why have the external laundry entry? if you can't walk through the laundry and pantry to the kitchen it's more direct to walk in the front door and through the dining room to the kitchen with kids and groceries, the side garden feels too narrow for a carport with walkway beside a car with open doors so why not enter through the front door and have no external door into the laundry

Is the garage a single, a 4 bedroom house should have a double garage and I don't suggest a tandem. As above can't figure the laundry position and entrances

Perhaps the reason for old houses not having garages was perhaps a lack of cars.

One of the best things we did to our Federation house was to add an attached double garage, I think it's even more important these days for security in our cities.

There wasn't any aspect shown, or I just simply missed it?

I would add a door from laundry to pantry. Aside from that level 1 is a very good layout.

However on level 2 I would rework the front bedrooms. I reckon you could another bedroom in there by losing the WIR (has dual access which I'd remove either way). The front space is a little bit unusable anyway unless it was used as a reading area/study spot, etc. Again aside from that its a pretty good layout.

I'm guessing its a sizeable budget too, theres a lot going on as well as being an older dwelling they usually have a couple hidden problems.... Exciting project hope it works out well with council.

Just had another quick look and even though you mentioned the kids using the garage as a play room,

Did you consider a double garage in the front yard allowing more rear yard and pool space, you could add a small pool house with a bathroom, this could become guest accommodation when needed

Having the garage at the front of the house would make better sense of the drying court, Laundry, Mudroom with access via the WIP to the kitchen in your plan. You could set the garage back giving access to this. At the moment the front yard is mostly paving so I could see the garage with paving and garden with an auto mated sliding gate and fence

Along with the fireplace I hope you are keeping other features from the period of the house.

One other thing that worries me about the master suite, why do the Ensuite and WIR back onto the pool and Bed is in a big space with a small window, very closed in. I would much prefer to have the bed positioned next to the pool with a view to it. You might say that you plan that wall as a feature, for me any feature would be the long wall that you would see from the Alfresco and family area plus from the new master bed placement.

You could also fit a study space within the large bedroom space, as I don't see any downstairs designated study/computer space

previously overlooked it appears that there's a narrow lightwell/courtyard? outside the ens and master bedroom and i would include highlight or tall very narrow windows in the ens and wiw for light and ventilation with privacy and also rearrange the toilet out of sight of the open door, having the biw on the stair side and reversing the layout allows a much more spacious feeling with easier access around the room and careful choice of fixtures and an outward opening door should allow a comfortable powder room under the stairs and by enclosing the laundry fixtures behind doors there space for a study or MPR in the laundry space and i've restored the fireplace and side doors in the dining rooms

I would love your feedback on anything that wouldn’t work for you in what we have designed.

The things that stand out to me are the downstairs Master suite, wrongly positioned/layout, and will be quite a dark room with the only real light coming from a window which faces a brick wall which is approx 1 mt from the window?

The current door into the master is compromised by the outward opening powder room door and the stairs all clustered together.

Without drawing the floorplan,(can't read all required measurements) a rough sketch to show my concerns and repositioning the powder room, I still think it needs a lot more adjustment.

. I wouldn't be happy with the downstairs Master layout with it's lack of light and missing out on possible views to the pool

The dining room, if you think about how little light comes into that space, maybe the repositioning of the powder room will help a bit in the central dining room, the fire place is great but will also block light into the center of the house

Love the photos gives a lot of insight, the powder room under the stairs fits so pleased to see the door opening in. We have a 70's house nearby which had the living & bedrooms up stairs, down stairs had entrance with direct staircase to the upstairs living this first floor had a rumpus, kitchenette and a wonderful large bedroom with ensuite. This was for when the elderly owners needed to move away from using the stairs, but this beautiful bedroom didn't have a lot of natural light so they sold and moved to a single story. Which way does the front of the house face

I also feel sad that the character window in the existing dining is being sacrificed for a WIP and Laundry, could this have been worked around with a different extension. Perhaps the dining Kitchen meals opened up to each other and the Master behind the dining. The fireplace would then become part of the family kitchen dining. The pool could be relocated along the wall of the garage?

I am aware that there may be some load bearing situations involved which can be resolved by a professional engineer. We did similar in our Federation house in Sydney which allowed us to open up 3 rooms to form a large family kitchen over looking the pool and then to add two bedrooms and a study in the attic for our teenage kids, the bathroom was in the space at the bottom of the stairs which kept using their bathroom private.

The dining room has beautiful period features what a shame, I think it's important to try and keep these in the original part of the house., you can't buy this in newer homes.

Anyway without having the convenience of sitting down with you and running through and changing ideas, this is the best we can do and maybe somewhere it will trigger a new thought

Hello Jacqueline, the plans look brilliant and there is some A grade information coming from the designers above. Just wondering if you have had an estimate completed on your project yet? The reason i ask is many people go through the process of getting plans completed, then they get engineering and councils completed but have trouble finding a builder to come in on budget. We have far more success with our clients using a collaborative process where we complete an estimate prior to going to construction drawings and engineering. this process has saved our clients thousands of dollars. We have written a short article explaining the process and you can use it with any builder you choose - https://www.ecobuildingservices.com.au/brisbane-custom-homes/

Good luck with your project!

Just another point, the master bedroom will be dark, I was wondering how high the boundary wall is and if you could possibly use a long high light window on the wall parallel to it with no door

The door being close to the road may be a possible easy point of access for uninvited guests, the wall would give them privacy.

The bed should also be on that wall, not at the entrance, cheers

i have to say i prefer the more private master bedroom with the small window overlooking the tiny courtyard and tall slit windows from the ens and wiw out to the pool but it would be great to be able to save the gorgeous dining room window and i'm wondering if the laundry room were constructed like a traditional conservatory with tiled floor, skylight and access through the entry foyer you could have a bright view of hanging ferns? instead of a blank wall but, as the window will likely impact on the location of the pantry, a "bay window" extension to the kitchen would allow for a more open pantry and longer island

Sorry but I have just been playing with your plan, again and offer the following ideas

The Master bedroom worries me and it's darkness, so I suggest that the WIR becomes the study with a tall window over looking the pool and allowing light back into the bedroom, while keeping an eye on the pool

The tall window in the bedroom, I think you are lining up with one on the first floor, if not I would move it across into the corner to allow more space for the bed, then adding lovely robes into the bedroom. You could also consider large sliding doors instead of the window that would open into the narrow courtyard, and adding a large door on the end of the court or just wall it up

The kitchen, it looks like there's only 1 m allowance on all sides of the island, this would be better up to 1.2 m for a large family home.

The fridge space also looks to be around 900? which is small and if only allowing 1 M between it and the bench, very cramped. I have taken out the sliding door between the kitchen and pantry and turned the fridge into the Pantry, this would suit a pair of fridge freezers.

A door way through to the laundry which has an accessible light well to the dining window.

If you don't want to keep the dining window insitu you could consider using it on the front wall of the laundry along with a door out to a drying court., have you planned for a laundry chute? The laundry is also a mudroom for kids coming home from school

My rough sketch follows, baby sitting at the moment.

Appreciated am coming in late to this conversation, but generally the ideas are there, but I'd be playing with it a bit more.......there are 2 big ones for me here. Firstly missing the opportunity with the master suite. The whole thing should arguably be flipped so the bedroom space is to the rear/outlook to the pool and the bathroom/robe amenity internalised. If you're going that far with extension works arguably a bit of structure/engineering implemented to support the upper level is worth the investment to get the layout working. Design decisions should always be driven from the experience of the space. and 2. Not that convinced about the flow from entry to main living through an internalised dining space. Its like the kitchen/living/dining relationship is similarly not functionally balanced,. It's like the dining should be aligned with the kitchen space and living then separated....How exactly is that living space intended to be furnished?? At this design stage furniture should always be on the plan. You have to design from the inside out, make it work functionally and then deal with the walls/windows/doors etc last

What's you're budget? Has your design given you projected costings on this? You want to make sure you don't need up with a conservative design solution that ends up costing you more than you wanted, and you then spend the money anyway but miss the opportunity for a much better resolved, higher value option than makes sense spatially for the way the house will be used and experienced.

Best of luck PD :)

www.pauldistefanodesign.com

Couldn't agree more, the master suite is compromised by the need for the "Studio/Garage" it would be a mistake to proceed with the current floor plan

I have been thinking about your floor plan and trying to maintain external walls.

The dining room and fireplace could be used in a better way, so I have split it with a passageway with a large full height window looking into an internal courtyard in the wall where the original window is.

The WIP pantry is more open to the kitchen

The master suite, you enter via the large WIR, the ensuite could possibly fit between the external wall and the newer boundary wall.? or not, so could be built up against the internal wall allowing for access into the sleeping zone

The Bed over looks the pool with large sliding doors secured with a glass Juliet balcony.

The laundry mudroom WIP could all have slopping glass conservatory style ceilings, you could even consider this for the kitchen to reduce the overshadowing of the neighbours.

It's not to scale just some ideas for you to consider.I

Remember that a large window between the pool and WIR is a two way street, when you are in the pool it wouldn't a be good a view. Perhaps you should just move the pool and these issues would be resolved. Make the studio/garage shorter, stepped back so a gate could enter at a right angle to it.