Haephestus raises nearly every issue I would have commented on plus more. My immediate thoughts start in the kitchen as the number one spot. The deisgn here is OK but I feel the hotplate as the only break on a 5.5 metre long wall is going to look lost. You have the opportunity of putting the sink on the back wall as well as the h/plate, creating a clear island bench - perfect for food prep and breakfast bar/entertaining space. I personally would increase the width of the pantry at the expense of losing 300-400mm off the length of the kitchen. In other areas, your main powder room should not be the same space as your guest bathroom. You have enough room to make a wc and powder vanity area that is separate from the Guest bed ensuite. I equally question the shared bathroom upstairs. Two way bathrooms can be more hassle than helpful. If you are going to have a shared bathroom, you need the toilet to be outside of that room or you need an extra upstairs WC and powder vanity. Bed 4 ensuite is missing a toilet but will be difficult to fit in and still access the shower. The extra door between the WIR and the ensuite doesn't make sense to me and you should lose it. Also, beware of where some of you windows have been placed. Unless you have 3 metre plus ceiling heights in the upper storey, the window over the ensuite 1 vanity and the window in the bed 1 WIR will be problems for you. Good luck and maybe look for a dedicated cabinet designer to help show you the issues with your house design. We offer an interstate service over Skype if you want professional help. Tony

It seems (the design/layout) of the building form is progressively getting bitsy and tight ( like in a typical volume build plan) in the main living/kitchen/dining/alfresco area rather than being elegantly resolved with the flexibility potential layout usually exemplified in a custom home .......what is going through my mind is what exactly is the function of the external space to the west which is not at all connected with the internal.....I'd be considering configuring the ground floor better to maximise/exploit the northern aspect...It would simplify the whole thing, be more efficient and less block-like with building chunks cut-out/doglegged just to suit a table or whatever..........It's like the requirements are being somewhat forced within a particular set building shape rather than designing it so it all flows more naturally/balanced and is more elegantly linked and maximises the available land/space/aspect...form (should!) follow(s) function.........may I also comment that perhaps some care/caution/discretion should be taken when uploading documents clearly associated with a particular designer on forums (for public critique/comment!) ;)

the house already has 4-5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and 4 living areas and already doesn't suit your family and that will only become more challenging as the kids grow older.. there's no space to add a double garage and mudroom, there's no where to expand the existing bedrooms and even if you moved the bedrooms upstairs there's still no where for the garage..hard to believe but you can easily spend your whole budget rearranging some rooms and updating the kitchen and bathrooms but you still wouldn't have the garage and bigger kids bedrooms unless they move into the other rooms or you build out the backyard and then how would you use the old bedrooms..much as i love a good reno i suggest that your budget would be better spent on a different house but some basic suggestions could include a rear extension (subject to the building ratios and correct setbacks) could be about 40sqm to add 2 bigger bedroooms, and a new laundry, use old laundry for more storage in bed 3 and a better bathroom, remove the wall between games room and old kitchen to create a more generous kitchen, dining and family room with better connection to outdoors, add a new ensuite and use old study as wiw, raise the floor in the old living room and add closeable doors for adult living and enclose the.entry porch and add a new entry to rumpus room for kids activities...based on very rough dimensions but could be something like this but assume at least double the budget and there's still no garage

Thanks Kate. In the first photo at top of this thread is our existing house, with the load bearing walls being the solid lines on outside. We now have a tweaked plan version 3 below- but still not convinced yet... We were keen to make bedroom 2 and 3 a bit bigger as the kids will use their room more than we will lol! What we are looking to do would be to add on one end (the lounge and master) and widen Bed 2 a bit as it is quite narrow. We would like to improve the kitchen and dining and entrance but getting a bit stuck here. We are trying use the space we have got without changing too much to save in cost but this area is important to us and would be used probably more than the lounge, which is quite big in comparison. The alfresco would be a bonus. It is more so that we want to include a back door leading outside as otherwise people would need to go back out the front entry or use the laundry door which is pokey and small. If we could revamp the kitchen and dining in a creative way, so the dining doesn't look so small compared to the lounge that would be good. The idea would be to see how big/far we can go, then ask a builder to quote and if too expensive, scale it right back...We have ruled out going up as we thought this too expensive?