Oklouise you are awesome! Thank you! sorry I forget about boundaries as we are rural, so there really are none. The house is weatherboard and roof is colourbond. Floors are pine boards in living areas and yellow tongue in other rooms. I really don't want to make any changes to internal walls to keep costs down. Having said no restrictions, I don't want to go out towards the proposed garage side, or behind where existing bedrooms are. Other than that, we can do pretty much anything, that's kinda the problem! We have great veiws north and east. Oh and yes, the verandah roofing is seperate to main building. Hope that helps? Thank you so much for what you did already, I really do appreciate it. And you've got it spot on! House is 11 × 8 meters and verandahs are 1.8.

Hi Bella D, Option 3 is a winner hands down. A few things to consider: * You do not want a bathroom/toilet directly off your or dining area. While that might be ok when it's just your family at home, it won't be with guests and toilet noise. * The bathroom placement restricts the amount of heat moving up the stair case. This is a major problem in open plan two-storey homes. In summer upstairs becomes unusable because it's so hot and in winter downstairs is freezing. * You could move the bathroom to the left so it is under your ensuite. Having all the water use areas in one spot (upstairs and down) reduces how much hot water travels and sits unused in pipes - it can be a considerable energy cost over a year. Locate your hot water as close as poss. This position would also block noise to the bedrooms. * The only prob is you have no laundry in this design. Could you move the kitchen towards the back wall and re-arrange a small laundry/bathroom here. How much washing/ironing do you have. I don't need a huge laundry in my modest house. I don't want to spend too much time in there. Just need storage for dirty and clean clothes plus machines. Good luck. BTW, which way is north - your whole design should have the living areas facing north and excluding summer sun from the east and west and have minimal windows facing south - they just give poor quality light and add to heat loss in winter..

I'm not here to argue, but an approved plan can be resubmitted as a variation for approval. The blind acceptance of an approval limits your creativity, and the clients ability to obtain the best possible solution. This problem requires thinking outside the box which is what we have offered. The client must decide if the process and cost of approval of a variation is worthwhile. They shouldn't live there wondering if only we had done this or done that due to a blind acceptance that once approved there can be no variations. Realistically everything that has been suggested should result in the need to seek an approval especially when changes to plumbing are considered. Erase what you are not happy with and redesign that space without the shackles of poor space planning. You don't have to like my suggestion but don't limit yourself either.

What a beautiful cottage, how many will be living there and ages. The Verandah/Bedroom 3, I can imagine has a different level sloping floor.? These spaces were often converte d to bedrooms/sleep outs, with single and bunk beds and worked well. As already mentioned the cottage is only 2 bedrooms. For me without spending what I haven't got, I would 1) keep the verandah as the Sleep out and open up between the kitchen and lounge with a long farm house table on lockable wheels so it can be pushed aside easily. 2) As suggested by OK turn the lounge into bedroom 3 and open up the kitchen to the verandah with 2 wide openings with a support in between for this external wall and the verandah becomes a small living area that can also be opened up to the undercover area weather permitting. When you are ready perhaps the old brick chimney could house the cook top and oven, as you said it's not a big house which I think is already perfect as you have that wonderful big shed. My ideal is a Small House with a big shed! Perhaps you could even find a smaller version of an old concrete laundry tub when you re do the laundry cheers