PS later on you may be able to go up over the garage for a really great light filled space that overlooks the reserve!

Have a look at this when you get time use the page numbers to read it.

https://books.google.com.au/books?id=Vrz60NEqw0gC&pg=PA59&lpg=PA59&dq=manual+for+2d+drawing+in+sketchup&source=bl&ots=UYyomAM6h7&sig=JAfoKgb84KsStgF25BakvW-jhmg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi_6cjs4drWAhWBzbwKHQ-6COIQ6AEIVTAF#v=onepage&q=manual%20for%202d%20drawing%20in%20sketchup&f=false

Thanks for that Andy. when you say design which specialty were you thinking? was it an architect? Or would an interior designer be ok?

although I'm actually now feeling pretty ok with the design aspect, probably because of everyone's comments on here, I feel I've got some very good pointers that are going to help me iron out potential issues that were in the plan I posted at the top of the thread.

With our budget we did start off hoping to stick to $50k but that's not realistic, from what our builder has told us its more likely to be over twice that. and a lot more unless we keep a very tight lid on things & do as you say, get second hand or flatpac where we can. I thought I'd start with the 'wish list' plan, get quotes on it, then substitute expensive for cheap as needed.

I love second hand kitchens, that's awesome you found one for $140 and tassie oak! win :) it would be great to see pix if you have any.

another question for you - about the waterproof sheets for bathrooms, they do look good to me but I'm concerned that these sheets wouldn't be as long lasting as tiles (and I'm gunshy because of the waterproofing problems of our existing main bath - dont want that to happen again). do you know much about them, that you could share?

Also I wasn't sure that our local people here would be familiar with them, as they are not widely used (which also means I haven't found much about their longevity on forums etc), so installation might end up being not ideal, leading to problems later. I ended up thinking that maybe we should stick with tried and true - tiles in shower and wherever absolutely necessary but economise, eg keep the shower - and the tiling - to an enclosed area, choose budget friendly tiles, and limit them elsewhere in the bathroom....

building above the garage would be fantastic.... maybe if we ever win the lotto!! :)

... And thanks for that link siriuskey! :)

oklouise .... you've been awesome with all of your plans & descriptions & i was hoping I could trespass on your patience a bit more & drill down into some more detail about this bathroom plan.

From my measurements (real measurements rather than our original floor plan... which is not 100% accurate to our actual house), it looks to me like the 2 equal bedrooms you have drawn in this plan would end up being 3450 long. The bathroom could then be 2300 wide (x 2400 long) instead of 2000 x 2400. This would give a good sized bigger dressing area and standing area in front of the vanity. Is this the way you see it too ... or am I a bit up the pole in my thinking about how things would fit?

I have also thought of another alternative to your idea.

What do you think of Bed 2 being 3300 (as per my original plan), the bathroom being 2300 and rectangle with no loo bumpout (as per your plan above), then bed 3 being 3600.

The 2 bedrooms could then be equalised this way:

- Bed 2 having a 38cm deep ikea pax cupboard

- bed3 having a 60cm deep pax cupboard.

So in effect they would look & feel the same size, but one would have a slimmer cupboard.

this would then mean that the door of bedroom 3 could have more privacy from the room opposite it in the hallway (if that makes sense) as the doorways wouldn't line up as much.... I'd love to know your thoughts on this if that is okay :) thanks so much

liz

thinking about economising made me think the basic floorplan should be planned as one but the renovation work could be divided into stages eg 1. master suite and laundry 2. family living areas and kitchen. 3. kids rooms and family bathroom and finally 4. rearrange original living area (which could could remain intact but divide the space with some wardrobes which provides the opportunity to test the size and shapes of the front rooms and add permanent dividing walls later NB always start with mum and dad's rooms 'cause they pay the bills and need the best spot first..kids are happy when mum and dad are happy!!

thanks for that idea oklouise - I'll chat that over with builder and if we have to do this we would.

although (money permitting, of course) our preference would be to do it all at once. because i think overall staging it might end up being more costly (in time, inconvenience, money, repainting, refinishing costs each time). and since building prices only seem to be rising exponentially, now seems best (although you never know if a slump is around the corner). also we will have all the trades here on site to just get the whole lot done.

ha I like your idea of fixing up mums and dads area first! :)

Hi Liz, definitely an architect or a skilled building designer...interior designers for much much later on, in fact that is the easiest dyi of the lot...painting and decorating. As I have already given you some good suggestions about how to maximise your space, think what an architect will do. I think the outlay will be returned in savings and a far better design...there are many compromises so far with your design that an expert will really nail the essentials (more puns!). The waterproof sheets the builders should know about these, should be as good as tiles/membrane..remember its not the tiles that do the waterproofing, its the membrane. I will do a bit of research..but for your budget they could be part of the solution. I think the above garage solution would make an ideal office...especially later on when the kids are at school and you have the house to yourself haha

your latest post overlapped mine and i need time to recover but my first reaction is to say aaaaaaaahhh!! and complain that you must always begin with perfect measurements but extra space is usually good news but never compromise on the wardrobe depth, better to have no wardrobe than one that's not not fit for purpose and i suggest that you leave out all biw, first as an economy (while the little kids and visting stepdaughter and house guest only need small amounts of storage) and also to make time to carefully plan the size and position of the wardrobes......i'll think about your other question and rework the plan with the new measurements...in the meantime it's essential that you check the measurements of every room, placement of every wall and doorway and i can draw up a basic plan with the existing sizes as none of our suggestions can be based on inaccurate information

sorry oklouise!!! that would be very very kind of you to draw up an actual-size plan after I've checked all the actual measurements. I'm so silly I know, I've measured everything about a miliion times. I write the measurements down on post it notes. Then lose the the post it notes. then measure again. as soon as I've remeasured the rest of the house (and not on post it notes) I'll update my plan & re-post. I think things are largely correct... but near enough isn't good enough is it! Yes we definitely can leave out the BIW initially & use our existing cupboards... but we might stump up for one in the master, an ikea one anyway, otherwise the mess would be indescribable.

andy - thanks for that extra tip about the waterproof sheets. I still have to find a waterproofer. when I do I'll have a chat about this all with him - maybe with the tiler too, I guess I'll need a tiling quote as well so that I can compare the costs.

argh, i was afraid you'd say architect... they are very expensive, the one I spoke to said $4k was his minimum charge. maybe there are some more budget friendly ones around, I'll chk it out.

Re garage ... that does sound awesome. another office/guest accommodation option (very much down the track, with potential airbnb income over summer) would be a granny flat out in the yard. for when we have a spare $70k or so laying about :). and when I have a new husband who wouldn't hate sharing a yard with airbnb-ers.

$4k is not much when considering you are spending in the tens of thousands!!! small bickies compared to the overall!! air bnbs haha (dumb name!) not sure I'd been keen on that either!! do plenty of homework on the plumbing and the tiling options..savings here..ask around who is local, who is good etc..but first things first get the design right..i fear a lot of design by committee going on here!!

my concerns with professionals is based on personal experience of three architects and two designers and i have to say that they all made serous structural mistakes that had to be expensively corrected by the builders with very disappointing compromises, they usually had one idea and no time to work through other options without (quite correctly) needing to charge for their time. This post has had more than 50 contributions and at about $100+ per hour that's the professionals' fees used up with no definite result...Despite having a basic idea of what's required we always use professionals in a ( so far unsuccessful) attempt to avoid any structural or procedural errors that the professionals should be able to avoid...the advantage of this forum is that it allows us all to share ideas and experiences so that final decisions are based on reasons that suit the individuals and we have less retrospective realisation that there's always another, sometimes better, option...whether we use a profession or not.

thanks for that Andy - and oklouise. it's good to have both of your views.

Oklouise definitely all of the advice on Houzz & on this thread is priceless, especially the ability to bounce ideas off others, to weigh up all options before going forward, & to hear peoples experiences etc.

its very helpful to know about your experiences with your design professionals. I can see that with our smaller budget we may struggle to get the best out of a professional's input - we might not be able to spend enough to get enough of their time to avoid those issues you mention.

Another of my reservations with hiring a professional (on top of the cost) was the fact we might get ideas that are terrific but don't match our budget.

and i feel that in the end, whichever direction we take will have to align with our own tastes and how we live - and we are the best judges of that.

Ultimately I'm hoping to come up with a floor plan that's as 'normal' as possible - with things as standard as possible (ironed out by Houzzers' input), and as much circulation room as possible - this would satisfy my biggest worries about design.

although if I make enquiries about a professional and manage to find one who is practical, and happy working on lower budget or small space projects, that would be good.

BTW... I already will be discussing the plans with 3 professionals - our builder (who is also a good friend of ours), a retired builder & reno vet (another family friend) and a draftsman (family member) - as well as a local real estate agent to get market info to guide the project. I think this should all be very helpful too....

Hi Liz, I'am going to flip everything.

I don't see a whole lot wrong with your existing floor plan, I think that keeping the kids and family room together is a much better choice, so I'am suggesting that to get the best use of your house and keeping within a very tight budget

Kitchens and bathrooms sell houses so also keeping that in mind, you really need to move the kitchen side ways to the new position, as it is it creates a terrible bottle neck through the house.

Keeping the family bathroom in the old position and running the bedrooms along that same wall, Beds 2 & 3 could have a lovely barn door as an extra feature to help close them off

Yes the bathroom needs some work, rotted timber but that would have to be fixed anyway.

Open plan/Family/Dining/Kitchen/ new laundry WC.

A heater within this space.

Keep Master in same position it already has an ensuite and a study.

The front room becomes Parents retreat and guests when needed.

I think we're trying to fit too much into your floor plan at too much cost, it's firstly your family home, guests aren't permanent fixtures and who knows you may get to fit out the garage as a bunk room, I don't see that as a problem as long as you're not renting it out.

I'am attaching a drawing of your floor plan with the kitchen moved and the laundry added and keeping everything else (not to scale) in the same place which will save a whole lot of money.

Wardrobes can be purchased from Vinnies etc and painted for a great cheap result

Also attaching a photo of a system for closing and opening large spaces to convert from living to sleeping like the from room.

And forget the Architect I love them but too expensive for what you are wanting within your budget, you will just need a good builder ( What does hubbie want?)

Forgot to add that garages in a country /beach area can be put to much better use as bunk room/study/rumpus/table tennis. but not for Airbnb or any other holiday accom, just finished doing that

And speaking of Professionals I think that between some of us there's a whole lot of hands on experience and knowledge to share so don't anyone go putting us down for offering that, mind you some of us do draw better than others. I grew up using graph paper and a pencil, I'am now learning to use computer's to do this cheers

very good siriuskey - thank you!! You know, your plan you've just sent (which by the way was very nicely drawn up!) is pretty much my fallback plan... if the 'wishlist' one proves to be completely out of our reach, budget-wise or if interest rates go up or something. Except you've put down on paper (well, virtual paper) what was in my head. I would have reservations about doing so few changes - namely that all our bedrooms are awfully small (except the master) & thats a constant irritation which small space solutions dont overcome .... unless you were willing to use beds that folded away during the day. Which i suppose is not entirely out of the question come to think of it! at least in a guest room. anyway thank you again, this is a good help :)

oh I also really hate now that the kids bedrooms get dining room and kitchen noise - when guests are over for dinner, or staying with us, it's very hard to get any peace because of that. but we could rip off the plaster in these rooms & put lots of sound proofing in, and get solid timber doors with seals which would probably help with that a lot.

I think i'll get this plan costed out - alongside my more involved one - to see the difference. Gosh it would be nice to spend so much less... then we could pay off our mortgage and retire! then we wouldn't need studies... ha ha

as you will have guessed, we are not rich and we never will be so yes it would be great to not splurge on things that aren't strictly necessary.

We all might win the lottery, yeh! I have been thinking about all the changes that are going to blow out and put a lot of pressure on bot of you. I couldn't read the kids bedrooms sizes but perhaps a bunk bed with a desk or play space underneath will work.

Those two beautiful little people are very soon going to be turned into.... fingers crossed, When kids get bigger they love being close to the fridge.

Re their bedrooms and noise with both having doors and the sliding barn door on the dining room wall would not only look great but help with any noise.

In good weather you could move the dining experience out onto the deck.

And finally if push comes to shove you could divide the front living room into 2 single bedrooms entering off the passage and then you will have two other spare rooms for overnight guests/extra study.

I can only imagine that by keeping the Family bathroom where it is you might just end up with a view from the bath tub to die for.

the family bath does have a beautiful view :)

Million dollar bathroom!

You already have a beautiful home and have made some great improvements already.

I have just played with the plan again and by adding a 900 passage way between the kitchen and the front living room you could have 2 rooms 1 x 4m x 2.8m and 1 x 3.1 m x2.8m.

You could change the sizes to suit 2 bedrooms or 1 bedroom and smaller study,

You can have both rooms entering off the same passage way or one off the entrance. the new passage way could also have a door to close it off at the start to reduce noise.

Just saw that the rear of your house is off the ground and could have valuable space underneath for a future usable space. cheers

Hello again, I've updated my house plans. I'm happy with this layout myself but I thought I'd pop them up in case anyone had any further comments :) thanks again for all the helpful comments from last time (well... multiple times!!! ;) ) - a lot of which I've tried to incorporate into this new plan.

Siriuskey I talked to my husband about the possibility of making fewer changes, after all. He wasn't keen unfortunately!!! so its full steam ahead with the more involved plan.

This version has no bump out for the loo in the main bathroom as was suggested by oklouise :). it means that we can keep the existing built-in in this room if we like.

also revised is the kitchen layout - it's now a lot bigger & simpler to allow getting a flatpack kitchen. The kitchen island is 600mm deep and the aisle on either side of the island is 900mm. that's narrow but I think it would be ok because there are 2 aisles, so people shouldn't get stuck the way they do in our existing kitchen.

the pocket door in the family room is more like a moveable wall of 3.5m x 2.4m (mounted on the ceiling) that - when open - retracts almost completely back into the wall between the master bedroom and kids bedroom. I know its an indulgence to include this. But because this wall is going to be built during the reno, it seems a great opportunity to create flexible zoning for the open area, which we'll be glad of when the kids are teenagers and greater privacy is desired.

the dining table would be an extension table, possibly with wheels added to easily move it around if we needed to when we had extra guests.

I'd particularly love to know if anyone who commented before feels that this is an improvement and irons out some of the main issues noticed before?

thanks in advance :)

Hi Liz, still working on it, I just thought to throw something else at you seeing that you keep trying to include the front garden view. You could have access to the garage via the laundry or from the kitchen by reducing the pantry.

Computer desk for kids these chairs can be added to the dining table when needed.

I did have a bit of trouble with a couple of the measurements but I'am sure you can see through that. cheers

it's very tight Liz, tight budget and tight house that is trying to do a lot...am not sure that it will work on either or both counts. I still think going up over the roof is the solution for the study, the kids (when teenagers) can make use of the garage space as a rumpus. if there is anywhere else on the block for a carspace then try and do that. Otherwise I stand by my comments of seeking professional help.

Hi Liz, clearly a huge amount of thought and work has been done here throwing ideas around/resolving a layout for your home. There are always almost infinite combinations/variations of a plan that you can consider/fine-tune etc to your tastes/needs etc........The question as to what is the best (and viable) solution will very much be determined by money/costs, like always. I recall a particular project I was involved with in which the client was particularly "hands-on" in the design/planning process and they had essentially had it all planned out with a similar strategy to yours with the endeavour to reshuffle everything within an existing building perimeter, supposedly for keeping cost under control. Well, unfortunately though (and as I originally advised them/demonstrated with costings) it proved clearly not necessarily the most cost effective strategy/direction, and arguably in hindsight false economy once it got into a process of literally pulling everything apart and putting it back together in the same place and arguably missing potential. This could be a similar situation. It looks like you are literally touching every room, and it will translate to a costly exercise - think $300Kmin+ (mostly likely more) depending. The question is what will all this cost you and (a) is it viable and (b) if so is that the best use of that amount of money/opportunity? I do this exercise/weigh these scenarios up for people literally for a living, and I regularly witness people (without comprehensive understanding of construction costs) making critical decision errors that either (a) unnecessarily limit the solution/potential thinking it will be too costly or (b) actually decide on strategy that is excessively expensive for minimal gain (or both ;) ). So without understanding the full site/context/existing conditions details the question I feel it worth posing could you (better?) achieve your requirements without having to go as far pulling it all apart and if you're going to spend X amount either way, is there another option (I find there usually is!) where you distribute similar budget over doing less aggressive changes/utilising existing aspects with a strategic clean extension, which potentially prove to be a more cost effective overall value-adding scenario for you and your family. All residential projects are significant financial and emotional investments. Accordingly, and logically it is worth thoroughly considering various strategies/broadform (not detailed) options considering the spend usually involved. In your case you may or may not (unintentionally) have limited the outcome potential by making the firm judgement that you must not extend beyond the existing perimeter. As the general labour/material ratios in the industry continue to adjust/(flip!) in turn, so they influence the logical/applicable design strategies involved.

Best of luck :)

there is a house near me...talking to the builder yesterday..$330k for new living room, alfresco, bathroom extensions, new large garage and redoing the old house with a new roof and some rework inside...

Yep, that's what it takes these days. If you want to keep a job under $100K think cosmetic only/minor scope, unless you happen to have a family of builders & trades who will come in and donate free labour ;) We used to be able to achieve a reasonable reno for $250K, not anymore....stack up the sub trades, add in various components, pop on the builder's margin and GST and you're not even close - heavy costs for arguably not enough value add. Unfortunately, that's the state of the industry and I'm finding increasingly the scenario people are seeking is not viable, not even necessarily due to what they can afford to borrow, but that the costs of doing it arguably not lining up with the end game value and that the banks actually won't bankroll the project even though the clients have the income.....unless it's a completely self funded situation or the land/property value is high enough to support it, we may find the larger scale renovations becoming an increasingly rarity.

Hi there

Thanks for all comments! Point taken about weighing up the costs - I guess I wanted to come up with an ideal plan and cost that out. And then if that ended up being too much, then re-thinking it.

But i can't see - when we will be redoing wet areas anyway - for good reasons - how it could be cheaper to do that and also do an extension as well?

FYI our builder gave me a price of $106k on a former plan.... it was less involved but not that much, since this plan has retained a few existing features that were changed previously. I was actually shocked by how cheap the plumbing quote came in at, it was really cheap, I'd thought it would be three times as much, and the builder said yep that looks right to me. So I dont know if when contractors do the job, do they add lots on top of their quote, or what?

But anyway I am very very glad for you giving me food for thought... of course when money doesn't allow, a job can't be done. And we would consider an extension if all the twiddles would end up costing more than it would cost to do an extension / repurpose existing rooms. Its just that I have to start somewhere. And here is where I'm starting :)

thanks again :)

and also ta Siriuskey for your extra ideas!!!! much appreciated :) I see you're getting the hang of sketch up now :)

Liz, Siriuskey, the prob with your layout above is it has access to bed 2 via the bathroom...also to keep costs down keep the kitchen in the same place. I would extend the kitchen out a little onto the verandah to provide space for the dining table. The window can be reused. Roof design may have to be nutted out. Moving the linen cupboard to the laundry in the garage will open up the hallway. As mentioned above, try and get the laundry plumbing into the floor of the garage, it looks really unsightly on the outside of the house, and will date the house back into the 1950's..

PS - just as an FYI for anyone interested here is a plan showing what would be changing.

Main bathroom and ensuite are swapping places - ie bathrooms will still be bathrooms.

Pink is walls getting demolished, all are stud walls, none are load bearing as only our external walls are load bearing.

Red is walls getting built.

yellow is windows changing. Mostly they're just being moved around, with changed room locations/sizes. They are timber, and in a timber house they apparently can be lifted out and relocated. 3 windows will be new though, costing about $1500 each.

:)

Hi Liz, Just one of my old quick sketches

Kids computer desk on other side of kitchen/living window, fridge now in place of the kids desk.

Change doorway to laundry so you get better wall space in the laundry for WM, Sink and Broom Cup Board'

Pantry and Wall oven now together with an extra tall cabinet on the other side of the entrance to the laundry.

Happy to do a better floor plan for you, I gave up on Sketchup and found a program for $25, 3DArchitect, which is old but very good and so easy to use.

It will be interesting to hear what your builder quotes, I love the large pocket doors cheers

PS> sorry I didn't finish the entrance into Bed 2, as you had on your plan

Thanks siriuskey - interesting thoughts there to consider! glad you like the pocket door idea. I love it too.

Andy pat, will have floor in garage for plumbing... but pipes will still go down outside of house, planning to hide them with something, possibly by putting an outdoor shower on that wall (ie a shower head on the garage wall with a screen behind it , colorbond maybe, this could screen off the pipe work too). Or maybe just growing a plant in front of it. Not keen to build out into verandah & shift external house wall due to external walls being load-bearing. Re keeping kitchen in same place - it is roughly being kept in same place, and if plumbing moves a bit, the plumber said that's fine as there is plenty of access underneath the house and only a subfloor not slab to go through

.

Liz: this is what a design pro does, works out what is possible - you should be able to substitute a beam for the wall that is supporting the roof, install more rafters and the external stud wall. Is it a tile or colourbond roof? Either way I would just use colourbond sheeting to extend the roof out over the deck. I suggest talking to your builder about doing this. A sliding door would be better then reusing the old window.

Also be aware that room function changes beyond a certain percentage of existing conditions can trigger varying extents of energy requirement provisions for building approval - and depending on particulars this can result in necessity for significant thermal performance upgrades (insulation, glazing spec) that are hidden/unknown costs until assessment in this regard has occurred. Strategic and experienced design decisions can negotiate this stuff, and that ultimately is the craft we practice as designers......nope, costs need to be managed in the course of the design process, not following, then you are working most effectively towards a viable/affordable option.....

I have drawn your ideas and suggest that you might use the front room as dining/office and client meeting. All within your existing foot print which saves a lot of money and fortunately for you being a timber house gives easy access for trades..

thanks siriuskey - thanks for spending time on these!!! and thats awesome you can do 3D sketches yourself.

I've also got my draftsman friend / rellie coming to stay in a few days so he'll be helping to check everything out & advise too, and I'm heading up to council tomorrow as well to ask what they'll be needing us to do - for bushfire regs etc - also getting more quotes so I can find out what is doable cost-wise!! So it's good to have some more thoughts & possibilities to consider. have a lovely evening

Hi Liz, that’s great you have a relative in the industry to discuss all this with. Re the thermal performance check out http://www.nathers.gov.au for thermal performance information. It’s not just about windows, although windows/glazing extent, positioning and specifications are significant factors to the performance. The building (if a permit is relevant) will be required to perform thermally to a certain extent and this (specification particulars) is determined by a registered energy rater or Building surveyor. It’s like how an engineer determines the structural spec, an energy rater is involved to desk with the thermal performance to meet code. Just something to be aware of when doing extensive work to existing and understand/expect most older building to require upgrades in this area that involve costs.

Thanks for that link Paul, I'll check it out. We'd be glad to improve the energy efficiency of our house, but if you hadn't pointed it out I wouldn't have realised this is something you possibly HAVE to do! And we would want to know up ahead how much any energy improvements would cost, since it might be too much & we might have to modify what we do. Anyway - thanks again.... :)

the BASIX website has a DIY assessment tool that can help identify potential issues

Hi Liz, it will be good to have the Rellie come stay and help with the multitude of decisions and good luck with Council today.

Loving the OLD program that I now have it's amazing, 2d & 3d is so user friendly, still learning just what it is capable of, it does everything.

In my most recent floor plan I show your office as being in the middle front room which I think makes sense even if it's a dining or TV lounge as you can have access to your office (behind doors) at anytime.

It also gives you a space to meet with clients who can have direct access to this room without entering the rest of your home If however it's in the bedroom, when you have incoming guests access will be restricted.

It's wonderful to see someone working within an existing floor plan and not building a MacMansion. Your Large Deck gives wonderful extra space for dining and entertaining the Xmas Mob, perfect. Merry Xmas to you all.

Thanks oklouise for that info - its super helpful- and thanks siriuskey for your thoughts & kind Christmas wishes :) glad you're happy with that program!

Council certainly was an interesting visit! especially what they said about bushfire ratings. I'll have some extra steps to take in proceeding with any window changes, thats for sure. however I'm much more enlightened now than i was before....

Thanks Paul for tipping me off that there was more at play than just making the changes to your house that you want to make. Now I'm wondering about the criteria by which houses are deemed to be changed 50% (or more) - eg if you redo a bathroom but it stays a bathroom and in the same place, is this a change? or you upgrade your kitchen in the same place? If you were happy to recommend any references/further reading about this I'd be really grateful, thanks again :)

If you "change" anything that involves a building approval then the floor area on the plans relevant will count towards the overall amount. If it amounts to beyond 50% of the existing conditions then the whole building becomes applicable to energy calculations and so you enter into up spec'ing existing areas. And yes it can often be a good thing to be doing anyway, but of course it costs money. If the total area being changes is below 50% then only the areas of new work are applicable. I'm honestly not a specialist in this area, but I have to deal with the issues naturally in the course of the design and resolution of project solutions I provide, and hence I use an energy consultant regularly and we have a way/system of working through together how best to achieve the requirements for permit. As far as I understand it's a case by case/project specific exercise and also there's various ways of negotiating/achieving the necessary performance requirements - e.g. you can play around with different levels of insulation together with a particular glazing/window spec, and depending upon circumstances you can save money one way or another. Sometimes I'll squeeze windows overall down to get it under a certain amount to not trigger requirement for expensive glass...also timber windows rate better, but if you are in a bushfire area you'll be caught out or require very expensive timber windows...it's a real juggling act in particular contexts...which is why you really need to be working collaboratively with an energy consultant/specialist to work out the best solution in this regard, as well as the other aspects of design, structure and bushfire etc. It's a true team effort ;) If you're really up for some technical reading you there is some further energy info here NCC Volume One Energy Efficiency Provisions 2016 - Australian ... but it may get confusing........Coming back to the core of it, my advice: 1. define your budget 2. list and prioritise your requirements 3. seek some preliminary advice/assistance from a seasoned designer doing this type of work to test whether or not the general concept of what your endeavouring to achieve is viable, and this depends upon the relevant context/existing conditions etc (and bushfire rating is yet another layer on top of all this), and then refine the concept from there. If you are just doing a bathroom or kitchen isolated then you can arguably do it yourself, but if you're re-jigging the whole house like it appears you are heading towards, and on a very tight budget then I'd highly recommend (to save yourself headaches and frustration going around in never-ending circles) to invest some of your available budget into front-end design, to get to a solution that works to your nominated priorities so you achieve a viable and professionally advised outcome. Trust me it will be money well spent. Have a great Christmas, and best of luck with continuing to work through it all :)

Thanks so much Paul, for your thoughts and further explanations and that link. if I'm feeling brave I'll check it out :) Hope you have a great Xmas too :)