very interested in your dilemma but need dimensions of all rooms in bigger print and please include extra details: could the study be relocated, do you need the outside laundry door to access a clothesline, could the laundry be combined with the pantry, are all the wardrobes in the bedrooms in excellent condition or could any be relocated if necessary? is there a downstairs bathroom and what do you love about the existing house?

Looks like you're very good at drawing plans unlike my self, great house.

Can I suggest the following in my rough sketch.

With the addition of the pool the access to the kitchen and deck will be very important as will the Rumpus room, which could become a parents retreat ?/Media room.

I thought to open up the rooms to the North to look out over the new pool.

Would you consider changing the front entrance to the double doors opening into the current dining.

I have tried working around moving the ensuite WC to create a Master suite.

The study is swapped with bed 4

Keeping the stairs as they are and changing your kitchen to include a WIP

A separate dish washing zone,

I have considered adding another sink and DW next to the family sink, this could be closed off plus access to extra storage back under the stairs.

Or you could work a small laundry into that corner,.. If not consider moving the laundry down stairs closer to clothes line.

A bigger Island bench to suit your family.

Hopefully you will be able to see where I am going with this cheers

And I should add that an additional downstairs toilet with shower to service the pool is always a very good idea plus having pull out clothes lines to take wet towels and washing, so a downstairs laundry would make sense. maybe a new laundry of the Rumpus under the Deck

Hi oklouise

Thank-you for your interest I really appreciate it…

I have included the original plans of the house with
all the measurements to make things a bit easier for you. There have been a
couple of changes made over the years as you will see looking at the existing
layout.

In answer to your questions…

The study could be relocated

I could go without the laundry door but wouldn’t have
as easy access to the clothesline although I could compromise

The laundry could be combined with the pantry

The wardrobes are in good condition but could be
relocated if necessary

Unfortunately, there’s no downstairs bathroom. The
walls are double brick with concrete infill making them 300ml thick of solid
concrete, brick and steel…total over-kill from the engineers report!

I love the style and feel of the house but other than
that I would be open to any changes as I feel the layout is dated…with wasted
space.

I hope this helps…thanks again!

Hi Siriuskey

Thank-you for your compliment and input... I really appreciate it. I am very impressed with your ideas...I certainly didn't think of this layout! My husband would be very happy not to change the Stairs and Kitchen placement. I love the idea of the parents retreat! My biggest concern is Laundry placement. The ground under the house is limestone boulders which would be impossible to dig out. The Rumpus room downstairs has walls constructed of double brick with concrete infill and steel reinforcing (total over-kill...thanks to the engineers report!) making it virtually impossible to drill through to install pipes etc so this isn't an option either. I would be happy to compromise and loose the study to make room for the Laundry if it was possible? Thank-you again...

my suggestions retain the present position of the stairs and kitchen but stealing a little extra off the stairwell and family room creates a small butlers' pantry with sink dw and fridge as well as views to the pool and a servery window...sacrificing space off the laundry enlarges the ensuite, allows space for WIW for her and a walk through hallway with biw for him and doors opening to the deck

We have to keep Hubby happy. You mention Limestone does that mean you
are in SA, that stone is porous and cuts easily with a saw.

Is
there room under the deck to build in for the WC & Shower?, Saniflow
products are great for difficult situations, our plumber introduced us
to them, he's very much a can do bloke, not your usual it's "too hard basket"

I
have to say that I don't like entering a master bedroom via a WIR if
you're anything like most people they are in a constant state of mess
plus stuff being dropped on the floor. The only way to improve this is
to use large sliding doors with mirrors would be good.

I also
don't agree with looking through a WIP from the kitchen to see any view,
the purpose of a pantry is for storage but to also cover up any mess.
This blocks quite a lot of your out look and reduces storage taken up by
a large window.
My suggestion to place the Pantry in the
corner and back over the stair space would be a much better option, this
still offers a large kitchen window with out door servery.

I have tried working your master again, with trying to keep the bed facing the window as you suggested.

Moved the laundry backing onto the bathroom for plumbing access and easy access from the kitchen, all of this to try to give you a WIR and Study/dressing room etc.

Moved the wood burning fire by placing a new updated insert into the brick fireplace.

Changed the entry wall and opened up others to give lots of open plan, light and views out towards the new pool entertaining, will you be including an outdoor kitchen/BBQ along with shower and WC to function with this new area. The current external stairs makes easy access to and from the kitchen. cheers PS: sorry about the drawing purely for ideas.

Looking back over what you thought you could do has made me try another time with the kitchen and pantry along the back wall as you suggested and adding in the french doors you had planned to match the others. The kitchen cam be reduced but I think you house with open plan a big kitchen would work. cheers

Hi oklouise

I was very interested to see how you were able to
incorporate the sink etc into the Butler’s Pantry and use the window as a
servery. What a great idea but my only concern about leaving the kitchen where
it is, that it doesn’t incorporate the downstairs room with the rest of
the house to create the open plan living I was hoping for.

The master bedroom is a winner although I would
like the bed positioned centre to the feature window but feel with a couple
small changes this could be done.

Thank-you again for your input and I really appreciate
you taking the time to help!

the rumpus and kitchen are too far apart to work together as one space... consider removing the wall of the living room to create the open plan areas.., there are already so many doors and windows upstairs and keeping the kitchen where it was has the most wall available for appliances and the pantry with fridge, sink and dw without restricting movement around the rooms and out to the balcony... Try the original dining room as a family room (adding glass doors to separate from the new open plan area?) and keep downstairs for a rumpus or theatre media room ...i've included another option for the master suite with the bed centred to the window and rearranged the ens and wiw to avoid unnecessary extra hallways but this bed position is a hike for whoever sleeps on the far side of the bed...

This new plan gives you the bed centered to the window as per you brief.

Looking back at your original plan and then your new plan, indicates to me that what you didn't like about your original plan was that it didn't open up to the outside view but closed it in. Your new plan tried to over come that.

The plan above now has the pantry once again blocking the outlook from the kitchen/dining,

To keep some of this outlook you would need to keep the pantry door open. I would really re consider this idea, but it's your choice the final outcome is all yours.

Try hanging a sheet up over the existing sink to cover the same space this will give you an idea of what view you will lose when the pantry door is closed, without the sheet will give you an idea of the view looking through the pantry, not ideal

There's also a suggestion to close the existing dining room off with doors,( keeping original) when these are closed that view is eliminated as well.

You mention that you wanted the rumpus as part of the open plan, that could never happen because it's on it's own floor and separated. This room will remain similar use as before but could become a passage way between the pool and the rest of the house, in particular to access the bathroom.

The open plan that you would love will need to include Kitchen/Living/Family/Dining. as one space, the dining could have glass French Doors to let light and the view through into the house. cheers

To explain what I'am trying to get at is that all that has been done
is to box in the existing sink space with walls, with no actual pantry
space gained.

. ie: there is no storage on the wall where the fridge is within the
pantry (by putting the household fridge in the pantry will mean that the
door will be mostly open) plus no wall storage across the sink wall,
you are pretty much left with what you already had for actual Pantry
storage, but now you have this extra room in front of the window. Sorry I
don't get it and think it is a big mistake.

i agree that main fridge and sink and dw in any pantry is a mistake

Hi siriuskey

I apologise for not replying to you earlier but I have been reviewing your last plan over and over wanting to use the layout of the kitchen but concerned about the other changes. My main concern was the wiw/laundry area and the loss of a room, either the study or bed 4. But the idea gave me food for thought and I have been trying to work out a solution. Where there’s a will there’s a way!

I can see exactly what you mean about having the Butler’s Pantry in front of the window which was a major concern of mine even though I thought the servery was a really good idea. Thank-you for taking the time to point this out …and in such depth which would’ve been very time consuming for you!

I must admit it was a surprise to see the kitchen placement in your last layout. I would never ever have thought about doing that but loved the idea!

I have tweaked the plans a little by simplifying some of the changes and adding a few of my original ideas and I think I have come up with a solution. I will be very interested on your thoughts!

I placed the existing furniture (to size) into each of the rooms to see how it works with the new layout. Oh… and I love your suggestion about being able use the dining/family rooms as either!

I have also left the wall between the family room and lounge to see how it works before removing it completely but opened it up with double doors allowing entry from the front door to the main area...and a view of the fireplace is always welcoming.

It’s a great idea for a toilet and shower to service the pool area under the deck downstairs…I think that would work as there’s no limestone there (and no we’re not in SA) but I’II look at that once I get organised with these plans!

Thank-you again for your time and help…your feedback on my ‘tweaking’ would be greatly appreciated!

Hi there, sorry I ran out of time yesterday as after my long winded posts I forgot to mention that your wanting to try and tie the upstairs with the rumpus was obvious as per your drawings and that meant moving the kitchen.

With the stair case down to the rumpus being opened up to the upstairs space by either, Black steel railing, glass or Hip Height Gyprock wall depending on your style. You would need to be able to close off the rumpus room downstairs for noise and heating.

You are very clever with your drawings, mine not so good and it makes it much harder to get my ideas across.

I will try not to mess too much with your plan as at a glance it's looking very good. cheers

I have opened up the zones again as when you arranged furniture in them it actually showed how small they are and it would allow better space not to close off. You could however close off the dining and remove the doors opening into that space, the following doors would be lovely and still allow light and view, they can be done with fixed side panels with doors as well. I will take a look at the laundry and study again tomorrow cheers

http://byvincenzo.com/projects/steel-windows-doors/

I stumbled on this site ‘Design Dilemma’ and decided to ‘put it out there’ for help on my reno plans which I’d been struggling with for quite some time.

oklouise and siriuskey you both answered my plea and over the next couple of weeks spent your time to help with the layout and design, bouncing ideas back and forth and in doing so achieved the perfect result!

I can’t thank-you both enough for your comments, ideas and time you’ve given me.

The feedback has been invaluable… and now it’s time to renovate!

Thank you for allowing us to be part of your plans to renovate your home, as the owner you can get too close to things and everything can become a bit blurred with the pressure to make the right decisions

You have a great sense of style and I must mention Plan drawing.

The shower & WC downstairs to service your new pool will be a plus, this can also double for use with the Rumpus Room if used for Media/Guests/Parents retreat, you won't have to climb the stairs.

So looking forward to any updates and additions you make to your lovely home

There's a lot of options you could explore. If you haven't already, I'd suggest to work with a professional who can come into your home to give you an expert opinion and, make sure you achieve that flow between each room that you mentioned.

Otherwise, at first glance I would suggest, unless you're an extremely clean and tidy person then it's best not to have the butler pantry/kitchen on display. If you really want to create a connection with the kitchen and pool area, you could switch around the dining and kitchen area. Then, you could also open the wall between the existing lounge and family area. Otherwise if you want to keep the kitchen in the same space, you could simply re-orient the island bench.