Some scribbled thoughts

You will need to spend lots of dollars, well into the six figures to achieve what you have suggested. Renovating is an expensive business especially when you are moving walls that are holding up the floors above, new kitchens and bathrooms. I would add your renovation budget (which is not enough for what you want to achieve) to your house buying budget and find a more expensive home that has been designed better and suits your household's needs. Avoid the expense, agony and dirt of living through a substantial renovation and buy a home that is a better fit.

Best of luck on your search,

Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls and Dr Retro Virtual Visits

Pretty much what Dr Retro said. If the house doesn't even have a floorplan that works for you, why are you buying it? It's not a tweak like moving the kitchen and laundry. You're talking about keeping nothing except the exterior.

Hi Kate, many thanks for the time on our plan - it didn't occur to us to move the laundry to the dead space where the family is currently. We are probably going to put the scullery in that space but this certainly opened our eyes and appreciate your time and scribbles :-) Upstairs as well adding the robes to the back of the rooms is a great idea!! Cheers.

Dr Retro and Black Bamboo - appreciate your responses. We have been looking for a home over the past 5-6 months. Where we want to live there is literally nothing available with decent homes going under offer as they are listed or within 2-3 days. The market is crazy and we have bought a home well within budget which will allow us to make all of the above improvements (plus some) before we move in next year. Thanks

Hi Louise, thanks so much for your input. Appreciate your take on our house plan - particularly like master bedroom flowing into wardrobe & ensuite. We are hoping to move the upstairs bathroom door to the right - so access is still possible whilst retaining the two minor bedrooms. I don't know if having the bathroom door right next to the corner is acceptable in building terms but it would allow functionality.

I don't know the ages of your children but if they are young it might be a good thing to turn the Rumpus into a dorm style bedroom just for sleeping and using the upstairs living for study and living space. When our kids were young they loved sleeping in the same room, When they are older and you have lived in the house for awhile plus saved more money you could make changes to suit the family

Thanks Siriuskey, kids all want their own rooms. After sharing rooms since born, they are insisting on their own space. Biggest issue is who would have the rumpus room and who would have the other two minor rooms...

You could steel some of rumpus upstairs for seperate toilet and maybe bath

the bathroom door next to the corner isn't the biggest concern it's the distance to the top of the stairs and eldest child should have the "best" room (and extra responsibilities) and then the younger ones move up as the eldest leaves home...what is the ceiling height in the rumpus room and how old are the kids?

Our kids are all young - we have 3yo, 5yo and 7yo - two girls and one boy. Was thinking we have the girls next to each other and our boy in the rumpus room. Still to be determined.

Clint can you add more dimensions, ie: family dining passageway thanks

Turn the front area of the rumpus into a quiet space or study space rather than part of a bedroom

Apart from sort of echoing Dr Retro and Mr Bamboos comments , I would start upstairs , and I would have thought that is real , real easy .

Wall off part way through the lounge , so basically you come up the stairs , in front of you you have a 'new' wall , with a bedroom behind that ( around 4mtr x 4 mtr ) , which has a balcony . Bed 1 stays a bedroom , bathroom stays a bathroom , and rumpus becomes a bedroom . Easy , $10k approx , plus maybe new carpet . Or go wild and redo every light and repaint and re-wallpaper and add a $5k couch at the top of the stairs and a $100k artwork . The robe would presumably be a linen cupboard , but it may be able to be repurposed as a study ?

Downstairs , we'll you choose which room you want as master . Me , I'd probably 'bags' the living . Live there for a year , and then decide what you want to do . Bed 2 presumably be your lounge for the first year , study stays as study , you have 2 bathrooms , you may have 2 'storage' rooms ( bed 3 and bed 4 ) .

After a year , you may , just as an example , slightly lengthen the 'front' bathroom into the hallway , add another door , and you have an ensuite ( assuming you want the Master Bed to stay at the front .

Bed 4 and that rear bathroom you basically clear out , remove or rejig the walls , you have a lot bigger space so maybe include the lounge , or maybe just a bigger kitchen and dining and family . Bed 3 do what you like -- an office , a guest bed , a pottery studio , whatever you want .

Personally I think that will offer by far the best bang per buck , BUT only you know , and also even your plans and priorities may change in a year , but that would be the lines I'd consider .

I would suggest just to live in the house for a year before making any decisions. you have plenty of space and I guarantee your ideas will change 10 times in that time. it's good to see what the rooms are like over different seasons and which ones you gravitate towards. I have 3 kids and prefer to try to separate their bedrooms to get them to sleep. Teens want their own space more than younger kids and so think way into the future 10 years to what your needs will be. I cant see my kids ever being able to afford their own house so am trying to future proof so they can live at home as adults even

Siriuskey - we don't have any additional dimensions right now. Unfortunately flying a little blind. Kate - we are planning to do just as you have suggested with the rumpus room. It's so big we can easily have bedroom and separate play space / desk for home work etc.

afjp - thanks but we have to make some improvements before moving in for comfort and sanity. After renovating a couple of places back when we had 3 kids under 4 years old, the luxury of planning a renovation whilst renting elsewhere is very appealing. We are not concerned with upstairs, this space can be very functional with the 3 bedrooms and lounge space. Really it's the kitchen / living and dining which is still somewhat up in the air.

Personally I like my option with island and the laundry can be pantry. But so much depends on views and whatever else you do and how you live, and other site and budget constraint so it’s hard to keep making alternatives. Don’t rush. Take the time to really consider the space and what is outside as well as in.

Thanks Kate, yes we are looking at all options and have the December break to decide. Another option is to flip the kitchen to where bedroom 4 and powder room is - this will flow into the room marked bath which is actually laundry. Drawing up a few more plans to get a feel for what will work and fit our lifestyle best. The idea of yours is still in play. We saw the use of dead space as a great idea...thanks

If it was mine I wouldn't be spending money on changing the upstairs (future parents retreat) which works perfectly as it is with 3 kids 3,5,7 sharing the Dorm room for a year or two ( the two older kids could move downstairs sooner) I would keep kids bedrooms downstairs spending on making this floor work for the growing family needs. Hard for me to make credible suggestions without dimensions cheers

Appreciate the comments all the same siriuskey. Wish we had more detailed plans to share. We have the kids living upstairs in our rental right now and it works quite well. Provided we can make the spaces big enough, I will be happy to have master downstairs and minor bedrooms upstairs.

Update on this. We have decided to keep upstairs unchanged in terms of layout. We will live in the house for a period before making any layout changes upstairs - 2 Bedrooms will be for our girls, while our son will sleep downstairs in the living room (now bedroom) as this was seldom going to be used. Now we are looking at the kitchen design - photos attached of current kitchen which will be completely refreshed along with the tiling in the kitchen / living area. Looking for any ideas on how to best update the kitchen - notice under the stair case is not currently being utilised but we would like to perhaps have the fridge or pantry under the stairs to include this dead space. From the kitchen window to the stair case is 4950mm x 3200mm approximately depth of the current kitchen. The stair case hangs into the kitchen around 750-800mm. Wondering if it would look silly to have perhaps the fridge built here and this cabinetry would sit proud of the bench space next to it, but we could also install deeper bench space to balance the look... We are planning to have the eye-saw built in fridge space currently in the kitchen removed altogether.

First -- the practical side . There is a step by the understairs area . What is it made of , is it 'hollow' or is there dirt under it ? And even if you can remove it easily , what is the height to the kink ?

Now the aesthetics . A fridge or pantry there will be on a totally different line to the bench , it could make the stairs seem more like a tunnel , it will make the kitchen seem closed in , and what will the distance across that imaginary entrance be , if you had a fridge or pantry there ? There is already a cupboard there -- is it used ? I'd possibly consider a narrow glass fronted cabinet or open shelves , for colourful kitchen appliances if you like colour ; or your collection of Royal Coronation plates if you are 120 years old !

initially , in that kitchen , I'd do the 'window' wall in a earthy colour , and make it a feature . And I'd add a 100mm or whatever white board above that set of overhead cupboards -- that 75mm dust and dead bug space is just weird .

Pottsy, the step is tiled over concrete - this can easily be removed. The height to the kink is about 1850-1900mm approx. The width of the entrance will be around 110cm - which I think is okay.. I figured that if we removed the built in fridge, the kitchen in that space would not be too closed in even if the cabinetry was deeper in that one area. The cupboard / storage under the stairs can be sacrificed as we have storage elsewhere.

Is the built in fridge a load bearing wall ?

The built in fridge is load bearing but we have an engineer inspect and this can be removed. SO we are having a beam installed and removing the built in fridge.