with a lot of helpers crowding around to help i suggest that the new kitchen needs to be zoned for tasks and be open plan without a separate pantry...this rough idea has a central island about 2m x 3m surrounding the column and walkways approx 1.5 m between counters, subject to available space with the column the island has mostly underbench drawers for pantry food storage, crockery and cutlery and the counter is for food preparation, serving, sorting and distributing clean and dirty cookware and bags of groceries etc and has a small extra sink but no more than a couple of stools to keep the workers moving!!..Subject to suitable access the central space under the big island (would be about 60cms wide, 90cm tall and almost 3m long!) would be ideal to store folding tables and chairs and "christmas" supplie in wheeled storage crates or pull out kitchen island trolley..There's a full size fridge and freezer as well as an underbench drawer fridge next to the tea, coffee & toast area,with cup glasses and breakfast supplies in the overhead cabinets..twin dishwashers with double sinks, hot cold water dispensers, pull out garbage bins and a modern insinkerator or compost disposal in the sink area..the cooktop and food prep area is on both sides of the corner with big appliances underneath, and serving plates and casserole dishes etc overhead..The base cabinets should be deeper than normal for more generous counters and giant cooking equipment and appliances stored underneath and to have shallow splashback shelves for herbs,oils, sauces etc and there's a stacked wall oven and microwave and a stacked wall oven with warming drawer and vertical shelves above the ovens to stand up trays, racks, cake and pizza trays and drawers below the ovens for saucepans and baking dishes...decorative finishes and fine details need to be determined by the resident cook for personal taste and everyday comfort

We had our claw foot bath professionally restored as re surfaced over 20 years ago and I gold leafed the claw foot and shellacked it numerous times it looks fabulous the bath still looks as new today as it did 20 years ago, we looked for a professional re-surfacer of bathrooms to do it, I finished off the claw feet as mentioned, we bought the bath that was being used as a sheep dip on a farm so it was much worse than your bath, we live in Adelaide but I am sure there would be prfessionals in Melbourne, just google and then look for feedback of their work, good luck.

Unfortunately I'm based in Sydney, so can't really help on this one. There should be lots of HVAC installers around Melbourne who can help with this. I'd look up commercial HVAC companies on Google, and just tell them you need your flexible ducting replaced with metal ducting you should at least be able to get a quote from someone. Not sure on budget though, depending on the layout of your house it might end up being an expensive job.

this is one of the best I've seen! gorgeous!