who will live in the house and how would you use a separate room 4, what are the walls and floors made out of, what's the width and length of both the hallways, bath, laundry and combined meals kitchen, where is north and can you share some photos inside and out?

Just us 2 at the moment, starting a family soon (4 ppl all up possibly). Seperate room 4 would be a study. Floors are Harwood floorboards, walls plasterboard, we only have measurements on the floorplan, north is where the back 2 bedroom windows are, towards the left.

you will need to measure all the rooms to be able to decide how to use the spaces..and are the hardwood floorboards on top of concrete or a timber framed floor with a crawl space underneath?

If you make the meals area into a study, that still leaves the only external access is through the laundry.
I would put your kitchen along the south wall, with a door accessing your yard.
Or alternatively take the entire space as a new kitchen, with a window at the end.
And agree with dr Retro, don't make any changes until you have lived in your home for a few months.
Feel where the cross breezes come from, feel where the best spaces are in your home, etc etc

Thanks for suggestions!

I'm going to take a different tack .

You are doing quite a large project , and changing things around . To me , there is 1 glaring ommission -- there is only 1 toilet , and it is through the bathroom . I wouldn't even like that arrangement if I had 2 toilets , unless it was part of an en suite .

Another slight problem is that your new green wall will mean everyone in the kitchen and lounge will have to head almost to the front door , and then down the hall , through the bathroom ( hoping no-one is using it ) to get to the toilet .

So I'd start with a bigger piece of paper ( metaphorically speaking ) , look at where the plumbing and load bearing walls are , and use that as a starting point -- I'd start at the bathroom , and try and fit 2 toilets and a laundry across that back wall , obviously depending on the door and windows .

OR maybe look at adding the green wall , BUT add a second bathroom , which may mean you can move the door to bed 3 , making bed 3 larger with an en-suite already there ? That creates problems though , as then the only real place with plumbing is around the laundry and kitchen , so you would possibly have a bathroom for the other 2 bedrooms 'back there' , which isn't ideal .

The floorplan shows a patio -- but nothing seems to open onto that ? Can you extend the house ( not neccessarily immediately ) back there ?

I've probably opened a can of worms , a lot depends on load bearing walls and even the floor construction ( can you get under the floor ? Is it wood or concrete ? etc ) , but to me , you want to look at the end game , then work backwards , then prioritise .

Your present thoughts will generally improve the house , but create a couple of new ones IMO , so do you just do them , then sell ? Do you completely remodel ? Do you add more space ?

The house is on hardwood floors and we can’t get under the house. The walls are load bearing and we have been quoted $12-$15k to knock them down so we have decided not worth it, for the moment anyway. As we do have backyard space we are leaning towards knocking down the laundry/meals wall and installing a bifold door connecting the meals window and laundry door which will bring you out into the patio or possibly a house extension.

To be honest I don't think you will gain anything by removing that hallway other than an awkward dead space instead of a hallway. Its unlikely you will put any furniture there because of the flow of traffic and you will lose the ability to put a cupboard there as well. Ot top of that do you really want to see into the laundry and bathroom from your living area?

The meals area makes sense to be retained as a meals area as it's adjacent to the kitchen. A study next to a kitchen is a bad idea because of noise from cooking. There is nothing wrong with the existing floorplan, it's workable and decent. If you find you dont use the dining area for meals then you could possibly put a large pantry or storage cupboard there to increase the usable space in the home.

The kitchen floorplan could probably be optimised if you want to change something. The U shape is too elongated to be practical and you could make the workspace tighter with a large island adjoining the meals area to give yourself a 2nd living space. The wall best removed in this plan isn't the ones you have marked but the small one the stove is against. Opening that up with join both living spaces in a practical flow while giving privacy and also extra cupboard space to the area's of the house that should be sectioned off.

But as Dr Retro says, save the major demolition for a time when you've really considered the flow of the house from having lived in it. It's possible nothing needs to change in the floorplan at all and you can spend the extra $$ on fancy appliances and fittings for your new kitchen.

When I had a toddler, one of my friends commented that the best feature of my house was the ability to see into the backyard from the kitchen. She didn't have that and was always worried about what the kids were up to while she was preparing meals.

Thanks Austere, some great ideas there that will help up lateron when we decide to remodel. Thanks Me Me, we are definitely thinking of opening that back part to open into the backyard when kids arrive.

Just a suggestion Belinda, it would be best if you had a whole floorplan developed first instead of bits and pieces and when and if.

As Retro wisely suggests live in the house for a 6-12 mths before making any changes as it will end up costing more trying to rejig everything again.