Will you use the formal dining and lounge? Why are you removing laundry, where is it going? The upstairs study, if not required, would be a perfect space to convert into a walk in linen/storage room.

I’m thinking to relocating the current laundry to the powder room. Current laundry is around 10 square meters and is adjoining the dining and there’s decking right outside. I’m thinking make it a boxed seating or small sitting area where we can have some tea, read a book or kids can play iPads. Down the track we can widen the window and make it a French door opening to the outside decking area.

Powder room currently is quite empty with just a standalone vanity, it’s around 5 square meters so should be enough space for the laundry. What do you think?

Yes, that on paper seems like a good idea. Would then open up the back of the house. However, I would not do any renovations until you have actually lived in the home for at least six months. You will then get a feel of where you spend your time in the home, where the best sunlight comes into the home etc. for example the formal dining and lounge are north facing. You might find that would be a better place for your day to day living, so orient the kitchen to that space. These are the decisions you can make after living in and feeling the home.

Additional note, if you use the formal dining/lounge as day to day living, then there would be no need to relocate the laundry, therefore saving well earned money.

Part of the attraction of a grand house like yours is the entry. So I would not be knocking out a wall from the entrance to the living rooms as it will detract from the grandness, also it is quite possibly load bearing as there is a room above, and also heating will escape up the staircase.

it would probably take months to plan and organise any substantial renovation so why not live in the house while you work out what feels best and, unless you prefer to keep separate formal and informal living and dining areas, i would keep the wall between family and entry/stairs, open the kitchen to the dining area, keep the existing laundry, make the powder room smaller and add sliding doors from dining and kitchen to outdoors..

Thanks everyone for their advices. This is really useful for us especially with the common suggestions of living in the house first for 6-12 months first to work out what’s working and what’s not. We will take this onboard!

Our budget is approximately up to $150k to cover new kitchen, bathrooms, flooring, painting, removing external walls along the veranda area with bifold or sliding doors plus outdoor paving or decking with maybe inbuilt barbecue area which we haven’t made up our mind yet.

A $150K budget is tight, which means that you will have to think carefully about your priorities, the order that work is completed and being clever in your design solutions to maximise your budget. Do your comparison shopping for specification items carefully to make sure you are getting good value. If you fall in love with top-end specification items your budget will fall short. The 6 to 12 months will mean that you have plenty of time to research. Remember that some items have lead times, sometimes up to 12 weeks, to import from Europe so it can pay off to plan ahead and not rush into things.

Best of luck,

Dr Retro

of Dr Retro House Calls

Thank you so much. Yes we will stay in the house for 6 months to work out. We are starting to talk to builders and some cabinet makers to get quotes. The budget is tight so we won’t go top end, but rather medium range with smart and neat design focusing on maximizing light and space. We might seek your help once in the house to have a look for us. Thx!

OP, where are you located, ie. what is the climate like?

I wouldn't be knocking down the walls to the entrance either. I hate open plan areas which include the staircase. This is because the staircase acts like a giant chimney!

If you are in a climate that requires any heating that heat will be lost from the living areas (which you need to heat), upstairs to the bedrooms (which don't require heat).

So you'll have draughts, your living areas will be more uncomfortable in winter, & you'll spend more money heating those living areas.

In summer your bedrooms are more likely to get hotter in the afternoons/evenings too. As any heat accumulated the house throughout the day will rise upstairs. It would be much better to open the doors to the staircase in the evening, once is cooled off outside, & all the windows in both levels & use the stack effect. This will draw in cooler air in the bottom level, rising upstairs, to be purged out the upstairs windows. A great way to create breezes on summer nights.

My suggestion is to do research and plan, plan, plans before you even talk to any builders. Suggest you spend money on great designer to save money on building something that is not what you want/need/like.

all dimensions need to be carefully checked on site and placement of furniture and how you use and move through the rooms will help decide the best options for renovations eg where would you place a tv and how do you zone space to contain noise and air conditioning but changes to the pwder and dining room walls could be worth considering and this kitchen is more generous and has direct access to outdoors and a giant island and better connection to family and dining rooms and there's a separate study nook for kids' iPads

Thx heaps everyone for your kind suggestions. We have never thought about the heating/cooling effect actually from the potential impact of knocking down the wall. There are quite a few of you actually are not in favor of knocking down the wall near the entrance with valid reasons. We will reconsider this. One of the reason we are thinking of this is also because we’d love to have a Mudroom/space near the entrance to put dirty shoes, wet clothing’s, bags and jackets etc. we were thinking using the space on the left of the entrance as currently it’s not utilized. If we keep the wall, then we must also keep the sliding door towards the entrance. Maybe we use the current powder room as Mudroom? Photo shows the current powder room? It’s around 2.5x2 roughly.

My immediate thought was to use the large powder room for your mudroom as well, easy to do and in great position from games/Media room, garage and front entrance. You might also need to consider another WC and shower in the existing laundry to service any potential Pool.

1. Live in the house for 12 months, to see how you function each season.
2. If you a Mum taxi for kids, shoes, school stuffs, etc, your mud room needs to be accessible from the car and near the laundry.
3. A laundry is never big enough where kids are concerned, so keep please. You will be glad to have that big when they start doing science experiments.
4. Take photos what you don’t like and annotate as to why
5. Build yourself a Houzz ideas book
6. You need storage. For that size of house. The storage looks meagrely
7. Best of luck.

Also, you need to consider your climate and orientation. A majority of the living areas of the house will face South and East, nice in Summer but little warmth for Winter. The upper level will be ok in winter, but in Summer the heat could be less than desirable. I recommend some detail study of your micro-climate for where the house is situAted, as that will tell you where some modifications may be warranted.

Thank you so much. We are seeking existing plans etc from council to understand current building structure better. We will have a good feel in the house before doing any structural changes. Yes storage is big for us and we will get an good architect maybe to design for us. Thank you everyone for your input. It’s tremendous help to us and lots of great suggestions put forward which we will take onboard! Thanks again!

Where is the house, pleas?

It’s in Eltham in Melbourne

The custom made cabinets in kitchen, vanity, WIR, bedroom robe, study, bar, storage under stair may take about USD20K,EXW China. So, if you are happy with some existing items like tap, fauct, lighting, keep it. the existing vanity in PDR look nice from your photo, an American style.

do you have any photos of the fireplace in the family room?

Eltham is cold in winter so any heat/cooling help the environment can give you will be free and appreciated! I agree with living there for 12 months first. I thought, up stairs, to open up the study area as it will let light and sun into the whole open area there. I like the idea for the robes in the front bedroom (tho you have not said how many people will be living in the home) Down stairs: I agree with living/ dining on the north side might be more welcoming for everyday living and I would be adding more windows along this wall to aid the solar efficiency. Adding doors to the rear too from dining. getting the eave length right for winter sun and summer shade. Powder room/mud room great idea I would add a shower for pool, broken leg or other convenience!! Leave laundry where it is but arrange it better with no dead corners. Is it possible to build a walk in pantry under stairs: even if you have to add plaster to the arc of the stairs (and the robe above become a walk in?) it is a great opportunity! I like the idea of the open kitchen to dining, meals with tall storage under stairs or that side. I don't like the idea of knocking wall out family to entry but cavity slider 1 or 2 would be handy (Make sure of furniture placement b4 grabbing the sledge hammer!). The fire you are more likely to enjoy in evenings, it will only be efficient enough for that one room or heat becomes a draft up stairs. access thru sliders nice but close it off for intimacy & warmth too. Hope all this ramble helps too! Cheers Margot

Thx Kitchen & home sketch design for such a detailed comment. Yes we have designed to keep the wall opposite the stairs and laundry. We will convert the powder to jointly with mudroom give the location. The dining room open up to kitchen is great idea with French/bifold doors opening up to outdoor verandas.

We are thinking of building an outdoor kitchen/BBQ area, but where exactly is still being considered.

I always want Walk in pantry. With such a large house, can’t imagine without one. But with the current payout I can’t think of anywhere else other than around under the stairs, but’s circular shape, not sure how to design it. If we can’t have walk in pantry then I’m thinking adding butlers pantry in dining room and in the laundry maybe, moving current internal laundry door in the middle.

Heating/cooling, we will install maybe deducted heating/evaporative cooling once lived in the house through a few seasons.

I think the circular space under stairs would be a great and quirky walk in pantry! It does not need to be huge and with shallow curved shelving it could be even more practical. Depending on how often you may have house guests the shower in mud room would be an excellent addition. An outdoor kitchen could run straight out from the laundry/family room wall hiding laundry a bit from everyday. I would like to see the laundry/meals wall in line with family room: A very practical laundry can be within that space and have it neater. My advise is to have heating cooling people into look over you your home NOW before starting any reno as it can influence the outcome. Do it with planning as it is rather expensive and more so to add later. Good luck. Margot

my original suggestion on 300619 has a pantry including 1m taken off the original kitchen plus the old fridge space plus the old storage area under the stairs..available space will depend on careful planning of structural changes but should be plenty of storage without stealing space off the dining room... my drawing program can't make curved walls but something like this might work

Yes we have seen it indeed and we think it’s probably the best way we go about adding a WIP without impacting any other structures. Thanks a lot!