Gosh what a funny turn around - this discussion started right after I had finished my last kitchen and now it is revived just as I'm going through all this madness again trying to replace a kitchen in my new home .............. when I can find someone interested in doing some work. Jennifer, I'm leaning to Bosch appliances if they meet my requirements. One of my joeys lives in Germany where Bosch and Siemens (made by the same company apparently) are made and are very highly esteemed. Because I have so much renovation work to do on this house, I'm watching my pennies a bit so I will probably stick with a Dishlex Dishwasher that has always served me well and these days they are extremely quiet too, but I am looking at Bosch for the oven and cooktops. In earlier posts I praised the Fisher and Paykel oven and cooktops, but then discovered a BIG flaw in the design of the oven - it had a double glass door with a gap between the two sheets of glass and guess where every crumb and spill went, so they will not be on my radar again. I'm also hearing good reports about Electrolux but very bad ones about Miele and their service which is really letting the brand down. For those getting on in years too - beware of push button settings and slide controls, arthritic fingers just cannot manage these. As well, I'm told the slide controls on cook tops are not as accurate as knobs.

Looking at Asko, Miele and Siemens for oven, induction and dishwashers for a new build. Been to cooking demo’s for all including VZug and Neff. Asko Elements ovens seem like a good pyro and steam oven in comparison to price point for Miele (not paying $10K for one Miele oven), but don’t want to compromise ourselves down the track with maybe spending a bit more upfront for Miele ovens as they have such a good reputation. I also can’t locate many reviews for the Asko ovens. Likely going with Miele dishwashers and induction as Miele induction is built for flush mount and won’t void any bench top warranties. I’ve read really mixed reviews on the Asko dishwasher but price point between Asko and Miele dishwashers wasn’t too much. Range hood looking at Falcem. Does anyone have any experience with the Asko Elements ovens? Or should we be sticking to Miele ovens (combi steam and pyro)?

Just to confirm I have taken the great ideas presented here as advice only and have no intention to do some dodgy diy reno's. With the exception of a couple of quirky exposed timbers as you can see in my pictures there are no other exposed beams. As you can also see from the pictures there is a large roof space on the right (east) side of the house but the ceilings themselves are flat with a slight dip on the north wall. Based on my own personal experiences I would have to agree with Two's Company that there is a tendency towards rendered brick in WA (although there are still many exposed brick houses in my suburb) while double enclosed double garages are also highly desirable. I would also agree that toilets within the main bathroom and non traditional laundries may be considered unusual by many (but not all). Ensuites with toilets however are still very common. Also due to the nature of our work we would prefer the laundry separated from food/kitchen area. For a 4x2 house it is only around 155m2 excluding carport/alfresco which makes the rooms feel quite cramped, hence the desire to open up the family room. However, as Two's Company suggests we will need to first get a builder/eng in to check load bearing walls etc as this will undoubtedly affect what we can achieve within our budget. Having said that I still excited by many of your ideas and with luck hopefully can work some of them into the budget. Cheers all :)

OMG Siriuskey. You have nailed it!!! This is almost the same as the designer has come up with. I have measured the wall with the 2 seats on the end and it is 5 meters long. Then there is a big gap for an opening coming in from the front of the house which is identical on the opposite wall going in to the back of the house. Hubby thinks that if we were to take out full height Pantry and have our pantry in lower drawers he would be happy with the wall not being nearly completely filled in. You are very clever lady. Thank you. I will show him this as I eagerly await to hear back and get drawings from our designer.