Hi both, thanks for your comments. I already have engaged a structural engineer (sorry should have mentioned that before) and those walls will need a steel/timber beam if knocked down. My issue is more whether there is another way of doing this so that we still have somewhere to put the TV against.

agree with others but before thinking about removing all those walls there may be other more cost effective options eg renovating the bathrooms in the same place may not be much cheaper than relocating and it might be possible to open up the space with wide doorways, internal windows or breakfast bars which can all be less expensive and help save vintage ceilings but we need to understand the whole house better, what's upstairs, how many bedrooms and bathrooms do you need? is there any available space for extension outside the existing house, where's north, do you have any good or bad views, do you want an outdoor living area? is the street at the side or front? ..please post a plan of the upstairs and add a description of the whole roof? is the house all original or what parts have been added and have different roofs..too many questions but answers will help you decide best options

Thanks for the reply. The attached floor plan probably gives you a better idea of the whole property (including the upstairs). To answer your questions:

- We would require 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms (which the house already has).

- The only extension that would be available is the 'Deck' area which is why we wanted to extend the kitchen into that area. we thought to leave the courtyard as is and have bifold doors which open out on to that.

- The floor plan gives you an idea of where north is (towards the front of the house)

- in terms of views, the front of the house (where the rooms are) face the main street . there are no real good or bad views in any direction, just the street and neighbouring houses..

- upstairs is only a converted attic bedroom with a roof storage joining this room.

- Most of the house is original except from the start of the deck onwards. There is a tiled pitched roof and we have quite high ceilings through almost all of the house except the very back part (laundry) . the very back couple of metres (laundry and back part of the dining area) is an extension which has a metal roof.

- There is a subfloor; part of this has been converted into garage/storage. The walls are built off brick footing. External walls are cavity brick and internal walls are single brick.

we are fairly happy with the overall size of the house as is. our main priorities are to have a more open plan living area (as the house is too compartmentalised currently), to have a bigger kitchen, more built in storage, and just to update kitchen/bathrooms, make the 2nd bathroom into an ensuite for main bed.

one last question: have you considered a bathroom upstairs? and please advise actual dimensions of the present laundry, the two bathrooms and kitchen... in the meantime here are some preliminary ideas with two options for the TV

just adding some more ideas, not sure if that fireplace is important, if it wasn't that would make the kitchen pull back into that corner there would be wall space for the TV either side of the living , with extra storage under the stairs? cheers

@oklouise - really love the layout that you have suggested (especially the design around the ensuite for the main bedroom). To answer your question about why we wouldnt put a bathroom upstairs, it was mostly because we wanted to use the second bathroom as a guest bathroom and didn't want people to climb up the stairs for that. Happy to hear your thoughts on that?

Also like the ideas about the tv, but do you think facing all the lounges towards a staircase would be ok?

Will post up the dimensions soon.

@siriuskey - fireplace is definitely important for us primarily because think it adds some character to the house. Do you know how easy it is to move something like a fireplace? Structure you have presented is great but I think I was quite keen on having the kitchen forming part of the indoor/outdoor space (as @oklouise has suggested).

facing the lounges towards the stairs would be fine (but maybe not as many chairs as i've shown which are just there to identify the "footpaths" between the doors and stairs) but i would enclose the stairs with a solid wall and only have a doorway at the steps ...and i would keep the two downstairs bathrooms, as already suggested (subject to correct measurements) but, depending on how often you regularly use the upstairs i was wondering if it would be worthwhile to have a small ensuite upstairs as well? but depends on available space and headroom upstairs (for which we need more measurements and placement of any windows)...but suggest that a quote for the new work should include the option for an upstairs bathroom so that at least the plumbing could all be done at the same time even if you didn't install upstairs fixtures and tiles at the same time

Hi there, how about a photo of the fire place, I know that they have charm but some don't, somewhere I heard that your house had some lovely ceiling which I think are important to keep. I thought that by having the kitchen and utility rooms across the rear of the house narrowed the open feeling that's why I thought to open it up by placing the living space there. I know you mentioned no real views but I thought that my suggested layout really demonstrated open plan cheers

Example of how closed in you would feel, the view from the living room to the rear doesn't give the best open plan option you could have looking through a dining table.

Example 2