your description is excellent although the dimensions of all the rooms will make suggestions more specific and please include a site plan showing driveway side fences and any garage or other buildings on the block

Thanks so much @oklouise! We will post dimensions when we get home on Monday.

How many people will be living in the house and what are your requirements for now and projected say 5 years?

After looking over the plan I would keep all of the living areas around the kitchen and orientate all of the bedrooms to the rear around the deck. A structural check for removal of walls would be the first thing I would check to see if opening up the living /kitchen area will be possible.

It might also be a good idea to move the laundry to near the bathroom and other services but this depends on access to the washing line and will also be driven by budget. Good luck!

Thanks so much everybody for engaging!

Sorry for the slow reply--we've been drowning in boxes and packing paper since we got home on Monday. Here is a pic of the house with dimensions, the original rooflines (yellow) and the additional rooflines (green). Sorry it's all a bit hard to read!

yes it is a bit of a quirky layout - but for that budget realistically you'll be limited to cosmetics/fit-out upgrades and minimal alterations - there's no way that budget will stretch to cover both renovation + an extension. Advise you seek professional advice in regards to options and likely costs involved one way or the other..., as off the bat, if we were approached with this general brief & budget, we'd be saying likely double or triple it to get it properly reconfigured....the tricky thing on these is where do you draw the line and whether or not it's actually worth doing anything unless you are able to achieve an overall result that makes sense. The issue is that the house zoning is all over the place and if you're going to do anything the whole thing needs to be pulled together to make more sense and function more practically with say main living, master area & secondary bedrooms/kids zones properly organised and positioned so as you correctly identify, you are not doing the "wierd" transition across certain spaces into another than doesn't make sense in terms of the overall residence.

Whilst you may have a reasonable amount of existing space, by the time you get it working practically to your needs by trying to rejig within the existing perimeter, you'll be staggered as to what the costs will be. This is a classic example of what we deal with regularly, and more often than not these types of projects scopes will involve (a) increase of budget to achieve the scope and (b) a delicate and carefully though through solution that minimises work to existing and consolidates the spend as cost effectively as possible, which typically is achieved by some form of "clean" demo & extension solution......these days it is often proven false economy to rework within existing building perimeter unless it's confined to relatively cosmetic only upgrades....

Hope this helps & bests of luck

Cheers PD :)

unfortunately the details are impossible to read but you should plan a whole house renovation and then divide the work into stages as funds allow but we need to know dimensions and answers to all our question to make any realistic suggestions...look forward to more information

i'm wondering what your plans are for the existing bedrooms, what are the walls, floor and roof made out of and the condition of the existing bathroom, laundry and kitchen...my initial idea would be to add an extension to include a new family bathroom, ensuite and hallway and move the kitchen to the carport side of the dining area with entry through mudroom laundry and use original bed 3 as a pantry and study...having the luxury of enough external space i suggest that an extension with two new bathrooms will be a more cost effective way of improving the house without sacrificing any of the existing rooms...in my experience changing existing rooms to bathrooms is a very expensive exercise with lots of money spent on demolition and compromise...my suggestions would probably use all your budget and more so i suggest that you consider priorities and plan a whole house renovation and do the work in stages

if you like this basic idea some extra detail of measurements around the fireplaces and laundry and a photo of the roof would make it possible to make better plans

Wow, thanks again everyone! You're all so generous to offer such great advice! Apologies for the illegible dimensions. If it's still relevant, here are the dimensions of all the rooms:

• Bedroom 2: 3.3 x 4.6m
• Sunroom: 5.5m x 3.3m
• Bathroom: 2.0m x 2.0m
• WC: 1.5m x 0.9m
• Study: 3.5m x 3.3m
• Bedroom 1: 4.7m (incl 0.6m wardrobe) x 4.5m
• Kitchen: 3.4m x 4.4m
• Dining: 3.6m x 5.8m
• Front lounge: 5.5m x 3.8m
• Laundry: 2.8m x 1.8m
• Bedroom 3: 5.9m x 2.8m

@Paul Di Stefano, you've given us a lot of food for thought. I fear you're right about the budget constraint, and it's an interesting point you make about the false economy about reworking the layout instead of a partial knock-down / rebuilt.

@siriuskey, your suggestions are genius! We hadn't considered simply adding a corridor to the study / 4th bedroom! Love the idea of a deck connecting the dining area to the back bedroom.

@oklouise, I really like your ideas for the back part of the house. Adding an extension with two bathrooms may be cheaper than converting an existing part of the house to a bathroom, and would solve the odd layout problem... Good idea! In reply to your questions: the walls are made of brick, the floors are a mix of polished floorboards and carpet (we will most likely tear up the carpet), and the roof is tiled. Currently, this is how we're using the existing rooms (as of a week ago!):

• Bedroom 3: hobby / gym room for now, possibly a child's bedroom in the future
• Bedroom 1: master bedroom
• Bedroom 2: spare bedroom
• Sunroom: study (maybe with a sofa bed for visiting kids)
• Study: not sure... maybe a library...

I've also attached a photo of the roof from google earth. The tin roof on the far right is the carport, which was not included in the floorplan.

Given the likely costs in 'fixing' the floor plan as you've all pointed out, we're thinking about what a light touch approach would look like as a first stage. This would probably focus on the living areas and ignore the weird layout at the back of the house for now. The thing is that a second bathroom (or at least toilet) is quite high on the priority list but is tricky without a full renovation…

One possibility is to put a toilet or full bathroom into the laundry, and move the laundry to a cupboard. That seems like it might be affordable as the laundry already has plumbing. What do you think of that? Would it be odd to have a bathroom off the dining area?

So a light touch approach at this point could be:

• knock down the wall between living / dining (and tear up the carpet in the living room)

• update the kitchen

• put a toilet / bathroom in the laundry????

• upgrade window coverings etc. throughout the house

• add a deck outside the kitchen / dining

What do you all think? Are there other easy improvements you'd add at this stage?

Sorry, one last quick comment. oklouise asked about the condition of the bathroom / kitchen / laundry. They're useable but a bit dated. Probably all from the 90s. The kitchen cabinets are a bit damaged / swollen in places (albeit functional), so replacing the kitchen is also a high priority.

Hi Amelia, as this is a 3-4 bedroom house please don't put the laundry in a cupboard, you could look at adding a separate toilet to the laundry, stepping back towards the fireplace, this would also be best when coming off the dining

looking at the roof and understanding that you don't immediately need the extra bedrooms and bathrooms i would be very reluctant to remove the major internal walls and prefer to keep the separation between living and kitchen/dining to retain the feeling of the vintage house and for a cosy sitting area for cold Canberra winters....bedroom three has plenty of space to sacrifice enough to enlarge the laundry and include a small bathroom with or without moving the kitchen to the carport side and including a mudroom and pantry and opening the updated family dining area to a new rear deck...what is the condition of the dining room fireplace and wher are the doors and windows in the existing laundry?