Hi Mel, You have the right idea to place kitchen on south wall. I wouldn't mind laundry over there too if possible. The more north wall for living and sun light the better. I believe a generous pantry can be waltzed in with modified bathroom layout and kitchen having a similar layout to what is shown here. If you wish to supply clearer dimensions I'm happy to play! Also lets try to avoiding the internal toilet we can look straight at as we entry home and walk down the hall. Windows to kitchen even with fence view is excellent for cross vent, light and can have outlook to hanging herb baskets. The good old garage at the rear using miles of land for drive! The latest craze for installing by-fold doors is great but they do not allow for small inlet of fresh air such as is required in cold weather. A few windows will providing air movement and cross ventilation much safer than having to leave a door open. New models of sliders are preferable (if you can clean tracks easily) as the doors are out of the way and not a walking into hazard. Good luck. Margot

Our island is 900 depth, 2400 wide, with a sink in the middle (opposite the cooktop), which works well for us. Plenty of prep area either side of the sink (mind you, it's a single undermount sink, about 500mm wide, with no drainboard). If we were going to use the island for actual meals, ours is only deep enough for a person either side of the sink. So, if you're thinking of having the island as a dining area, go to the 1200 depth. Just walk around it to clean it. On the other hand, if the island is going to be for prep, and a place for guests to prop up a glass of wine and chat while you're getting dinner, 900 is fine. Our dishwasher is to the immediate left of the sink, and we have pull out waste bins underneath the sink. We have 1200 mm space from island to the wall side and the range top, and about the same to the other ends. Our fridge, which isn't huge, is in a 900 mm+ cavity which would be big enough for a deeper fridge. It's in relatively the same place your fridge is, and works fine there. Hinges are on the non-kitchen side of the door, so it opens into the kitchen. Cabinets beside it are a bit more in depth, so fridge and cabinets line up nicely. 850 for your fridge seems reasonable to me. I wouldn't put that study where you have it: I think you'll need all of that butler's pantry for butlering type storage. My 5 cents worth based on new house, new experience, absolutely no kids in the equation!

Thanks for all your replies and feedback. I haven't provided a lot more detail as the location of the kitchen/living areas go will dictate how the rest of the layout flows. This is going to be our forever home. We do not have children yet but planning to start a family soon. We are definitely relocating the stairs to the side of the property regardless as its current location is not really optimal. Louiab's point about losing that connection from the living areas to the garden is what we are concerned about, hence one of the option is to just open up the ground floor, keeping the kitchen and living downstairs and having bedrooms on the first floor. A third option would be have a formal living area at the rear of the first floor and have stairs connecting down to the kitchen and courtyard. That way, we can open up the ground floor to the courtyard and still keep the city skyline view in a common area.

Thankyou to you all for your input. A lot of great advice and ideas. It’s only my husband and I. As it’s our future retirement home. So main bedroom isn’t an issue. As we both are up early . We have added bulk head on entries to ensuite to help divide the room a bit. Entry we like as is. As end wall will be a big feature wall. I’m half inclined to turn is And bench around but the hubby wants to leave it 🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️ I think we will end up with a clear island bench. Possibly put dishwasher and main sink in butlers . Butlers sink over with the stove. Other end with theatre and BEd 2 and 3 will be closed off unless family and visitors are with us. So won’t be used much at all. Was another bedroom there but we deleted one .so rooms are huge. We moved garage from the other side of the house so it will be closer to the shed and saved another driveway, that’s why the patio 1 is there as a walk through to carry groceries in etc from the car. Always said I’d never build again. I hate making decisions and find it very hard to visualise things 🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️😂😂😂 Have our joinery consultation next week so wish me luck and I’ll let you all know the outcome😉 Thankyou again for your advice.