I think a lot depends on the size and age of your household. Probably a good plan if you have toddlers and want to keep them under close supervision, but toddlers grow up to be noisy teenagers. Open plan living/kitchen/eating is often hated by busy families with noisy kids. Looks expensive with all the new wet areas, kitchen and structural works. I would be looking at build cost and budget before getting into kitchen details....

Best of luck,

Dr Retro

of Dr Retro House Calls

Need dimensions. Middle bedroom to become a living space?

How about you start with engaging a design professional? It's the best investment for the long term outcomes for your project. You need to be managing budget simultaneously with design decisions. You have a great house and you're on the right track in regards to getting the main living/kitchen/dining zone cleaned up. But you don't want to be entering immediacy into an island bench for a relatively large sized house like this - you may think you're opening it up but if not managed properly you can actually make them feel more "one dimensional" by pulling all the walls out. Opening up space is good, but equally you need capacity to section off and divide living spaces. you also need to consider how this works also in relation to the external and outlooks, as well as internal paths of movement. You are also dealing with structural wall removal etc. This is a min. $200K-$250K deal rejigging main living, new kitchen, laundry, pantry, new bathroom , filling in, and then potential knock on like new glazing to the back deck etc - it can creep pretty quickly.

have you considered using the small bedrooms for new living area overlooking the pool and using upstairs for new bedrooms?

Hi Richard,

I reckon Paul is right - you need a professional designer, and at this the size of project it would be cost-effective. In saying that, here’s an alternative concept for you:

1. First, I would consider taking the door off the master bedroom and putting it at the end of that little hallway with the BIR. Tiny thing, but it makes dressing/showering when you’ve got unexpected guests a lot easier :-P
2. Turn the laundry/powder room into a family bathroom like you thought (though consider partitioning off the toilet anyway for ease of use) BUT when putting the laundry in the bathroom, leave it as is - changing that exterior wall will be pricey for little actual benefit.
3. Then, take the whole kitchen and - this is expensive - move the whole thing left into the bedroom. Take up the whole room (11m2 is a big kitchen when designed well) and then a) you won’t have a hallway running through it, b) the front door will connect smoothly to all parts of the house, and c) you’ll have massively increased your useable living space by sacrificing one oddly placed bedroom.

(You can always move said bedroom upstairs if you need it. A rumpus room that size can easily accomodate it - especially if it’s a spare room or office.)

I would also consider shrinking the hallway in the extension and having it poke right outside as a direct route to the pool (so you don’t have to weave through your driveway each time). You’d have to move the bedroom doors and robes, so it’s not a cheap extra, but it could be worth it as part of a larger project.

‘Course none of these may work for you, but at this scale of renovation it’s all worth considering :-D

Hi Richard, perhaps you could consider something like this which will give you access to overseeing the pool and outdoor living. As Oklouise suggested extra bedrooms could be moved to the rumpus

I'am thinking your new kitchen would be like this

Hi Richard,

Your kitchen idea as you have drawn it really does have too much space between the two benches to be practical. When designing in a typical-sized kitchen, an ideal space between benches is 1200mm, up to a maximum of 1400mm. Once you have firmed up your layout I would definitely take it into a local kitchen company & see what they can come up with for you.

Good luck with the project!

Cheers all - some really interesting ideas!

Paul I think you are right about the building designer. So we had an architect come round the other day for a discussion to get the creative juices going. But I'd be really keen to hear what a designer could do and how we go about investigating.

Some of the comments have really made me have a think about things.

1 - the upstairs Rumpus is currently our best room in the house as we turned it in to a big living room, pulled up the old carpets, sanded the floor, got the Terrace white on the walls, and put a nice flat screen TV on the wall. Its currently the family retreat (Mum and Dads room) but I'm thinking it could be an EPIC bedroom up there - hec we could put 2 bedrooms up there and have a 5 bedroom house.

2 - a few suggestions about changing the middle bedroom and opening up in to living - I'm starting to come around to this idea. My wife thinks it would make the living area just too big, but part of me thinks, for a 4 bedroom house and an expanding family it could be a good grad of extra space. By the way we have 2 young boys (less than 5 yrs old)

3 - Good advice about not closing the back passage way up and squaring off the house. I guess financially it makes sense to just convert in to the Laundy and not go to the expense for little floor space gain. What I did like was that it connected to the kitchen and allowed it to also be a pantry. But also I guess if we were to block the Kitchen Windows (that look on to the extension) we won't be looking at the oddity.

4 - the Reason we haven't though about expanding in to the back, I did initially when we bought the house, is that it just isn't a great extension. The house is very high at the back (quite raised to the pool) and above the house to our right. I don't think opening up the back, steps down, would give that amazing step out on to the pool you'd imagine. Plus at the two back bedrooms the floor also steps down 10inches too. It seems a bit to hard with ceiling height / floor height etc.

5 - This kinda puts me off the bedroom running down the back, massive bifold along the side of the house wiht the height of the house.

6 - I didn't even go in to it here but the Master bedroom, door, ensuite is whole other mystery to solve. We have a strange study with a stair case running up the side of it that I bang my head in to all the time! We've thought about blowing the wardrobes away, bringing the door forward, dong something there too.

I think with the cost the whole 200-250 is where I think this will get to. Very rough sums - we also need to res stump and it seems like we should know what we want to do before we kick that off. I think where our heads are at is to

Restump

Do the Family Bathroom / Laundry

Then maybe our ensuite

And then tackle the Kitchen / Open plan living

In that priority which also makes this a bit of a multi year project!

could you confirm where the upstairs fits over the lower floor?..it appears that there's a skylight in the kitchen and the rumpus is not as wide as downstairs, the "up"..part of the stairs is shown in the study but where does the other part of the stairs fit? the hallway to the master bedroom shows wardrobes but also has windows.. what size are the windows? and maybe the outside entry area could be better used? it's best to have an accurate plan of the whole house before planning any changes and some photos would help..some ideas while children are small would be to concentrate on repairs including restumping without altering the existing bathrooms and laundry arrangement, then new kitchen and family living areas, new master suite including the small study (with or without new stairs and entry) and when kids' are older convert upstairs to kids' bedrooms with bath and convert rear bedrooms to a rumpus with bigger deck?

Hello Mr & Mrs French,

First of all DO NOT do anything until you know what the whole reno will finish up like. No good spending money to wreck it later......

Lots of questions before we can really get into the redesigning. Where about are you? How long have you lived there, have you seen the house in all seasons? What sort of climate is it? I bet there is no insulations! How many bedrooms do you or um will you need? Having an extra bed or study is always great....

Do you want to keep the pool? Can you move garage forward on the site so you have some back garden space? Do you like to entertain, cook, have all the huge family at your place? You say, Richard that the back of the house is very elevated, could you put another family room under the bedrooms at the back? (If that is a serious thought then do not do stumps b4 anything else!) How often do you shop? What do you like to cook? Do you want this to be your forever home for the boys to go to school locally etc.. Shall I go on...…...

You see all these answers influence how to lay the plan to be perfect as possible just for you and your family. Love to help further: calling me is the best and this jugging of plans is my passion. I have not been defeated yet! I can always come out with something that works very well for YOU! Cheers, Margot