Hi Victoria, I can see that you are very capable of drawing your own plans so I have a few ideas scratched out for you keeping the lounge and fireplace as parents retreat/media/guest. and expanding the bathroom for family. The bedroom on the left becomes Master with the expanded room next door for WIR and Ensuite using back to back plumbing between both bathrooms.

I have put the kitchen along the long wall you can have both a pantry and Laundry next to the bedroom or you can move one or both to the other side of the kitchen, And have opened up the wall next to the alfresco. You still have 3 bedrooms/2 bathrooms/ plus retains the large living room with fireplace at the front of the house., I wanted to step the 3rd bed and laundry/Pantry back a bit to widen the passage way

Cheers

Thank you both so much for your ideas.. Some great ideas to think about. I have had another play with the plans. Do you think there is enough room for the kitchen, dining, and lounge in the width of the house (9.7m)? I do like the idea of everything facing the side/back yard and the big doors we will have off the lounge.

I'm not sure exactly how to splay the wall, but i've just narrowed it where the WIR is.

Thank you so much for all of your Siriuskey. I would love to keep the lounge at the front with the beautiful fireplace. But we really need 4 bedrooms.. I have played with so many variations of what you have done.. Certainly good ideas.. I will run it by my husband.

Hi there,

How many will be living in the house,

A computer desk off the kitchen would also be a good addition.

A pantry at one end of the kitchen and a laundry at the other with access to out doors.

By making the 2 bedrooms at the front of the house the master suite makes the passage way/entrance simple, with a set back behind the existing lounge to break the length of the passage, but it could have a linen cupboard placed there as well.

Keeping the old lounge as a multi purpose space, that could be parents retreat.media.guests/4th bedroom would work for different owners, young families/teenagers/older parents. Having a separate space to get away to is very important in open plan houses.

. Adding a covered Vergola alfresco area off the new family room would give extra space, this can be opened or closed depending on the weather.. cheers

there's some discrepancies in the measurements and you should check the actual measurements against those in the original plan, especially the internal size of the bathrooms, what's the distance between the house and the side and back fences and the side of the old rumpus room to the fence?.. with an external door for the laundry where's the clothesline? do you have any plans for the front patio, does the house have any extensions to the original roof and are all the walls timber framed inside and out?...with a more modest master bedroom there's enough space for a separate study or playroom, use some of the hallway for a separate toilet and vanity and moving the wall between the front bedrooms makes space for a small hallway and entry foyer with biw and storage and the kitchen and dining areas are interchangeable in this direction and use space better than across the width of the room

9.7m is tight for a kitchen/dining/living set up, but it can be done if you're strategic with furniture/layout and also the kitchen/island dimensions. A few hundred mm out the wrong way and it will feel awkward so have to be careful. To get a really spacious feel here you could consider a large L kitchen set-up (no island though), which can work....it ultimately comes down to your priorities and choices/requirements with the furniture and balancing between these elements. A galley kitchen with island minimum I say needs min. 2.5m width, and thats with only a 700mm deep island. as a rule of thumb I like a min. 3.6m dining width and then this gives you 3.6m left for the Living, which is not massive, but could work with correctly positioned and scaled furniture. My advice (which is consistent across the board) is to always start with clarifying what is most important to you and prioritise our decision-making accordingly. I may be giving away trade secrets here but really all we (professionals) do is "professionally" advise on/make the particular decisions that clients have the capacity to make for themselves, but we generally (with experience) have the knowledge of which order to best make them for successful outcomes, and hence achieve quality solutions quicker and arguably in a more balanced manner, also with the underlying understanding of associated costs one way or another, which is always critical. That's essentially what the whole process boils down to - prioritised and informed decision making. Know why you are changing something i.e. what are the pros and cons. It's not right and wrong, it's about balance. Think of it in that way and you'll move closer to confidently resolving the solution best for you, which ultimately is what this is about, that is what you need and prioritise as important. There will always be compromises, but the trick is to minimise them ;)

I would still prefer the kitchen island and dining table running the other way this would give a better and more spacious position for the dining table as I think that with the stools and chairs around the table and access to the laundry this layout would become very restrictive. This layout also places the dining table within the kitchen, I also wouldn't like to be sitting on the lounge and viewed when the front door was opened,

That set-up (assuming your referring to oklouise's plan) would arguably work without the island, and I suppose depends upon personal preferences......I think though we'd all be able to provide more accurate/appropriate advice with some further information/detail of the existing say what the particular outlooks to the external spaces are and have these important decisions influenced to a certain degree by the particular relationship/opportunities with/to the external spaces, which in my opinion are equally relevant when considering a layout solution. Other comment is that I'd endeavour to maintain consistency of scale throughout and reference to the existing 50's building - whilst you can technically fit/jiggle/squeeze additional spaces into the plan, there is the risk of compromising the spacious scale of some of those rooms, such as the existing lounge, that if you divide off to get say a WIR into it, it won't feel like a master bedroom scale. Think 4.5m x 3.6m min for a master. I reckon there's probably more efficient ways of say accommodating an office/desk nook, but then again, without fully understanding needs/requirements we're really only just throwing ideas around, rather than resolving with informed decision making.

I support the idea to keep the existing lounge space, preferably as a Multi function space. It is ideal to have at least two larger rooms to off set against all the other smaller rooms. Having no Idea how many people will be living in the house it's difficult to say.

Also the house could likely have some 50's details that should be considered especially in the original part of the house which includes the fireplace.

Imagine entering the house looking down the narrow passage way and then immediately looking to the right through full height pocket doors (Glass and steel or solid) into the living room at the fireplace, with day time light coming in through the windows, beautiful. cheers

Wow. Thank you for all of the suggestions/ideas. oklouise I love your design. The measurements for the front lounge space are slightly different to what was on the original plan. It is 5.1m x 3.95m. So I don't think there is quite enough space to have the WIR in the room without comprising on the space for the master bedroom. However, we could do a similar layout, using a BIR instead of a WIR. But maybe that would not be as luxurious for a Master Suite.

The house will be for my husband and I, plus a 13 year old, 10 year old and a baby in the not too distant future.

The house is on a subdivision, with no back yard - only a small walkway between the next house. We are thinking of adding a dividing fence with a hanging wall garden and decking to pretty up the space.

This is the back of the house:

To the left of the house - from the Rumpus room, we will move the shed and there is a narrow yard. We are thinking a lovely decked area with a pergola and a small grass
area that runs down the side of the house to the front. The photos are
from the previous owner, so the yard is a mess.. but I think it will come up nicely.

This is the side of the house:

That's the same as our family spacing, we had a 13 yr old daughter a 10yr old son and then another son, you will need space for a nursery close to the master.

You might get some ideas for small outdoor areas off Sunday's Block reveal, along with their gardens, some with pools they also have breezeways to do which is a similar situation between you and your neighbour cheers

would love to make some alternative suggestions but we need correct measurements of the original house... please confirm measurements of all the rooms especially the bathroom and laundry...any option to save existing walls and plumbing will be much more cost effective than moving walls if you don't need to and new plans need correct measurements

this variation has a more generous family bathroom with separate powder room and there's enough space in the master bedroom for biw so there's the option for a small tv room, baby's room, study or wiw (with solar skylights) and a combined laundry pantry with or without external door

Hi there Victoria, Just trying to add a few more ideas, with a separate Pantry/Landry cupboard (this can easily be ducted and when the doors are closed very quite).

Fridge and appliances all along the wall, the island can be what ever size you would prefer.

It would also be nice to have a computer desk next to the kitchen by the window.

I would also prefer the living area off the sliding doors to the alfresco area

Bedroom 4 could have full height sliding doors coming together at the corner this can be close off or left open for times when extra space is needed for the family.

And built in Wardrobes in the master would work best, just have something that blends in and looks special.

Sorry the last plan had things move so was incorrect, you can still add the extra bathroom space that OK has drawn for you, everything depends on Budget.

While the front porch is lovely it would make far better use as internal space for a family of five especially with the children being so far apart, we used a small verandah off our master bedroom for our last late child.

Later on the verandah space can become a study & WIR.

Hope you picked up some good ideas from the Block for the small space between houses, Fence, a nice gravel with stepping stones and the special bamboo that everyone is using. cheers

Thanks so much for all of your help!! It's absolutely fantastic to get such great ideas..!

Ahh.. Budget... We are kind of fluid with our budget, in the sense that, we can potentially postpone the extension until we can afford it.. I have no idea how much this will cost to do.. $60k, $80k... ? Over $100k..??

We now need to get a couple of quotes done, now that we have some ideas on what we are trying to achieve.

I would love to extend out to where the front porch is, but I was worried that would require a major renovation and might add a massive cost..? Any thoughts..?

Ps.. Love watching the block.. and have definitely got some great ideas for the house from it!!

I just love the Chippie couple, but Sticks and Wombat are infectious . I would have a builder check out the Front porch it was just perfect for our new baby., Keeping plumbing in as close as possible to original positions helps, looks like you might need a 2 part plan, (1) kitchen/ laundry/ ensuite/Porch if possible and lots of paint any photos

It looks a really lovely house as it is. Any Porch shots

If we don't extend, we are thinking of centering the window. Then we will reclad the house in scyon linea weatherboard..

Well that wasn't what I had imagined, I thought it was under the same roof as the house, speak to a builder and see what he says, most likely would need council approval and plan.