My ideas so far

need to add:

kitchen, butlers, laundry

dining

family room

Master with en-suite

need to add:

kitchen, butlers, laundry

dining

family room

small second lounge room

what's the distance from the existing house to the back, front and both side fences, are there any other buildings (garage?) on the block and can you post a site plan showing location of the other buildings and what are they built out of, where is north and describe your climate...what are the floors (structure not floor covering), internal and external walls and roof made out of and please post a Google earth view of the roof

3DA what do you think about the entry point?

Any ideas on where the best place for the kitchen and butlers should be?

Thanks for your time.

Heartily home, the best place depends on the answers to oklouise questions. Where is north etc etc.

That is correct.
We can't comment until we at least know how the current building sits in the lot. Too many unknown variables right now.

Entry really depends on the look of the house. Any photos?

Also is the porch under the main roof line, i.e. could it be built out to help create master suite?

Here we go - answers to the questions asked by oklouise ....

20 meters to the back fence

Front fence to house 5 meters

Dive way side 3.3 meters

Blind side 800mm

House is brick veneer

Cement tile roof

House on stumps

North is marked on the image @dreamer

Photo of roofline attached #87.

No porch roof @Kate

Climate - Melbourne Australia - short warm summer (no humidity) & rainy grey winter. Pleasant most of the remaining year.

thanks - look forward to reading your suggestions.

inspo / not price 😂

I would make a totally new entry foyer as I indicated. It can be under the current eaves, but can be made as a contrasty pavillion. Use glass or cladding around, its up to you, the point is to make it prominent.

Current entry foyer you can keep as is, or give it half to the bedroom as wardrobe and the other half facing lounge as storage.

If you are allowed to go right to the boundary to the left, I suggest making the kitchen and new living facing right to get the sunlight.
Try to separate this 2 block with courtyard if possible. A strip of skylight between old and new will let sunshine deeper inside as well as creating more intimate outdoor between the building.

do you need to keep driveway access into the backyard and/or include space for garages or carport?

@3DA Design Drafting and 3D Visuals - thank you and what a great idea regarding the storage/wardrobe.

So I’d imagine that id enter from the new entry point that you have suggested (And I love) and walk straight through to the extended part of the house.

Do you have any opinion on how to best place the kitchen, butlers, dining, family, master suite?

im conscious of at least trying to keep the bedrooms together and with some type of decorative door being able to close them off from the rest of the house.

@oklouise id really like to at least try to include a garage, or carport at the very least. Any suggestions?

will do my best asp

@oklouise thank you so much for your time.

Very much appreciated!

i'm assuming that the square roof shown at the back of the house is some sort of patio cover that will be removed but does the block slope and in which direction??..is it sloping up or down from the front to back and/or slope sideways up or down from driveway to the other side? ... how many steps are there at the back and front doors to ground level and how high is the ceiling in the original house..attempting to avoid demolishing any part of the original building is preferably and having the extension on a slab at ground could be more economical but the level of the ground will help decide on the best way to connect the extension

@oklouise The square roof that you can see is a patio cover and that entire patio will be removed to make room for the extension.

The block doesn’t slope.

There are three front steps.

The back patio is level to the house and has one step down to the grass.

Ceiling height in the original house is very standard at nine feet.

what's your budget?

Around 350K @Paul Di Stefano Design

my suggestions retains the original laundry and powder room, has the master suite in the original living and dining area, uses the old kitchen as a study area, has no demolition of internal walls and minimal changes to doorways to improve traffic flow and privacy in the original house and a slab on ground for the extension with a northern courtyard, separate lounge, family, dining room and kitchen with internal access to a single garage and a verandah across the back that could be extended to make a generous alfresco..the original front entry has been made more private for strangers and there's a porch and family/friends entry in the extension with internal access from the garage..although your inspo roof looks excellent i suggest that a low hip roof would be cheaper and easier to connect with minimal impact on the old roof and there should still be about 8m to the rear fence and the extension including the garage and verandah adds a total of 113sqm

@oklouise wow - thank you! I appreciate the amount of time and effort you’ve spent on this.

I am going to sit down and have a good look at this throughout the day today. The measurements in the image are a bit blurry and I am having trouble making out what they are exactly. I’m wondering whether you could email me the image, or send it privately through Houzz (is that function available)?

I wonder what an extension reflective of your suggestion would cost. I’m coming to learn that my budget may not be enough, although I haven’t looked around much to find competitive estimates.

My simple sketch is my suggestion.
Block off existing entry, make into a linen cupboard.
New entry is using existing porch and lounge window to become new front door. Create entry hallway using lounge space and either leaving the lounge open or enclosing with sliding doors.
Back of home, from your red line is demolished, except for laundry.
New 10m x 6m extension for kitchen, dining and living. Incorporating a butlers pantry into area near existing laundry.
New 10m x 4m extension for master suite.
Creating a courtyard with large windows in master bedroom and living/dining areas, to get as much northern winter sun as possible.

.

@dreamer thank you. I never considered placing the living and dining that way with the alfresco off to the side - good thinking! Probably a more cost effective extension.

Thank you!

Or another alternative with the living at the rear.

With the my second sketch with the long hallway, you could have windows bringing in the morning eastern sun along the hallway.
The back living could be with kitchen onto courtyard or living onto courtyard.

The only changes to your current home are the entry and removing from the existing structure from the red line marked on your plans.

The rest of the home is kept as it currently is.

Having two rectangle additions, in my opinion, is better use of the same space, instead of trying to put everything into a 10x10m space. Maybe each addition could have a gable roof line. (catherdral ceiling).

in our experience the less change to the existing structure the better so my goal was to avoid removing any part of the existing house and variations have been achieved by adding partition walls for the ens and wiw, adding new doorways and filling in unused openings .. the new ens and wiw could be completed separately... the extension is a simple Tshaped low hip roofed single walled building on a slab and, at a total of 113sqm, includes 23sqm of garage and 15sqm of verandah, entry porch and and a cost effective kitchen.. size can be reduced a little without changing the basic shape but only way to find out real costs is to collect quotes to decide what's essential, nice to have or too much....eg i love the matt finish steel cladding, glass walls and high raked ceilings in your inspo photos but there are much cheaper options

and its possible to send your email directly through HOUZZ and i can return copies of my suggestions

350K is realistically not enough to completely renovate AND extend to almost double the existing size. A custom extension will cost you starting $3000/m2 so that's the majority of costing allocated to about a 100m2 extension with 50K left to cover light cosmetic upgrades to existing. Actually, if you break it down, in a contractual scenario 350K is only 300K of actual construction cost once you factor in GST an builder's margins. If you need to reconfigure the existing substantially (ie get a master Bedroom + ensuite + upgrade we areas & floor coverings, services/heating/cooling etc you'd probably need another $200-$250K min to throw at it just for the existing building renovation component. You're practically talking a $450K-500K exercise here without a garage or landscaping/external remedial/works in the mix.

350K is a still a reasonable amount and you can achieve something with it. The question is what though and how it will be distributed across a certain project scope. It comes down to your personal priorities and then having the knowledge of how design decision will practically translate into construction costs, which is typically something only a competent design professional will understand in sufficient capacity to identify actual viable solutions to budget . Possibly for this ballpark you could consider a smaller Master Bedroom & ensuite rear extension component and develop a centralised living/kitchen/dining which would give you a 4 bedroom 2 bathroom home. the issue on that is though the challenge of connecting the main living with the rear yard if it remains centralised.

For me, the orientation of a home is extremely important.

https://www.yourhome.gov.au/passive-design/orientation

Get it right, with north facing living areas, among other things, & the home will be light, very comfortable, warm in winter & cool in summer.

Get it wrong & the home will be dark, cold in winter, & bake in summer. This will also mean far, far higher energy bills to keep the home comfortable.

I'm afraid to say you've got a difficult block. 45° from true north makes things tougher. The NE frontage is your nicest aspect, but I'd wasted with bedrooms, & any future garage. A long NW face is very hard to shade in summer. It's a particularly bad place for bedrooms, which can get very, very hot on summer evenings. Any living areas that face the backyard will face SW. So will be dark, & cold in the winter. Only receiving sunshine on summer evenings.

There are some solutions, such as changing the rooflines to incorporate clerestory windows, or building an "upside down house" by going up, with the bulk of the living areas on the front of a second storey. But these aren't perfect solutions, & would be very costly.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I wouldn't be undertaking a costly renovation on a home with this orientation. I think the results would be very compromised.

Unless there is a GREAT attraction to that particular block & home, I'd be looking to sell, & buy something more appropriate. I wouldn't even recommend a knockdown rebuild, as it's a very difficult orientation to work with.

Sorry to be a downer. But if I was going to spend up to $350k on a renovation if be looking for great results. I just don't think it's achievable with this home.

ddaroch..my own research and copy of the .gov YourHome books has lots of cost effective ideas for improving passive Solar Design in existing homes throughout Australia and, in a climate with four distinct seasons like Melbourne and our local area we appreciate the South West sunroom we added deliberately to create an air lock and afternoon sun trap that is easily cooled in summer with adjustable external screens..i don't believe it's possible or advisable to have a family home on a standard suburban block with all north facing windows unless there's no internal walls..raked ceilings and clerestory windows can also be a problem as they increase the volume of air that needs to be heated, especially with the preference for bigger homes with open plan living areas..... north facing glass can also be cold in early morning and late afternoon in my own home despite plenty of internal thermal mass, insulation, double glazing etc...each home site and local climate has it's own shortcomings and designing the most cost effective improvements is the challenge that we can try and help home owners overcome so that we revive older homes and improve sustainable comfort

Paul, is Melb cost higher or lower than Syd?
BTW just to add suggestion for garage to dreamer's sketch

Melbourne and Sydney costs a definitely higher than Perth.
But it always depends on the finished specifications desired by owner.

The second suggestion that I have posted has the living areas at the rear, to connect with the rear yard.
As ddarroch has mentioned, we can't change the way the sun comes up or the way the home is currently orientated. Can only try and improve.

Jesus that is a long walk from front door to living area and bringing in shopping to kitchen also a trek....I like the other suggestion of master sanctuary at rear and create a central hub of living, kitchen and dining in the "heart " of the home.

@oklouise @ddarroch @3DA Design Drafting and 3D Visuals @Paul Di Stefano Design

Well, from this I have realised how important the orientation is and that we we need to take extra steps to maximise light. Thanks for all your input - much appreciated. Have no idea what I’m actually doing more than ever but will keep updatingx

I'am late but would like to add the following I would try to keep the original house along with roof .Adding a new space from the left boundary if allowed if not start at set back 900?. This would include a Master suite Kitchen with WIP and family room. This space can be resized to better suite your budget. The carport to the front for easier access and better use of open space ( driveways are wasted space and log narrow ones are horrible to navigate ie: reversing) The carport with a rear solid wall creates a garden courtyard and provides a lovely outlook for the Master suite. Guests entering into the large living MFR extra light comes from the new sliding doors out to the new side courtyard. The old entrance becomes a separate WC/shower room with a hand basin not shown. Keeping the family bathroom and laundry insitu with a powder room within that space to service family and guests internally and externally. Any of these changes would need a local professional to approve. The addition could also be done as a separate building with narrow breezeway/s connecting both old and new

@Alyson bliss, if you look at all suggestions posted, even the latest one, there is still a long walk from front door/carport to kitchen.
Only oklouise with the entrance from the garage/rumpus on the side, has less walking. And that is only if the owner is parking their vehicles near that entrance. Otherwise front door is still along way to kitchen. This is the wonderful things about additions to a existing home. Compromise.

You could always enter the house via the carport to the front entrance which could mirror the courtyard view of the master without a sliding door similar to this

hi, can you add a current roof plan to your drawings ?

Hi HeartlyHome,

You've got great buy-in on your design here from various Houzzers so I won't duplicate that.

The hardest part of extending is often landing a sensible budget in the early design phase.

You might like this Home Renovation Calculator to help estimate costs.

Regards Richard@themakeovergroup