What did you decide to do?

Leave the slots whatever you do, or at least one of them - the room is only narrow and once you have people seated at the table, serving will become impossible. Even people walking in and out the door trying to "help" serving or removing used dishes will make the area very congested. If you want to do anything structurally, and there is bench space under the slots, I would drop them down to bench level to make them more practical. I have a similar situation with my dining room, and honestly, I just could not do without the hatch now, especially when all the family is here. Once you move into the house and really start living in it, little things like this will become obvious, this is why I always recommend people live in a house and decide their lifestyle and needs before doing anything. Even take time with your colour schemes, aspect and light are such an important part of the success of colours used, it really is a good idea to live in a house through all 4 seasons to know whether to use warm or cool shades to best suit the room. Your dining room is a classic example - if that room faces south, the present wall colour could create a cosy intimate room on a Bathurst winter night, if it faced west, it would be oppressive in summer. Congratulations on your new home, I wish you every happiness in it. Please keep us stickybeaks informed of the changes you make.

Sorry to say but I'd suggest it's worse in some aspects. The doglegged entry flow (still) from front/street is not ideal and entry position blocks prime light into the sitting. Generally the planning still could be more streamlined. It's not ideal having the main access flow from the stair through the upper level living space. A more centralised stair would be far better, for both levels, now it involves moving into the secondary formal sitting space to access upstairs. I'm actually working on a project at the moment where the previous architect did exactly this rendering the front sitting space pretty much useless (slap forehead), and so now the new owner clients are faced with having to unpick/pull it apart to get the stair properly configured and positioned so the associated spaces flow and function properly. Imagine here wanting to move from the pool to your master bedroom - you'd have to move through essentially the whole house - it's not efficient movement configuration. You have in some areas of the design arguably oversized and undersized areas/spaces for the function, which means the balance is not right in the planning. For example there's an abundance of voids upstairs and massive swing room in the master bedroom, but then downstairs the laundry is tiny and there's unusable flow space between the dining and the living space. You still have issues with overlooking from the alfresco, which would mean screening on the north. Site restrictions are not an excuse for obviously compromised planning, rather they need to be negotiated cleverly so they're not obvious or noticeable and the design is not forced.

A northern frontage. Alright, then I'd move the garage to the NW corner, to take the brunt of the summer sun. I probably wouldn't flip the plan, I'd redesign, as you want rarely used rooms in the west, not your living areas. If you'll be working from home, predominantly in the study, I think a lot of thought should be put into it's location, among other things. I certainly wouldn't want it facing west! I'm interested to hear people's thoughts on which direction is best for studies. I've heard some people say north facing studies are not great due to the refection on computer screens from the all-day sunlight. If that's the case I'd locate the study on the east to get morning sun, to start the day in a good mood. Possibly in the SE corner, for dual-aspect, if the study should take pride of place. I'd have OPEN planned living on the eastern side, running north to south, so that all these rooms can gain northern light. So to the west. Garage, guest bedroom (if it's rarely used), laundry, bathrooms, maybe lounge (with a predominantly south window, not west). Upstairs, have corner bedroom windows face mainly north & south, smaller windows east, & none facing west. As I mentioned, have a good read of the Your Home website. Your architect friend should read it all, & know this stuff! Orientation & passive design is critical for creating a comfortable efficient home, & should be the first thing a decent architect or building designer thinks about when designing a home.