Hi Mike and Emma Hope you are slowly but surely getting there... may I make some comments/suggestions that you may or not take on board, but hopefully it may at least give you some ideas/options... Going through a new build ourselves at the moment, and for what it's worth, here's what I personally think: A. Work with what you've got: - additional plumbing work, gas work etc may not be necessary and (particularly gas) can be costly when you're trying to work around existing walls, floors, etc, and as much as possible utilise the existing connections... after whatever you can save here and there, you can spend on nicer cabinetery, gadgets, finishes, etc :) B. Avoid unnecessry structural work: - removing the kitchen/living wall is a must (more space, light, etc) but removing the laundry wall is an unncessary added cost (may even require costly additional strutural support) - putting up a plastered wall on the other hand is inexpensive, allows you to redefine different zones and relocate doors/openings where required (*note: avoid hinged doors in small spaces as you have to allow for wasted space to open door - suggest cavity sliding doors, easy to incorporate in a new wall) C. Don't sacrifice functionality and natural light for design - love full height floor to ceiling cabinets, very much on trend... but they also tend to bring the walls in, which you want to avoid in an already small space... they will also block out more natural ligtht from the only window to the living and breakfast bench (meals area)... not to mention seated guests would be staring at a cabinet tower and fridge - on the other hand a walk in pantry (not that much of a walk in a small space) is also very much on trend, provides more storage and... as entertaining guests in open plan livings tends to happen more in the kitchen... it provides a good hiding place for unsightly items, including frigges... (an underbench bar fridge in the kitchen can easily keep those beers cold... though do consider that means sacrificing some cabinet space) - constantly wiping off the floors from dripping wet dishes across the kictchen from the sink to the dishwaser on the other side bench would personally drive me mad after a while... the dishwasher can easily be connected to the existing sink water and waste points through the cabinerty... any half decent plumber should be able to do that... ON THAT NOTE... or should I say those notes... I know I got a bit carried away :) ... if it were me, here's an idea of what I would try to achieve ...

Hi BC, I thought to throw a few more ideas at you before getting trades in as OK suggested, you might find something in all suggestions that appeal to. I personally don't think it a good idea to have a combined laundry kitchen in a house, it's something that you relate to apartment living, that's why I have previously suggested that you might consider opening the laundry from the bathroom, which then gives you another wall in the kitchen space. The kitchen is small and I was going to suggest the you have a 900 glass cook top that can be used for extra bench top. This new floor plan keeps the laundry where it is with staked washer and dryer and sink which can be used for cleaning large pots. I have drawn a galley kitchen with the cook top/oven on one side with the fridge sink and DW on the other, for prep and cleaning up. I have also added a sideboard.bar/desk facing into the living room, these cupboards backing up to the kitchen cook top on the other side could be used for the load bearing wall. Where I have marked the wall oven would be bench top as you have now mentioned not wanting that, the microwave can be mounted in the wall cupboard next to the cooktop where the wall oven was marked. The wall units could go to the ceiling or have a bulk head above them I have drawn the kitchen as a galley as the distance between bench's is too wide, 1200 is as wide as you need

Thanks everyone for your comments so far. Some great points have been made and I'm going to take each one of the away to have a think about. In the meantime, I've asked my draftsman to provide me all the measurements to existing and proposed so I can share it here as soon as I get them. Some more info: We're located in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. Our budget is approximately around the $200k...this is so we don't over capitalise on the property. We thought about building to one boundary because we are of the thinking that we need more width to achieve the space we want. As a guesstimate, I believe the block is 12m or so wide. Each lane way is approximately 1.5m (3m combined) which only leaves us with an internal width of 9m (minus walls). We chose to explore building to the eastern boundary because existing utilities such as hot water system, ducted heating are already setup there. Moving it to the western boundary would cost $$. The eastern laneway has nice new concrete paving and allows us to more easily access it from our carport.The other reason for potentially building to the east is because we're the 2nd last house on the street (near a corner). We get a bit of traffic on our street but more so on the street parallel the western wall. I thought it would be more peaceful moving the house away from the traffic and noise rather than towards it. Also, the addition of the dining area (connected to kitchen and alfresco) will give us a bit more privacy from the street (parallel to western wall) when we're out on the alfresco/deck. Just my thinking but happy to get some further feedback. We're happy to consider keeping the current building boundary if we can achieve the design we want etc. I've attached a few pictures of the existing low ceilings towards the back of the house. The pics show the ceiling from kitchen and towards the back door (curtains are closed). The ceiling is about 2.4m and you can see the exposed beams which makes the ceiling feel even lower. I'm only 1.6m and I can touch them with my finger tips if I try... Whether it's a full knock down or increasing the height of the roof, I think it's the one thing we're about improving/removing. Hope that's some more info for everyone to go off... Thanks again for everyone who has already replied and made some great points. Cheers

Ground floor we are thinking of going with this one. I am not worried about northern sun now, as with our landscape it is bit hard to try another shape and we feel like this layout of kitchen/dining/living gives us the most usable space. We might put a tall window above the kitchen bench instead of an overhead to get more light in. I have added a hall way table at the entrance, A bigger study/office, Linen/broom/storage space, laundry has external access. For the First floor we are leaning towards this one, which gives more space and big robes in bed2 and bed 3, also a WIR for his&her. 1800mm vanity, walkin shower and bathtub, a small balcony enough to put chairs and a small coffee table, we may make the balcony a little bigger as the master bedroom is now 4x4.7m. What we think is with this configuration 3/4 people can use the family bathroom area at the same time. I am not much worried about the bed orientation, this configuration work for us, anyone buying, its big bedrooms, they can put it anyway they like. Thanks to all specially to @oklouise and @differentways who went above and beyond to draw the designs for me, we wouldve put the toilet at the bath with window as differentways. suggested, but. then its too messy with robes and bedrooms get small., We dont want any robes sticking out, a wall to wall robe will give that luxury feel. We also like @dreamer ensuite design but again i think this one gives a different feel, something out of the box, what we usually see like in hotels. Also thanks to @macyjean & @Kate some of your advices were very valid and got us rethinking a lot of stuff. And thanks to all the others who spend there time looking at the design and reading the long messages and giving there much valuable opinions, every little suggestions are important. I know its not finished yet but we are almost there, if there is anything to improve or if i miss anything please let me know. We really value your thoughts and suggestions. We are very happy this turned out this way.