@Lynne: thank you for your thoughts and comments. This house was built with some feng shui in mind, thus these roof lines - and roof orientation. We are aware that those columns are in the way. At a first glance, the one in front of that two panel door is not load bearing, this could be removed (seriously-who on earth places a pillar in front of a sliding door?!?!?!). The other one on must remain while both on the balcony are required; although we're planning on redesigning the balcony, thus can remove/ change the location on those columns/pillars can be reinforced and then moved. We're using a 3D software (sketch up or Revit) to play with potential designs to get a feel for the look (as we don't want to waste the time of a drafts person) before commissioning someone. Although I believe we will require a designer/ assistance of where items such as the BBQ could be build (kitchen faces the SE side of the house) to ensure a good flow inside out of the house... Thanks again! Much appreciated ;-)

Hi Chris Good plan revision there may be a couple of things that may help 1. You need 3Ds to make a decision on the front, its not to difficult to do if your Building Designer has the appropriate software, in all my design I give my clients 3Ds because it is difficult to understand spatial concepts from 2D's drawings - even fro people that do it every day. 2. Internal views are often more important than external - you spend more time inside the house than outside., your neighbours my spend more time outside looking at the house. 3. Upstairs I really like the master bedroom, but one of the robe has a window in it this would mean that the clothes would become decoloured. I would remove the window. 4. Also I would remove the window next to the TV in the recreation room - TV's will increase in size and the window might not add to better viewing. In my opinion the recreation area forces people to go around the sofa - children wont they will walk over them - more fun. I think the Tv should be on the Bathroom wall and the room squared of and the real furniture put in to scale - might help a bit with the final decision, some 3D's would help. 5. There seem to be no window in bedroom 4. 6. The downstairs works well, just that the kitchen bench still has a sink in it - not very practical, and a bit old fashioned because it really does not work - tend to spill between sink - stove and fridge - wet floors are not very helpful in work areas like kitchens. Hope this is of some help Regards Michael

I was thinking of options , and basically Kates sketch would be along the lines of what I am thinking . Just some obvious things -- you have a chimney -- do you want that in your Master ? You want doors off the front Den -- no matter what you do , that will cost reasonable $$$ , as you will have to alter the framing , maybe electrical , as well as obviously cutting through bricks . Could 'just' having screens and maybe even a small roof creating a courtyard in front , using the existing front door and probably creating a better entry experience if done right , be better than that ? Same with things like having an external door from a laundry/mud room ? If that was important , personally I'd incorporate that as part of the new addition at the rear -- its way easier to design framing and walls with a door included , as opposed to modifying a 60 year old building . Basically , we could question every room , and that is what the designer should have done . Without asking , I'd come up with a totally different design , but it would be what I would do , and maybe wouldn't be what you want . And as far as adding upstairs , again personally I wouldn't . Engineering wise its difficult , matching styles is difficult , and cost will be quite a bit more per metre than adding on the rear , but you may feel the advantages outweigh the costs -- only you know .

Wow Thank you everyone. Now I’m overwhelmed haha. At the moment I shut roller shutter most of the time during the day to stop the sun damaging the piano. I’d like to be able to open the shutter during the day and let the natural light come in. The wall where the cube is right is the only spot where the sun can’t reach. I can move the photo to the left wall and have piano underneath. Big reader : the sun still get the piano where the desk is now and desk wouldn’t fit in that corner. And I really can’t have a desk by the window and work sit in the afternoon sun. And yes I need storage for documents but build in not In budget at this point in time.😔 Kate : purpose is to have a office / study and storage to store paper work and documents. MY place has small and literally no storage and desperate for any kind of storage. Can’t really be 100 percent Paperless at the moment. 😞These are the 2 that stay Desk: w120 d75 h95 Piano: w138 d58 h88 Dreamer: I’d love to have a build in cabinets etc but budget is tight. Will have to buy a storage furniture for now. I can put the piano to the corner but half of it still exposed to the sun. I can’t really install anything on the external cos I already have a roller shutter installed 😔 and I have 3m tinted on the window upstairs windows facing west too but furnitures still fade. 😞I’m thinking about installing the sunscreen roller blinds inside but I’ll do some more research. Pottys99: a long table along the window sounds good but can’t really put computer or anything electrical on the window side cos I’d like to find the way to have the windows open all the time during the day. The western sun would destroy my computer. I still haven’t repurpose the sideboard 😀 Siriuskey : as you can see in the photo the western sun still gets to where the desk is now and it will get worse in summer! But I could move piano and photo to the left wall. But cube shelf and desk wouldn’t fit in one fall I wanna replace that cube shelf anyway.