Emily A permanently roofed al fresco will reduce some summer heat gain (although sitting out there may be uncomfortable) and will do the same for winter. From scanning the comments it appears that you are at a point where you can still may major changes; I cannot recommend strongly enough getting the orientation of your new home right, it will be warmer in winter, cooler in summer and be significantly cheaper (if not free) to run with some appropriately detailed insulation. I do understand the appeal of a floorplan that seems to be all you have aspired too but have seen many a case where people have later regretted those decisions. If you are unsure about the pros and cons of various floorplans then get a design professional (building designer/architect) to give you guidance on an hourly rates basis. good luck

Building/designing to budget is one thing, building/designing cost effectively to maximise value is another. It's not just about size, although of course this is a variable. What exactly are you endeavouring to achieve with your home? What are the outlooks, where is north? I'm guessing this a family residence? This is a fantastic opportunity for you, however I'll suggest that it would be money well spent for you to engage professional to assist you finalising your design. If you are on a rural allotment I'd encourage you to embrace the space and context and capitalise on the design opportunities that are not usually present on the more standard suburban allotments. Here's a design I did years ago for a rural context, a linear design/arrangement that maximise the views and natural light. A home's floor plan is complex and challenging to resolve, as it must balance/negotiate numerous requirements/functions/practicalities in context to a particular budget. One tip/pointer I'll give you if you're dead set on DIY'ing is try this: start with the furniture, and bring the built/fixed elements in after. You can't design space until you know how it is to be used, where a bed will be placed, where the dining table goes, how the living room is to be arranged, where the TV goes, if you have a fire or not, where the outdoor table & BBQ are to be positioned etc........This forces you to think about HOW all the different spaces/areas will be used, their relationships and come at the design from the angle of really thinking about your home is to be EXPERIENCED and beyond being just a collection of square spaces arranged together, walls doors, windows and cupboards etc Hope this gives you some food for thought, and ultimately with all this, the big decisions are always yours, that being what exactly you want for your home and how much you have to spend. Getting those two fundamentals to come together is certainly easier said than done - best of luck with it :) PD

My Suggestion is a little different. I would begin by getting rid of the the pantry and wall/door from the entry to the family room. this gives you a big open space incorporating the kitchen and family room. then, block off the door from the kitchen to the dining room and this now gives you an amazing space in which to create a new master suite with bedroom, bathroom and walk in robe. This gives you privacy and space from the other bedrooms. The kitchen/family area can then be redesigned as follows: put the kitchen cabinets around the walls in an L shape, extending along the wall with the rumpus room to the doorway. There's space on that wall to put cabinets to the ceiling, incorporating a fridge and pantry, and still leave you with plenty of bench space. you should be able to keep the sink where it is and centre the stove on the shorter wall that used to house the doorway to the dining room. This leaves you plenty of space in the family room for dining and you may even fit in a small island in the kitchen. I also suggest block the laundry from the new dining room, reinstating the original doorway from the laundry into the rumpus area and adding a new external door out the side of the laundry. This will only work if you suitable space at the side of the house. To give you more usable wall space in the new dining room, block off the linen cupboard and convert the space into an extended robe (or built in desk?) for Bed 2. You could do a similar thing with the linen closet in the laundry, giving you a longer wall space to build a bigger linen cupboard. Of course, if you have the money to move the plumbing for the kitchen, you could redesign that entire kitchen/dining space however you wanted, What I like about removing the pantry and the entry wall is that you can now see through to the back of the house as soon as you enter, and this gives a great feeling of space.

What about this: move carport down so it is in front of the entry, or the end is in line with din/lounge wall, build into the carport space for new kitchen: two long runs of bench and island. Perhaps back to the west. Roof being held up permitting! then open the kit, din and living (with new raised floor) into one large open area. Then you can afford to pinch some space for more storage in you need it. Personally I would remove the clear stuff off the alfresco and have the north sun stream into the home for FREE warming in winter and plant a deciduous vine to shade cover the windows in summer. Plant more garden! I am in Melb too so I know how well that will work! happy to assist further..... Cheers Margot