It is a really awful plan for family living with lack of flow due to lack of circulation space.

If you consider relocating the kitchen it will provide an opportunity for more options. By relocating the kitchen I can see that there are probably three or four possible options, but would depend on your family size, and weather you wanted to include an ensuite to the master bedroom.

Yes, $120K doesn't go far when looking at new bathrooms, new kitchens, so to make the best of your dollars it is best to work within the constraints of the existing structure.

Best of luck,

Dr Retro

of Dr Retro House Calls

It is a difficult floor plan,do the bedrooms still open into each other?, I would move the kitchen into the dining with the bay window, this would separate he kitchen from the bathroom. What are the walls built with and floor? concrete slab and family that is living there

That is an 'interesting' floorplan.

How old is the house? November is Asbestos Awareness Month so don't forget to factor asbestos removal into your budget if necessary. https://asbestosawareness.com.au/asbestos-awareness-campaign/

It makes such a big difference just by swapping the kitchen with the informal dining, and who said you have to have an ensuite bathroom, the other bathroom covers that beautifully, well done Oklouise

......$120K is extremely tight...........

Whichever way you go you need to sacrifice something working within existing structure.

You could clean this whole thing up, but it would involve a project 3x the amount you want to spend........

An idea to consider......I did a job a while back where we "popped out" the side to extend a dysfunctional & very similar existing (front) bathroom. Considering the natural zoning of the house, I'd suggest considering a bathroom upgrade of the smaller bathroom to make it the large main bathroom that will be centralised to the current bedrooms.....

You then take over the current bathroom space to push new kitchen into with a laundry/butlers pantry where the current laundry is.....possibly incorporating a 2nd toilet/powder room

Bedroom 4 access is the biggest issue but probably the lesser of the evils is to have it accessed from the formal dining - possibly configured as a "study".

I'd think realistically you're talking closer to $150K-$200K min depending upon the level of finish & detail you are tying in with.

Where are you located?

Cheers PD :)

www.pauldistefanodesign.com

oklouise has done what I would suggest. Simple and straightforward not complicating the works.

The door location for bed 4 isn't ideal but I think it would still work fine.

Probably a lot of other things you could muck around with but keep it simple!

Budget is ok unless you're doing a full renovation and going to a high spec fit out.

Thank you all for your input and suggestions. In answer to some of the questions, as you might have guessed the house is a 1920's bungalow with a 1980's extension. We're in Turramurra, and learning to stay calm in Pacific Highway traffic.

The vast majority of walls are brick. The only wall that is 'plasterboard' is between bedroom 4 and the formal dining. The floors are wooden apart from blue tiles in the bathrooms and lovely lino on top of wood in the kitchen.

To Bigreader, the bathroom at the front of the house is functional. But tall people do have to be careful not to knock themselves out when standing up from the throne as the shower frame is mm away from knees. So I'm liking Paul's suggestion of extending out to enlarge that bathroom.

We have currently put wardrobes in front of the doors joining bedroom 3 and 4 as a quick fix to stop kids 'borrowing' clothes from each other.

We did contemplate knocking down and pushing the wall back between bedroom 4 and the formal dining room to relocated the bathroom access via a 'new' corridor, but your suggestions look far better.

Thanks Macyjean for the asbestos reminder. I suspect the roof space could contain some with a property this old.

Thank you OKlouise for the floorpan suggestion. Husband is quite excited by your solution

We appreciate all of you help. Thank you :)

Have a look at the link I posted. Asbestos might be in various not very obvious products, lino for example.

So the house is not on a concrete slab? That is a good thing when looking at changing plumbing.

Very pleased that the floors are mostly timber that makes moving the kitchen easier and renovating bathrooms, You could very easily have Asbestos lining the walls of the kitchen and bathrooms we have in our 80's house.

what's the distance from the outside wall of the small bathroom to the side boundary? check with local council regulation and your neighbour to clarify side set back requirements for an extension to the small bathroom...btw while thinking about improvements consider double glazing and solid core internal doors that can make a big difference to modifying street noise

One central/main properly appointed and positioned bathroom is better than 2x arguably compromised bathrooms. 2 toilets are important to achieve but you can get away with a single bathroom + a powder for the scale of this home, which practically is a 3 bedroom + study. To achieve a true 4 bedroom with a properly appointed master suite you're talking a complete overhaul or significant extension/renovation which is well beyond the budget. What you want to do is try and open up the back of the house more to connect to the rear area and if you take the opportunity to take over the current bathroom with kitchen/laundry/powder you'll end up with increased flexibility with the living areas (formal & casual) & more functionally zoned set-up that makes sense and keeps the bedrooms/bathrooms at the front and the living areas to the north/rear and minimising awkward bathroom runs across/through the living areas

You re-renovate that bathroom at the back in it's current position you'll still spend similar money but not address the major issues. What you want to do with these projects is make changes/spend money to make big improvements to the way it works........bathroom refits in the same place when clearly it's the wrong place are an expensive renovation decision as whilst it may be slightly better and newer, it a "one dimensional" design move

My suggestion is to use the front bedroom as a study with access to the bathroom/ensuite via the study/guest, this would make a master suite. Wall across the formal living room with large cavity doors opening into the new passage for a Media Room. Rear of house has kitchen Family opening via large sliding stacking doors to the alfresco.. Banquette dining setting in Bay window. Bathroom and laundry remaining in same position with a privacy step out from the bathroom into the family. The bathroom/laundry is in the perfect position for pool access, no dripping water through the house, it is also a good powder room position for guests.