There isn't really a lot of information to respond with anything that makes a lot of sense. It depends on your household, the orientation of the home, and it's location. Is it for investment? How long you plan to live in it? How much work you will do yourself? Is it on a slab? Is it a brick house? Does it need repainting? New light fittings? New floor finishes?

You could easily spend more than $100K on the work you described, and double that if you went for top end specification and fittings. But that might be ovecapitalising if the house is worth only $300,000. But then if it is worth $1.5million a $150K renovation may be appropriate, depending on the value of the surrounding properties. There are so many variables there is no straightforward, right answer.

Best of luck with your considerations,

Dr Retro

of Dr Retro House Calls

Sorry, I was just wanting some quick feedback but to help this along, faces north, it's for a 10 year family home currently worth high 800's and we would do the gutting and some of the works like painting and project mment but would like to get a builder in if we could. Brick house on stumps but not much access under the house.

Convert laundry to bathroom and bathroom to laundry. Obviously relocate the external door.

Do you live on the house now? What doesn’t work for your family?

No we don't live in it now, looking at a potential purchase. It is old and needs updating and increasing the size of bathrooms. Ideally we would like to make one into an ensuite.

I’d convert the dining to a bedroom. Open up lounge/kitchen wall to make it more open planned. No one uses a dining room much these days anyway. Convert that end bedroom into a master with a walk in robe and en-suite using that small bedroom. Whatever condition the kitchen is in, but could probably use make over too. Depends on budget etc.

Using coloured pens Map the movement of each person in your home. Give each individual a colour and ask them to map their movements. When you see how people move around the house for example continuously from the dining room to the lounge, it will let you know that is where you should focus on improving openness and flow/ removing walls. You can also plot if there were obstructions say if one person could not use amenities because they were already being used or because someone or something is obstructing the path.

Once you have worked this out you can take it to an architect/designer/builder who could sufficiently help you come up with a renovation plan.

Hi there, Not knowing where you are geographically is difficult nor how many bedrooms you need but I think the layout doesn't need too much of a tweak. Hate a bathroom straight in from front door: turn it into ensuite by adding some of hall to bedroom. Make even across the hall for WI Pantry. If possible move fridge next wall oven if/when you redo kitchen. Yes open meals and living to create family, meals everyday place which will take advantage of sun. Is there room out that east side of home for more windows/doors social area? Dining room can be formal/adults living, study, toy room, guest bedroom or all of the above! Depends what you need now or over the ten years.

Bathroom and laundry might need uplifting but I do not think a lot of moving about of plumbing. Be nice to have powder room there somehow....and depending on age of kiddies do you need a bath?

Pick up plan place on block other side of street for sun in court and back garden then it would be a different suggestion and one more suited to my taste for sun sun sun!!!

Hope this helps......love to see/hear the end result. Cheers Margot

I’d turn front bath to en-suite. Close off entry from hall to meals and open up wall between living and meals for access. This will allow you to but a cupboard in entry foyer across closed door to replace lost storage outside laundry.
There I would add bifold doors along Laundry to enclose that space and create access from laundry into bathroom. Create a shower in the hallway space outside exist bathroom door accessed from bathroom.

Hi there

Lots of good points and suggestions made already, but if you’re willing to try a more radical - but still workable - solution, try this one. Most of the internal layout would need to be shuffled about a little, making it a more expensive option, but it’s still MUCH cheaper than extending and leaves most services where they are, which is a saving.

It involves 3 main moves: 1) move the master suite into the living area w. bay window, which immediately makes a broken-plan living/dining/kitchen space which accesses the courtyard; 2) give the kitchen a large island to gather around, remove the bottom bench wing and turn the top section into a full-width, shallow butler’s pantry that can be opened up or screened off as needed; 3) give 600mm of laundry to the pantry and turn the rest into a corridor with bench + under-bench appliances + hall cupboard running along it to the back door - this allows the family bathroom to increase in size. (Then just crib some robe space for the tiny bedroom out of the larger bedroom.)

CONS:

• Moving the en-suite bathroom is likely the biggest single cost
• the bathroom/laundry/kitchen flooring would also need replacing
• the living room loses the bay window
• the master bed faces the street (though a line of trees would solve that)
• 2 windows would need adjusting/inserting = new en-suite would need one and the current laundry window would need to shrink

PROS:

• usable kitchen space is hugely increased and improved without moving any essential services
• the living space opens out AND flows better AND accesses both north-facing windows and the courtyard
• master suite is still divorced from the other bedrooms, but is larger and more private (not opposite the front door!)
• the family bath is much larger, while the laundry loses no useable space (trust me, I’ve had one like this and it worked beautifully)
• the butlers pantry is integrated into the kitchen but can be closed to conceal mess
• there’s a net gain of about 5% useable floor space PLUS larger utility areas + master suite without having to extend

In saying all of that, there’s a lot of variables re light, position, grounds, structural load that could impact heavily on its viability. For instance, I would consider putting a solar tube in the master suite over the robe/hallway - it could be hard to see otherwise.

It’s a more expensive option, but it could add considerable value to the house if done right :-) Cheers