Hi Sarah, hope you enjoyed your travels last night, that's something we have spent our lives doing plus living in different countries. Do look into the attic room/s they are lovely and the Velux skylights very unobtrusive, look great and if positioned correctly take care of venting any hot air, as I mentioned ours were pivoting ones and could be locked open in several positions. I much prefer these to dormer windows, you don't really notice them. The stairs were built off site and lifted into position and installed, built in. At the time we did ours a very good friend a builder did the same but just completely opened the whole ceiling space right out towards the gutters into a large bedroom play study area for his daughters, also using Velux windows. Glass ceilings, like Velux windows have been around for years, believe me I know, we're both getting older. Velux windows can be used as glass ceilings in opening and non opening configurations. I would love to see you keep the outdoor loo as well and updating the old shed into a new connecting space to the house, perhaps a glass breezeway. I will have another look at your plan again over the weekend. I love your front iron gate as well, auto sliding driveway gates work really well and would really fit with your carport. My brother in law put in a tall timber sliding gate at his last home, lovely cheers

This is really a job for a professional, as there are so many implications for town planning, fire and acoustic separation between dwellings (covered under the building regulations), legal (are you on seperate titles, or is it strata titled), front setbacks, and structural implications. I haven't seen too many houses that have been subdivided into two units that are on two seperate titles in recent times as the complexities are so challenging with the current planning and building regulations. Your project will need a lot of research and careful management of the bureaucracies, depending on where you live. Your best bet would be to start with a local professional who is familiar with the local planning laws and council requirements. You will find it a lot easier to limit your new work to the existing building envelope. Best of luck, Dr Retro

Love the photo posted by Dr Retro of brick house with dark joinery. I would paint the boards on second level above front door, say Resene Ironsand as well as downpipes that sit in front of the brick around the house. Also paint the barge board in Ironsand on the roof line and also around the top of the square roof above the front door. Under the eaves, and front door paint a light taupe colour like Resene Quarter or Eighth Pravda. Paint the pillars (if that's not a stain on them) the Ironsand again. The garage door also back to Ironsand if possible. Ok, that's all very dark.. paint your front door a super vibrant colour! Turquoise, fire engine red or bright orange. Remember to ask about cool colour technology at Resene with the dark colours as you live in a hot climate. We all have different ideas but that's the vision I see. Good luck.

How ere you proposing to retain the 4th bedroom when you plan to turn it into a separate living area adjoining the kitchen? Your revised plan with the changes only shows the backend of the house, not the full floorplan. From that I assumed that the current 4th bedroom was being repurposed as a dining/living room and you were retaining the original 3 bedrooms. If you look at the original house fllorplan, it's a H shape with what appears to be two equal sized wings. One of them houses 3 bedrooms while the other the current kitchen, 4th bed/study and the dining room. Flipping the house into a mirror image will require moving the walls of the current dining/kitchen and study to create three bedrooms the same size as your existing ones. The kitchen would then be positioned in the [current] centre bedroom space with an open plan dining, living towards the rear. There is no need to install a U shaped kitchen as you currently have. A galley style that runs across the space will be more space efficient and give you a large island to work with. While the front part could be your 4th bedroom or you can relocate your current front living room to that space and put the forth bedroom where the current living area is. It's really not much different to the floorplan you have in mind, it's just a mirror image of it placing all the bedrooms in the south and living area's in the north as is desirable. Unless you are planning to move out during the build it's going to be difficult living in the middle of any renovation. Your builder will have to remove the rear wall of your house to extend and you'll be living in a house with tarps on the backend anyway. Any renovation can be staged to cause least inconvenience. But no matter what, changing the footprint of a house is always going to be a major hassle. Which is why a lot of people choose to move out and rent for the duration of the build.