All the best. Colin