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DB.....A LOT of ideas and advice flying around here.......skimming through I see you are endeavouring to establish a basic concept for a designer/architect to consolidate for you, which is great.......whilst you may think this is a logical approach to achieve the best outcome, you are arguably just throwing around random ideas rather than properly resolving/focusing on the critical aspects ........my advice is do this: firstly clearly ascertain two things on paper, not in plan or building format but in writing...that is 1. List all your requirements/needs/goals and 2. Nominate a budget. Next, identify/research a logical local designer/architect option and approach them with this information....A designer's job is to come up with an appropriate concept/solution that best balances your requirements, aligned with a budget and of course make it viable within context/site. Sure, you want a cost effective/modest result, that's fine, and that will influence the solution, but as a general comment it feels like there is massive potential being missed considering the site..it dens;t necessarily have to be that big or fancy, but you have to put the EXPERIENCE of the home front and centre of the process, and not just think of it as a kitchen or whatever laid out this way or that ....This is about an amazing site and the living experience of that and the design should be based on this and bring together your specific requirements elegantly balanced in context......The issue I have scrolling through all this is that you have all these almost disconnected ideas of building form, but you have this incredible site....... the process of resolving the spaces ideally needs to develop from cues of the immediate environment/site in order to make the most of it since you are pursuing a customised solution.....agree with MB, every project has a budget and ultimately from experience this is in general the ultimate/overriding constraint. This project could be anything upwards from $500K and it will come down to the working out how far you want to take it, and what your priorities are over various levels.......this one has seriously significant potential -make sure you make the most of it as you're truly fortunately to have this opportunity to build a home for you and your family to enjoy there.......best of luck :) PD

it looks like one of those supersized American Mcmansions which is fine if you measure the value of a house by its size rather than the quality of its design and the relationship to its site and the environment. You must have engaged your architect with the knowledge on the style of work he does? I would strongly suggest you research American architect Sarah Susanka and her work with "The not so big house" before you have a meeting with your architect. A well designed home is a lot more than a shopping list of rooms. Even though I don't like your design I do know that some of my clients have trouble visualising a plan and sometimes they don't like what they can't understand. I would arrange a meeting with your architect so he could explain why he has deviated from your brief. There may be some very good reasons, such as capturing views, or getting the winter sun, but it is hard to suggest without knowing about your location. By the way do you realize that your posting has appeared on the Australian Houzz forum? Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls

Hey All. I've been thinking about the 3rd bedroom which will become a childs bedroom one day, and whether I can eat into that space to make an ensuite. Take a look at these designs compared to the original and let me know what you think? (It pretty much removes 1m from the length of the room from 4 to 3m. Then there is still a wardrobe inside this, so pretty much 2.5m) Also keen on your thoughts as to what I've done with the wardrobe in the master. I've pushed it ~60cm into the room (making the room go from 4m wide to ~3.3m wide) to turn it into a walk in wardrobe. The current planned wardrobe is around 2.6m wide, but this would add another 60cm to the ends, so would turn it into around 3.8m of Wardrobe space. Does this make the room too cramped, or do you think that the left over space would be easy to work with?