We are going to have cesarstone for kitchen island bench Agree with opening from WIR behind bed. We rotate vanities to be in line with robes in WIR - we can change the robe to makeup table & drawers with chair going underneath of its bench. Please see attached sketch. By rotating vanity it looks more spacious and practical ! What is your thoughts siriuskey? Cheers

I think you have been watching too many reality TV shows that paint women as territorial princesses. A relationship is a partnership too, it is not just about love and trust, it is also about respect and consideration and having empathy for the other person's feelings and needs, two people living and working together for the good of each other. Each partner will have strengths and weaknesses and complimenting each other in this regard makes for a good relationship provided respect, empathy and consideration is shown, so no one partner should dominate in any aspect to this degree or even think about it. Even the most design challenged person should have some say in the environment they live in.

Drying room with retractable clothes line, floor to ceiling cupboards on one side, low line shelves for shoes underneath and a place for kids sports bags on top, a window for ventilation, and double cavity slider doors to close it all off - BLISS!!!

Thanks everyone for your comments so far. Some great points have been made and I'm going to take each one of the away to have a think about. In the meantime, I've asked my draftsman to provide me all the measurements to existing and proposed so I can share it here as soon as I get them. Some more info: We're located in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. Our budget is approximately around the $200k...this is so we don't over capitalise on the property. We thought about building to one boundary because we are of the thinking that we need more width to achieve the space we want. As a guesstimate, I believe the block is 12m or so wide. Each lane way is approximately 1.5m (3m combined) which only leaves us with an internal width of 9m (minus walls). We chose to explore building to the eastern boundary because existing utilities such as hot water system, ducted heating are already setup there. Moving it to the western boundary would cost $$. The eastern laneway has nice new concrete paving and allows us to more easily access it from our carport.The other reason for potentially building to the east is because we're the 2nd last house on the street (near a corner). We get a bit of traffic on our street but more so on the street parallel the western wall. I thought it would be more peaceful moving the house away from the traffic and noise rather than towards it. Also, the addition of the dining area (connected to kitchen and alfresco) will give us a bit more privacy from the street (parallel to western wall) when we're out on the alfresco/deck. Just my thinking but happy to get some further feedback. We're happy to consider keeping the current building boundary if we can achieve the design we want etc. I've attached a few pictures of the existing low ceilings towards the back of the house. The pics show the ceiling from kitchen and towards the back door (curtains are closed). The ceiling is about 2.4m and you can see the exposed beams which makes the ceiling feel even lower. I'm only 1.6m and I can touch them with my finger tips if I try... Whether it's a full knock down or increasing the height of the roof, I think it's the one thing we're about improving/removing. Hope that's some more info for everyone to go off... Thanks again for everyone who has already replied and made some great points. Cheers