Thanks Louie and Georgi for your comments. Great suggestions for me to think through. Thanks for taking the time to provide that detail. To help see the space a bit better, I've taken out the wine rack and replaced it, temporarily, with a shelf (that was in a different part of the house) that matches the one holding the water filter (the second shelf is to hold our phone and modem - again, due to a small house, it's really the only place the phone and modem can live). Plus, I've extended the table so that I could get a feel for the size table the area could potentially accommodate, now that the wine rack isn't there. The size of the table with the extension is: 1800 x 840. Ignore the look of the current table - regardless of whether we go banquette seating or not, we would like to change the table and perhaps a pedestal table would be best so that it makes it easier to get to the seats at the back. By the way I noticed that when I look at this post on my iPad I don't see all the photos I included like I do when looking at it on my laptop. Hopefully the photos I've included show okay for others looking at this. Thank you.

"Architect-designed houses are not accessible to all." This is a myth championed by the building industry. Alternatively, why not focus on the key benefits architects bring to a project. Here are a few for you: • Appoint an architect to your project and you’ll gain a home designed for the way you want to live.The alternative is a builder-designed home that suits what the builder is used to building. Quality builders will ask for plans and specifications to be thoroughly documented so that they can go ahead and do what they do best, which is build. Working out with the owner what you’re going to build and why is the architect’s role. • An architect manages planning approvals. This process is complex, often arbitrarily applied by many Councils, fraught with pitfalls for the novice and is ramped up every year with new hoops to jump. If you want a professional on your side who knows the territory, will go in to bat for you and will forge a way through this minefield, you need an architect. • If you’d prefer to put the works to tender to a number of builders rather than having to accept the quote of the builder you started the process with, you need an architect. • If you’d prefer to protect yourself with a proper, architect-managed ABIC contract that works equally for both parties and is legally enforceable, you need an architect. • An architect will minimise costly changes during construction as he or she will produce a proper level of drawings (expect 20 x A3 pages for a new home, rather than the 1-2 pages you’ll receive from a drafting service.). The reasons for this are that you have on paper exactly what you want to build. Without this, you are entering a contract with a builder with none of the details resolved. You wouldn’t do that if you were buying a house, so why do it when spending an equally significant amount of money? Unfortunately, some builders see this approach as an opportunity to happily accept constant changes from ‘project managing’ owners because it’s just another variation that he can charge for. The longer he is there, the better for his margins, particularly when there’s no contract to speak of. Finally, an architect is a specialist with a professional duty of care, irrespective of financial gain. In other words, they’re there to support and protect you, without benefit to themselves. No one else in the building industry can provide this.

I wish every investor would ask for opinion like you when building a rental property We've been living on rental properties since forever and had enough so we're buying a land to build a home for us. Not sure where you're building but have some ideas from past experiences in Sydney and now in QLD. -doesn't look like you have much linen nor kitchen cupboard space. I would take a bit of space of the home theater and add a linen facing dining room. Or is there one already? I can't see. The more cupboard the merrier. -microwave spot, the one we're renting now doesn't have one and we had to put microwave on the island, it's just annoying and takes the space - Fan, please consider putting fan throughout, it's a deal breaker for us when renting and I'm sure for a lot of people as well. I would put air-con just on main bed, I reckon it's a waste of money for you and for whoever is renting to have air-con in the living area it takes forever to cool/heat up the room on open plans. - Shelves in the robes, this makes a HUGE difference, where we're now doesn't have any, we have to hang everything it's super annoying. I won't even mention drawers I don't think they exist on rental properties - I'm a fan of natural like so really like the idea of a window as splash back. - Single garage for 3beds? Is there any storage? - Exhaust & heating light in bathroom - Agree with laundry, I would at least change door location so you don't have to go through the kitchen. - Upstairs media could be used as a study maybe put some data/internet point there. - It doesn't look there is much working bench top space in the kitchen, sink seems to be taking most of the space, I would double check the dims and maybe make it bigger? These are just some ideas. when we're looking for a place we have a checklist: it will fit our king size bed, does it have fan & air-con, does it have plenty of storage, does it have plenty of working bench top space in the kitchen, does it have a dishwasher, microwave spot, does it have blinds, does it have natural light coming in, I could go on but you get the idea.

what happened to the old column? i think you need to add a corner cabinet (900 on the stove wall and 1050 on the sink wall) with doors hinged across the corner provides 300 + 450 wide doors and better access to the corner for storage of big appliances and to allow more space for the drawers to open, the 1000 fridge space allows an air gap and two 750 wide drawers next to the 900 wide stove, i've kept the 1200 gap between benches and island and added a cabinet (opening toward the sink allows for a 600 wide 450 deep space for a bin) then two 750 wide drawers and the built in microwave making a longer island and extra drawers next to the dishwasher ...in my experience, if you're having custom made cabinets you only need to specify the size of appliances and sink, the general layout of the room and your preferred arrangements and approximate sizes and the cabinet maker should measure the site and custom make the cabinets to suit the space with minor alteration to allow for any obstacles eg like making the pantry cabinets narrower to allow for architraves around the entry door..and it's more comfortable to walk around if the pantry doesn't overlap the architrave or encroach on the doorway