We are ploughing our way through renovating a house of the same era, it's a lovely home to live in with it's walls of boards and pressed metal ceilings, we have kept it, where possible, as it was built over a hundred years ago in1898. These houses have very little storage as people of those days didn't have much and I sometimes wonder why we do today. We still have a way to go but the light is at the end of the tunnel and this dear old house wraps it's arms around us each day and those of you that have never lived in a wooden house have missed one of life's great pleasures.

Thank you for all of the suggestions. As we are currently getting renovations done elsewhere in the house it is hard for me to provide photos. The two exterior walls in the living room have floor to ceiling windows, whilst the dining room has three consecutive windows around 1m off the ground. One of the windows in the living room it is not possible to put blinds on as it is too close to another window (perpendicular from it). There are also a second set of glass doors onto the balcony which we do not wish to put blinds on. Therefore next to the front door there are four windows/glass doors, only one of which can be covered with blinds. So as you walk across the balcony and to the front door you have a substantial view into the house, even if a wall was built to separate the living areas from the entry. It is for this reason that we don't think a front entry way will work. We are not too fussed about the privacy as it is a raised Queenslander hidden front street view due to a number of large trees. However, we were concerned that having the kitchen in view from the front door could affect resale value (although it doesn't bother us). We enjoy having a large kitchen however could happily have a smaller one if it meant the space worked a lot better. We would like to keep the laundry in its current location if possible, to minimise renovations. The main reason we are concerned with the floor plan is, as I've said before, that we would like to have it open plan and we think that simply knocking down the wall separating the kitchen and dining room would not be the ideal way to go about this. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

based on guestimated measurements my initial suggestion include the ens wiw and pantry space with a hallway (deep enough for bookshelves and/or desk) and wide enough to allow for the big pantry and more privacy between bathroom and public areas and these new dividing walls could have open fretwork above door height to maintain ventilation and avoid spoiling the existing ceilings..the new front entry would need stairs to be rearranged but more info is needed to be more specificanother option would be to rearrange the back stairs for better access and also allow the old dining area to be the new kitchen opening directly onto the deck and have the pantry in the old kitchen??

My quick two cents. More power points in study and where your plan to charge devices. A power point in the outdoor area is always handy. A down light in the kitchen needs to be between your head and the cook top when cooking, similarly in the powder room the lighting needs to do between the person’s head and the mirror. At the front of the house you have a down light, did you want a security light on the corner of the garage and/or feature lights in the front of the porch columns.