Just to confirm, is north at the top of the page? If you're making changes it's always good to take advantage of any opportunities to enhance energy efficiency, which good orientation can do for free, and to avoid exacerbating problems like excessive heat gain from the west. That's assuming you're not in the tropics, which is a different situation.

Thank you for your reply and question.

i have attached the plans with the N orientation. We live in the blue mountains !

Hi Crystal, can I suggest including all the dimensions as that will affect your options considerably. As will where the house is situated in regards to roads and fences etc. Did you want to retain your garage area as living space? And if so, was an additional attached garage on your wish list? Just one more thing, by dropped down floor in that room, do you mean it’s similar to a sunken floor? As you say, the house has good bones and with some care and thought, you’ll have a lovely home.

what is the width and length of the block and the distance from the house to front, back and both side boundaries, which way does it slope and how much, are there any established trees, views or other buildings on the block, are there any steps from house to outside and how many steps (and how many steps from inside to the original garage floor) what are all the floors (concrete slab or timber frame with crawl space) and what is the roof made out of and a Google earth picture of the whole block and some photos inside and out will help?

Thankyou to everyone who has replied ! really thankful.

Here is some more details as requested, hope i answered everything!

ROOM MEASUREMENTS - see attached photo

GARAGE - thinking of raising the floor and including it as part of the house. It is 3 steps drop down from loungeroom.

We will buid a carport at top of driveway and get rid of the driveway that cuts through the block.

BLOCK MEASUREMENTS - see attached what inlaws have sent

TREES - 2 main gum trees id like to keep (in picture)

SLOPE is down and the the left (have attached pic from road)

STEPS there are three/four steps off the front and back landings

SLAB - timber / peirs with crawl space except garage is on concrete

ROOF - terracotta hip and valley roof. looking at changing to colourbond and addinf gable detail ?

INSIDE PHOTOS - trying to organise from

inlaws. Its still original timber trim and doors. Floors have been tiled which i want to replace. Looking at replacing old aliminium windows for better insulation. Needs new bathroom, kitchen, laundry.

I wonder if there are things you need to do to technically bring the garage to a habitable state, such as a damp proof course?

have you done an asbestos survey?

It's good that the house is on timber/piers as that makes any changes in plumbing much easier. Afterwards you might want to think about insulating the underfloor for better energy efficiency in winter. Hopefully there is sufficient space for that.

Starting at front of house, the small bedroom on right I would grab toilet and turn this into robe for bedroom, as it is a small room. Add toilet where current front door is. May need to extend out into porch a little. Guest room/study is carved out of living with new front door to left of this. New Entry hall takes you to living. Garage becomes extra living. Master takes up the back of house. Kitchen uses adjacent bedroom space with new laundry.

@Kate Thankyou. There are ideas that i have not thought off! When i open your plans it does not show the front bedroom area, Any chnace you could send through another pic ? Thanls again for your suggestions. The new front entry should help with street appeal too.

Thank you oklouise! This seems like it’s very achievable without major structural changes. I really like the new entry and kitchen location. Thankyou so much :)

@oklouise

Wanting an unbiased opinion.

Do you think the size of the house as it stands is big enough for a family of 5 or would you do an addition/extension ?

Sorry in My sketch I dropped off front rooms when I enlarged to sketch.
In terms of size, I have family of 5. My house has 3 kids bedrooms roughly 3x3.6 including robes. Master bed is larger with two robes and room for a chair. Family bath with shower and bath and 1500 vanity, Adjacent powder room. Second bathroom is shared with laundry, laundry is 2.7 m long along one wall, as we converted laundry to study as I work from home. Works well. Kitchen dining, has room for desk off kitchen. Lounge 5x5, sunroom 3.5x4. Hall has cupboards along it for storage, prob 2.4m in length in total. This works well for us. Important to have 2 toilets accessible to whole family and 2 living spaces. I note my husband grew up in family of 5 with house half the size.
The size you have seems fine overall, but it can be cheaper to extend or kbr than do lots of internal reconfigure.

Thanks so much Kate. Your comment is very reassuring. I think it’s enough but husband thinks we need a master addition…….. I am under the belief that there can be too much space and can create a disconnect. Really appreciate your help

there is already plenty of indoor sitting areas if you make the best of the alfresco and backyard and moving the cars/driveway away from the front door will allow space for a great front courtyard and you might consider using the space shown as carport on my plan for extra bedrooms and use bed 5 for a walk through rumpus but that could wait till the kids are older and you investigate the costs of the basic reno but we need accurate internal dimensions and a site plan with levels and existing setbacks to be more specific and suggest alternate ideas for a master suite extension...

Thankyou oklouise ! That is what I was thinking as I want the outdoor areas to have just as much focus as inside.
We are hoping to start that process after Xmas Re measurements once we have access to the property. Is this something we engage a draftsman for ? Sorry for all the questions - it’s all a bit new to me.

The absolute advantage of having an OKlouise plan is the information it gives. (I’m very grateful for mine). So when you have the house pull out a tape measure and post back here undated measurements.

My local council does site visits and I was able to show the okl™️plan and ask are there any likely problems. Because I’ll be doing an extension I had a preliminary visit from a builder that gave me a rough size for my budget and my okl™️ plan worked with that. You have the advantage of working within the existing footprint but you can now show you plan to a builder and get an approximate cost. It will always be approximate until the final drawings are done but you’ll get an idea. I’d have those two conversations (council, builder) before spending money and engaging a draftsman.

Can’t endorse bigreader’s advice enough! OKL’s advice, amongst others here, was invaluable. And engaging the services of a builder at the design stage is definitely the way to go. Yes, you’ll need to pay them, but it isn’t a huge expense, depending on the depth of involvement but say 5 hours of their time, and this has the advantage of assessing how well you work together. It also allows you to get other, conscience clear, building quotes once the plans are finalised.

Thank you everyone !!!!
Next step is to get correct measurements and site plan with levels etc. I’ll be back soon.
Until then everyone have a great Xmas :)