Yarnos I agree with Natasha. Your existing architect will have (well, should have after working on your existing design) an intimate understanding of your site, soil conditions and implications of levels on your design. He/She are in the best position (given his/her understanding of your brief and constraints) to illustrate to you how a design solution such as this can work. No one on this forum is currently in a better position than your architect to explain this to you and outline the affordability of it as an option, based on your site, your brief and your budget. You can visualise this concept by letting your architect demonstrate it for you. If they are not demonstrating it, then you have the wrong architect I'm afraid. And if you are not empowering them to use their expertise and provide design solutions for you, then you either need to get another architect, or be a better client. Architects and designers - the good ones - are creative problem solvers. They are design detectives in the art of living well. They spend their entire professional and personal lives and time studying how people live, and how to create environments (and homes) for them to support them living better - more functionally, flexibly, beautifully. The talent of a good architect/designer is invaluable in elevating your lifestyle ... of taking the 30 year mortgage you're about to wage on this bet of building a home, of taking this massive investment, and turning it into a physical building that is your heaven and haven, your place of sanctuary and inspiration. They expand your vision, interpreting both what you say, and what you don't, into a result that is beyond your imagining. That's why you hire them - because you can't do what they can, and you need them to bring your dreams into life in a way that's better than you could have ever anticipated or created yourself. As a client, you have a responsibility to brief them well, trust them to do their job, be open to their ideas, and be guided by their expertise. The not so good architects and designers are simply drawers and documenters. They 'convert' your brief, your expressed wishes and shopping list into a floor plan that fits, and can be built, but that's simply it. It's a house, not a home. It functionally will do the job, but it never reaches its full potential. And so your life in it never reaches its full potential. You unwittingly compromise, never truly aware of how different, how much better, things could have been. The catch is, you've made a massive investment, and created something that will outlast you and become someone else's home too. So the impact is generational. Your responsibility as a client to these architects and designers is to understand the difference, and ideally not work with them - not unless you can show design leadership yourself. Work out which one your architect is and make a decision. Trust them to do the job properly for you (and give them the ability to do it), or walk away and find someone else. Regards Amelia Lee Undercover Architect www.undercoverarchitect.com amelia@undercoverarchitect.com

ddaroch i would be very pleased to draw up your suggestions but every site has individual restrictions and local microclimates and, reading back throughl Trent's comments, it clearly states that the estate doesn't allow the garage on the right/west of the block ... my last offering on 15/8 has more northern light, uses as much of the original design as possible and we have to work with what's available ...a recent addition to my own home deliberately has south west facing corner windows that provide garden views and winter sunshine (with suitable management for summer overheating)...without those windows we would have lost the best aspect of the available space and the room would be unusable ...we need to be less rigid with interpretation of Solar passive Design and be more creative with our compromises...and that's what professional designers should be able to provide

Gorgeous brick pavers, I love that look for the floor! It has a rustic appearance yet you're right- sophisticated, even an elegance. I think this would suit the feeling I'm wanting for the room, the pine boards have a rustic appearance, this would go well with them. We have a 1m square oak table with cross back chairs for the dining section and a La Spezia 3 light pendant (Beacon), farmhouse sink, timber hood cover to give you an idea of the look we're going for. Thanks very much for your thoughts on this. I like the idea you're going with, but yes, we have the window and door in already. Door could be trimmed if necessary. It wasn't until the window was already made and the wall sheets and cladding was removed that we realised the original kitchen layout had the back door next to the window, and the door into the laundry section was a modification. I most likely would have put it back where it was originally or had double doors. It made no logical sense for the back door to be a thoroughfare through the laundry, eliminating valuable storage space. I may have just left the kitchen in the original layout and made an entry into the laundry from the kitchen side for a laundry/butler's pantry with fridge in there. Removed the side window for more wall space for storage and changed the existing door to a window. But it's too late now, the outside of the house has all been newly clad so doors and windows are as is. There's no other possible place in the house for a laundry. It is a very tight space. Plan to build an external laundry studio in the future. The one in the house would be temporary, yet need it to accommodate a washer dryer combo for now, and be suitable for prospective buyers/renters in future if the external laundry doesn't eventuate. This is the original 1960's floor plan. A previous owner made internal access into the laundry and made bench space where the original back door was, the next owners opened up the living to dining room and blocked up the hallway doorway which became the fridge space. The cornice didn't match up in the hallway though where the old doorway was. They had made a shelf from the cut out on the hallway side, and the protruding section in the kitchen side became a kind of bulkhead for the fridge. Old hallway We've rebuilt this so that it could have an upper cabinet on the kitchen side/ hallway later if needed. But the lack of space in the hallway didn't allow us to build a linen cupboard, so that will also be needed to be included somewhere in the house. At this stage, thinking we will have to configure the laundry space to have a linen cupboard/ broom cupboard between the dining room and laundry section. Open to ideas too for storage in that limited laundry area space. I'll add more measurements to the floor plan for reference.

Hi @siriuskey, thank you for your suggestions and I'm so sorry for the slow response! I've been juggling family issues and haven't had time to sit down at my desk. I've attached the actual measurements of the room below. The bed is currently a king single (approx 120cm W x 220cm D). I'd like the option to replace with a double in future (approx 144cm W x 190cm D). I agree with your suggestion about moving the Master door further down the hall. If for no other reason than to give it a little more space away from the kids' rooms. We may have to reconfigure the WIR though, as the existing passageway from the bedroom through the WIR to the ensuite leaves no perpendicular wall for the new door location to open onto. As for the hallway, I had considered not a door but an archway in the middle of the hallway to break it up. I've attached an example. What do you think? @C P We have placed the kids' beds along the wall previously, but they're really difficult to change sheets in that position so I'm trying to bring them off the wall. @User the home office does have a separate door off the entry porch. I just cut that bit off the bottom of the plan. I've attached image below showing the full plan of the front of the house. We designed it this way so we can close the office off from the rest of the house. Potential employees can then have access to the office with a WC and a kitchenette when we are away. The kitchenette has been plumbed with drainage so in future it can be converted into an ensuite, potentially for one of the kids when they get older. For the meantime we do need it as an office.