Thanks Dreamer. I'm not sure why it didn't work. Hopefully this time it shows up....

which way do you come when you arrive home with a load of groceries and small children to carry inside, where is the clothesline, what is the roof made out of? do you have any photos including any showing the shape of the roof and what is the narrow structure on the south side of the kitchen and study?

Legendaryflame - that is a great idea. I have been overthinking things and that would be a simple way to do it! Thanks!

Louise - Good questions. The kitchen is probably the furtherest point from the car, which is annoying with groceries (and small children!) We have put in a new path which isn't on the floorplan, which goes all the way past the front of the house, from the driveway to the front door, and this is the way we tend to come in.

The roof is made of tiles, although the laundry is tin and the deck is mostly laserlight. I'll try to take some photos tomorrow to show you. I have saved a Google street view picture for now that shows the roof, it gives you some idea, but it's not the best shot.

The clothesline is in the south eastern corner against the fence.

I think the structure you are referring to is just a small garden. Although the south side of the house has all of the utilities - gas meter, hot water, solar panel meter, and an AC outdoor unit.

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this Louise, it's fantastic! I have done so many different potential floorplan drawings (self confessed floorplan junkie!), although this is way better than anything I could have done. I love having a full open area on the eastern side of the house which would let more light in on those cold winter mornings. And having enough room for a seating area there, while maintaining the separate lounge is perfect. Storage could be an issue, as the new storage cupboard in your design would involve cutting into a brick wall (the window in the toilet is a tiny window close to the ceiling). Although maybe we could cut into the new pantry space from the hallway for a linen cupboard.

Thanks again!

floor plan junkies united on HOUZZ! minor variation keeps the toilet in place but with the bigger toilet space a new vanity and nice mirror will upgrade to a powder room and use either end of the old rear hall as storage

That's great, thank you!

I've been playing around with this extension idea and I'm wondering if there would be a possibility for us to knock out the wall between the bathroom and toilet room and turn that space into an ensuite and a main bathroom. Our main bathroom needs to be renovated at some point anyway... Although I'm not sure there would be enough space for both though in what would be 310 x 270 plus wall space, what do you think?

That way we could leave the laundry as is and in turn we get more space in the extension area.

i've tried several variations but there's not enough space in the central area (including the old rear hallway, bathroom and toilet) to make a comfortable family bathroom plus ensuite and i believe that for the cost of creating two new bathrooms you would want them to be comfortable rooms and the small amount of extra space in the new family room that would be saved by retaining the old laundry would not allow much more than extra walking space as the room is not deep enough to do much more.....one of the alternatives i found is a more spacious family bathroom but that may be an unnecessary expense unless the old bathroom is beyond simple cosmetic upgrades of the existing floorplan

Thanks so much OKLouise for checking on that one. That is a good point about it just being wasted space. Although the other thing I've been considering if the budget allows, is going out an extra 1-2 metres on the extension (to the east), although this wouldn't work with the laundry there. But realistically I think your original plan is the most doable, as we don't really need too much extra internal space.

Thanks again for taking the time. I really do like the new bathroom too!

pushing out the extra few metres could be good but probably not cost effective when the house can already provide everything within the more modest footprint and you did say that the area would not support an expensive renovation but depends on what you need for your family...happy to try other options but how would you use the extra space on the east and what can't you extend to the north..do you plan an alternate kitchen, extra bedroom or?

I was just thinking of making more of a substantial open living space, in terms of the extra floor space to the east, as I can see it being the part of the house that we would be in all the time.

In terms of the north side, we are on a corner block and so there is a 4 metre setback on that side, which we are already at. I don't know much about these things, but I assume that wouldn't be able to be changed. I am planning a nice garden on that side of the house anyway, which I am excited about, and we like to have the space all around the house (i.e. no fences close to any of our windows, giving the feeling of privacy and space in a modest suburban block).

The other thing I think of a lot is regarding passive solar design principles, and having our house oriented the way it is (West facing), I am reluctant to do anything too major unless we can really capitalise on this. Having the bedrooms on the northern side does work really well for us at the moment, as we use them a lot - with small children napping and my husbands office being on that side. Although that will change when the kids grow up...

I'm hoping we can at least add some skylights or something like that into the extension area/kitchen in order to bring in more light. Our kitchen is quite dark and cold in winter.