Well, it has been a long (and sometimes painful) process but we are nearly at the end of the extension/renovation. We ended up going with a building designer (Dalecki Design) who made a few changes we really hadn't considered (including moving the existing bathroom) which may have cost slightly more but completely changed and improved the master bedroom space. Without the pool it will be close to the upper end of our original budget but still within what we were hoping for so fairly happy with that. Overall the new living area is amazing and filled with light compared to the old design. Will throw in some photo updates once we have finally converted the front yard from a sand pit and finished off the driveway, garage door and fencing.

we need dimensions of the existing rooms as well as distances from house to all fences, position of north, direction of any good and bad views, your climate and any special wish lists?? btw where is the laundry, does the block have a steep slope with laundry underneath the house and how many steps are there from the backyard up to the back door and from the ground up to the front door

You’re correct of course. We have short and long time plans but just want to make it liveable in the short term doing what we can within the existing footprint. The house was purchased to be a laid back beachside hangout, however my daughter in law may get a new job in the town so she and my son may move in there. The building is an ex milkbar on a triangular shaped allotment subdivided from the main house made of brick and rendered brick. The rear room and storage area are concrete block construction. The whole building is on a concrete slab so we plan to polish the concrete throughout accept for existing carpet in bedroom and current lounge. Maybe some tiles in the bathroom. The eastern boundary can’t be altered as that is the sideway access so the odd shapes on that side need to stay as is. There is a driveway in front of the carport and storage area. There’s asbestos sheet on the eastern wall of the carport concreted into the ground so that needs to be safely dealt with before any change there. The western wall of the carport is attached to the main house and is the title boundary. So any construction there will require a second wall. We have secured a fabulous second hand kitchen for $900 (with many more cabinets than we need so have lots of options including for a vanity) which includes a Miele dishwasher, Blanco sink and quality cooktop, oven and granite bench tops. The bench top includes a piece that can be easily trimmed for the odd angled corner in the back room. After swapping the kitchen and bathroom positions as proposed in my draft plan, we figure then it can be lived in while the next phase is built outside. We propose to build a new room that would be a dining room adjacent to the triangle shaped kitchen. (Will remove the wall in between to complete) Between the new room and the carport we would add in a laundry and second toilet (or ensuite if we go for a third bedroom) If we decide we need a third bedroom we could convert the carport for that purpose. Given the property is only a 5 minute walk from the beach a second shower maybe best placed in the rear garden. We have also thought we may love a bathtub/spa to soak in the warm north facing courtyard so therefore don’t need one inside. There’s water and sewer waste points outside the existing toilet and where the current vanity and laundry sink along the angled eastern wall. There’s also water and waste points in the carport adjacent to the current kitchen and in the storage area adjacent to the current shower. There’s gas in the carport connecting to the current stove and the heater in the current lounge.

Before Now We opened up the wall to make a walkway. Basically, closed up that laundry door near the bathroom. So now the way through the back entertaining/pergola area is through kitchen/laundry. And when you come in through the front door you no longer see the laundry but a nice recessed feature wall. Where the ladder is, that will be the pantry. I would've liked a bigger pantry but the builder made a mistake measuring and we lost 100mm. Basically made the recess bigger. But was too late as wall was build. Also, would have preferred a french door or sliding door rather than a window, but it was too much to do and we didn't want to sacrifice the space Since we couldn't make a french door to replace the window we opted for a servery window instead. I'll update again when we've got the cabinets and everything else.. Thank you so much for all your wonderful ideas. It really helped us create our dream 🙂