Is north up the page into backyard? Where are views at ground floor. You have very limited storage in the plan except large pantry. Where will suitcases, tennis racquets and toys etc be stored?

Yes north up the page is into the backyard. We have a very sloped block so the back of bottom level will face retaining wall and upper level will open out into backyard. Block slopes up towards the back of the block.

agree with Dreamer that bathroom has to be moved, with the money that you will be spending it's important to get it right

Without relocating the stairs or unnecessarily changing the existing house I don't see where an alternative upper floor bathroom can go. The dining area would likely be closer to kitchen in stage 2 plan. Interesting thought moving the door opposite bedroom 3.

Bathroom is definitely in wrong place. Also lower floor will need a powder room unless you are happy with guests using ensuite toilet.

Perhaps move bathroom to where pantry is. Kitchen moved to other side and bathroom becomes pantry.

My suggestion, similar to me me.

Regarding the front entrance. Because your front door is directly opposite the bathroom, utility area, may I suggest to install a privacy screen. Parallel with front wall. This would create an entrance, and give privacy to the space on other side.

Would something like this work

i have a problem with the awkward location of stairs that wastes the sunroom, makes the rumpus room difficult to furnish and the front door has a view of the toilet ...beginning with central stairs and potentially modifying doorways to allow for the stairs without having to walk across the rumpus or upstairs living room attempts to avoid the big wide hallways affect without useful locations for furniture ..the rumpus room now has space for comfortable furnishing and private access to a full bathroom and good sized laundry...using the old sunroom for a compartmented bathroom retains the original walls and windows and includes space for a bathtub and shower with big views.. we should always include real scale sized furniture to establish the best walking paths across rooms and my suggestions also retain the size of the original kitchen to keep more of the original walls and ceilings and retains the proportion of the bay window and allows space for an alternate access to bed 3 (preferable the linen cupboard would remain in this location) and consider avoiding the enclosed pantry (would the door ever be closed?) in favour of a more open space for better light and ventilation and maybe a herb garden window box in the bay window with external blinds to exclude western sun.. there's a fridge closer to the outdoors, stacked wo and MW to define the pantry and only a small sink in the island for more useful set down space for shopping and serving meals

Wow thanks for putting a lot of effort into the design. We actually like the idea of moving the stairs to where you have suggested. Would there be a way for have them come up in the same spot without moving doors? A bend towards the bottom?

Depending on an engineering report regarding stumps and underpinnings the staircase maybe able to go back along the same wall as it is rising it wouldn’t interfere with doorways. Having the staircase placed in the rumpus allows for great storage under, or make the space very useable with entertainment centre, wet bar or book cases, especially if soundproofed .

the location of any staircase is so critical to the working of the whole house that it would be worth moving doors if necessary but precise location depends on height of new downstairs ceiling and careful planning to allow enough headroom to get under the stairs to bed 2 and walk above the lower part of the stairs for entry to bed 3 but well worth the effort and should be more economical to build than the original stairs and retains so much more of the character of the original rooms and makes the upstairs lounge feel more spacious despite the modest floor area and a bend in the stairs uses more space to rise the same distance and would make the entry feel cluttered and be a trip hazzard right where you need to walk from bedroom and front door

We are in the process of reworking the plans with the staircase in the upstairs 'rumpus room'. We like this idea and feel eventually we will have dual living areas so will not need this room to be a lounge room. It will become more of a hallway. The room has a lot of beautiful original features and we are really reluctant to make many changes to the walls. We are avoiding moving doors at this stage and will see what we can get away with before we go down that path. This will also keep the sleepout room as original as possible and will allow me to have the large bathroom with free standing bath, storage etc. Will keep you posted.

We have come up with a few changes to the first issue of plans *not to scale. First change is moving the stairs to the rumpus/living area. If we aim for a u-shape stair we are hoping we will not need to change any walls/doors in the existing house. At this early stage I don't feel comfortable making many changes to the existing house as it holds so many beautiful original features. We will also have a living area on each level so can afford to lose some room in the upper level rumpus.

We have moved the laundry to a more cupboard style with a through path to backdoor and outside. The lower floor bathroom might need some rearranging but looks to be big enough.

Only issues with the changes I want to propose are the stairs will be through a bearer that runs from left to right (through bed 3). Will there be an issue with this? Can the stairs be designed in a way to take the load of the house?

Is the upstairs bathroom too big? It will be a spacious room but I am so reluctant to butcher it.

you'll need to consult the builder or an engineer to confirm the structural challenges of the bearer but it's not good enough to say that a room "looks big enough"..when you're spending so much money it must be to scale, include all properly sized fixtures, likely furniture arrangements and allow for proper walking distances around the spaces and hopefully it will be closer to right! the size of the upstairs bathroom is only just big enough for my suggested plan but the doors have to be relocated... a walking space between the top of these stairs and the bathroom wall will need at least 90cm meaning that the old upstairs living room would need to be at least 3.6m wide to allow for the stairs...downstairs would then have an entry foyer and wide hallway with a much smaller rumpus room and the whole old upstairs living area becomes no more than an awkward hallway and the triangular steps are unsafe and uncomfortable to use and i don't understand the changes to the downstairs bathroom when there's space for a proper laundry and bathroom....i suggest you reconsider how you can preserve the best of the original features without sacrificing so much... there must be a better option

I think we are stuck with what changes are viable. We are going to contact the people drafting our plans tomorrow with our proposed changes and see what they come back with. Definitely feel the pressure to get them right. It's a tricky process that's for. Appreciate everyone's help :)

another option to consider