Sounds like an exciting project. Love the idea to reclaim the wardrobe and close off the hallway door to create another wardrobe. Another idea could be to knock out the wall out between the laundry and kitchen. A custom build pantry, fridge and washing/dryer cupboard built, similar to this pic? You could then free up some depth in the kitchen giving you some space to move and create as well as providing space for an extended island bench. A new window extending the length of the kitchen would also look amazing.

Just some food for thought...

Willoughby · More Info

my suggestions include rearranging the entry hall and creating back to back storage out of the old hallway but retains the original central position of the sliding doors for easier furniture arrangements and walkway through to the outdoor entertaining with a modest galley kitchen and generous dining area with space for free standing storage and the laundry pantry ...extra counter space could be created by making the kitchen counters deeper than the standard 60cm and adding a wide servery outside the kitchen window

From the style of your home I would suggest that you probably have a raftered roof which relies on on some internal walls for support of the rafters, whereas newer homes have trussed roofs. Best to get professional advice about removing internal walls (in these initial design stages), some of which may be load-bearing. If you do have internal load bearing walls then if you can design around them (rather than removing them) will save you big dollars in structural costs.

Best of luck

Dr Retro

of Dr Retro House Calls

Adding a few more ideas that you might consider keeping the front of the house with the sloping wall. Before Removing any walls you need to get a building inspection to check for any load bearing walls that would need support this can be done with Beams and or support posts cheers

Theres a few things I'd do (and not).

Look at increasing kitchen by combing it with laundry and forget about a butlers pantry, just go with floor to ceiling cupboards. A laundry in cupboard also works quite well for some people. Baulch Services is correct with combining it all.

Removing robe from bedroom is ok as is extending into passage. However this'll all add costs every step of the way. Costing more and more as it snowballs.

I'd just leave the robe as is but renovate it all so it like its always been there.

I would suggest to engage professional assistance with the layout as digging to deep could be a costly exercise such as demolishing walls, replastering and renovating.

Always keep in mind that a quality renovation with new fit out and without knocking down walls can really improve a dwelling. Only consider demolishing a wall if it massively improves the space, sometimes open plan isn't improving the space but adding a wall can. Consider how you use the space not what looks cool in glossy pictures.

Fabulous project you have, keep us posted!

Thank you everyone, your advice has been really valuable. I am intending on engaging a designer, but I wanted to get some more perspectives before I do. As I said before I'm keen to keep the character of my home but bring it into the 21st century and make it functional. I'll keep you posted on how I progress.

Hi Seren, You appear to have a very good grasp on the way forward
for your new house, very exciting. As per normal the agents plans leave a
lot to be guessed and with limited other info, like who's going to be
living there, are you working from home, Aspect etc etc.

You will
and have already received a lot of interesting helpful ideas for your
consideration, this will be helpful when you proceed with your chosen
local Pro after having lived in the house for 6-12 mths to get a better
understanding of the flow and use etc

I would also like you to add to this.

Butlers
Pantries are a Fad and were originally built in house holds that had a
Butler or employed some one to clean/cleanup for them. This space is
much better to be included in the actual carefully planned kitchen,

Laundry,
I don't agree with it being combined with the current kitchen in that
very small space, where do you put dirty laundry and baskets full of
either clean or dirty, there's not enough floor space, so will make a
very small kitchen even smaller

Ensuite and WIR I don't think
that they are a must, another fad, when your 3 bedroom 1 bath home was
built they did the right thing with making the toilet separate to the
bathroom to allow for better function.

I love spaces that can be multi functional and I'am not talking about Media rooms.

Bedrooms
can be so much more and yours appear to be of good size but we won't
know until correct measurements are taken. Bedrooms are great spaces to
get away to with a comfortable chair or two to read and yep watch TV,
these days they take up so little space and as I'am not the football
loving kind it works for me.

Home office Study, Don't put in your
bedroom, horrible, that's why in my plan even though the space is small,
I have suggested a separate Landry, a Pantry/Study/computer looking out
into the rear garden. A pantry only needs a wall of narrow shelves to
store appliances and food stuff in Containers, I don't want to stand in a
Pantry doing dishes!. That's why we have open plan kitchen family rooms
to spend time together, formal dining rooms aren't necessary.

Yes,
to remove walls is a bit more complicated than not having to, I have
experience with this having helped remove a large brick wall in our
Federation house to allow for a combined kitchen and family room which
was the best thing we did. Hubby and a builder neighbour fitted the two
steel RXJ's, I was on brick removal duty with a wheel barrow. ( We had a
family engineer approve this work). There wasn't enough space to build
out and have a pool, so we chose to go with a pool instead.

Your
house as far as can be seen appears to have a reasonable amount of
land, so a connected Pavillion might be the best solution going forward
to give you more space.

Can't just allow the Pro's to make long Posts
Take your time and keep us posted cheers

Congratulations on your Award Dr Retro, well done cheers

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