The laundry in a cupboard under cover somewhere near the back door was what I was thinking. I would imagine that a house would lose value without an internal laundry but we don't plan to move anytime soon and our house is definitely the lower end of the price scale in our suburb. I would need to have a go at drawing it oklouise, I have seen your suggestions on other dilemmas and wow! My space is pretty tight but just maybe there is something I haven't thought of

Some comments, I hope they are helpful. Create a gravelled area for your fire pit. Laying a some sand, levelling off, a weed barrier and raking gravel is within the skill set of most handy people. Use treated timber for an edging to keep it neat. Buy a nice ready made steel fire pit. Buy some seating. Your planting lacks a scheme. Without a scheme your yard will not look put together the way professional landscaping does. Every plant has to be chosen for a purpose (texture, height, colour, privacy etc). You also have all your garden beds in a perimeter against the fence. That's fine for a starting point. But to make the place look inviting you need some garden beds in the yard too. Please avoid the common habit of putting shrubs in the middle of the lawn. It doesn't work well and also makes maintaining your lawn difficult. If you want to make say the entertaining area private from the kids play area a full garden bed is usually a better bet than just a shrub or two. By putting multiple shrubs of varying heights and a creeper in a larger section you create outdoor zones and properly define the area. What you really need to do is measure your yard, draw in your house and all paths and then start drawing in the entertaining area, the kids play area, the veggie patch etc. You will probably have to play around with the layout for a while to come up with something you like and works. Trust me, doing this first will save you a lot off $$ on plantings that don't work and you want to remove later. When you create garden beds do it with three heights. So something under 6" tall, something under 2ft tall and then something over 3ft. Not a definite rule but a good rule of thumb. By having multiple levels in your garden beds you create a more impactful and interesting garden. When gardens are meh, its usually because all the plantings are the same height and it looks flat. Take a look at these gardens to see what I mean.... Alright this fire pit is obviously professionally done, but what you need to look at is how the fire pit is clearly separated from the rest of the yard. The seating creates an outdoor room feel. But also if you look behind the seating there is also a large garden bed behind it. Although the scheme isn't finished my bet is that some tall screening plants are likely to be planted there to create a more intimate mood and shade from summer sun. Having garden beds define a feature really works. This is what I mean about having layers in your garden beds. If this yard was just a row of trees along the fence and then say a low hedge in this front bed it would look okay but not great. They have used different colours, textures and heights all in the same bed here to create something much more interesting. The planters in that corner also create height with the strappy plants. This is why you need to plan our your whole garden so you know that all the plants across the yard work together coherently.

My gut feeling , as a complete amateur , is that you have 1 room too many crammed in to that space . Lose 1 bedroom , or the Alfresco , or cut down the front lounge and just call it a study . Or add a couple of metres to the end . As far as 2 passages , you effectively have 1 toilet , and the 1 in the ensuite . By adding that seperate passage and trying to create an illussion of a seperate bedroom wing , as soon as someone needs to use the toilet , you spoil that illusssion . That is most likely to be your closer friends . So you are losing 8 metres by 1.2mtrs to impress people you don't know ? There will still be 4 or 5 doors either side down your main passage , just suck it up , have a couple more down the left side , it then is way easier to find the WC , you can add to a couyple of bedrooms and bath , OR realign a bit so that you can pick up an extra metre on the right side of the passage , and guess what that does -- yes , hey presto , a bigger WIR , maybe a bigger pantry if you want , a bigger dining , maybe even a bigger alfresco . You said about the easement , but thinking a bit outside the box , if you move the alfresco to that side of the house , MAYBE you can have an open pergola or even part clear covered , near or up to the boundary -- I have no idea on your rules , and what is classed as permanent structure , but just a thought .

I’m glad you like it Irove. We have done similar changes to our house. -I’m not sure what your council will require in regard to your changes. Ours was only for the fitting out the supporting beam. Ours was supporting an upstairs area, whereas yours may only be supporting a roof truss or not. So I’d check that out first. Worst case scenario, you may need a supporting post. All of the work for this can be done by a registered carpenter. Get quotes! -There are kitchen companies that do flat pack kitchen but also offer the added service of an installer at a very reasonable rate. My daughter had her whole kitchen installed, including electrics and plumbing for $3500. They could also do your WIR and vanity downstairs and coffee bar.😜 -Downstairs, all the plumbing is already existing, you can work with this. Check with your local council about any certificates you may need. I am wondering if downstairs maybe on a concrete slab? If so, there is amazing work being done now with polished concrete. Check it out. Back to the bathroom. We bought all our plumbing fixtures and fittings on line for a fraction of the price that any bathroom company charged. We bought our tiles from a bargain tile place, (larger tiles are cheaper and quicker to lay and less fiddly) they suggested a tiler. We called in a plumber to fit out the bathroom. You will also need you carpenter to be involved in this. Get all trades together before you even start. Work out your plan, if you keep most of your amenities in place, it will make it cheaper. That doesn’t mean you can’t update them. Good luck, if you do go with this!