Hello @charlie_com Wow, what a great lot of advice and help. The Houzz community always amaze me with their generosity and info in helping homeowners with their project plans. And how exciting that you're looking at renovating! Your home has a lot of potential! I have a few comments to share which may be of use to you ... 1. Getting the design right - so it suits your family now, and into the future, (as well as creating a home that will sell well and quickly when the time comes) is a great way to start any project 2. Whilst your home is lines on a page, change is cheap - so whilst you may want to hurry up and get it built, it's worth taking the time to maximise every opportunity for your design, and to save time and money during construction, in the design phase. 3. Use professionals based on their specialty skills. Choose professionals you feel a good fit with, but that also have demonstrated experience in offering what you need. So builders are great at building ... some have an interest in design, but it's not their role or specialty. I have a blog on my site about the differences I see between building designers, architects and draftspeople - you can read it here as it may help you choose who is the best fit for you and your project. http://undercoverarchitect.com/architect-vs-draftsperson-vs-building-designer-whats-the-difference/ 4. Speaking to local agents is a great start to understanding what will add value and what won't. The Gap is a little bit of a tricky area of Brisbane value-wise (I have owned and renovated two homes there!) as it can have a bit of a ceiling on value. We really noticed that with our places, and our third reno was a home in Ashgrove, which is such a different market, even though it's one suburb over. Buyers in The Gap usually come from The Gap - it seems to be one of those areas that, once people move in, they don't leave ... because they love the bush setting, the amenities, and it is a lot closer to the CBD than most people realise! However, what people pay for in homes varies - so the local Harcourts is a great agency, and Ray White Ashgrove is also good, and Ryan Smith at Remax is awesome ... but yes, getting 3 or 4 agents in to talk about improvements, and value (even if you have no immediate intention of selling) is worthwhile 5. With kids your age, creating flexible, functional spaces that offer the ability to come together (but still feel some sense of privacy from each other) as well as spaces to be apart (but not locked away) is helpful as they get further into their teenage years. I would always seek to get living areas connecting physically to outdoors - it is especially one of the things that sets homes in The Gap apart from the Queenslander homes in neighbouring suburbs. It facilitates easier living in your home, and is great for young families especially. It will always help your home to feel larger too - as you capitalise on all of the block for that feeling of space. 6. Whether you change your entry or not is one thing ... you can change your address, but I would always check if one street has more real estate value over another. Being a corner block, the challenge is ensuring you create privacy on street frontages, so you don't feel exposed (but still get the natural light you need) 7. In Qld, yes, there is lots of sunshine. However, managing the heat load is essential for homes to feel great. So orienting spaces to the north and east, and reducing the access into the home from western sun. Creating overhangs that protect and shade from high northern summer sun, and also creating shady areas outside your home that cool breezes before they enter the house. 8. Working out your budget at the get go is a great start, and factoring in all those fees as well. I recommend that you think about what will add value to your home, and make your experience easier too. As with any industry, there are great architects, and not so great architects. However, choosing the right professional with great expertise - well, the money they save, and the value they build into your design and home - should more than cover their fees. I am very clear (even as an architect) about not pushing people to use architects ... however I struggle with the advice that says "an architect will cost too much - use a good draftsperson". We spend a lot of time in our homes, and a lot of money on them (often a 30 year mortgage!). If you were about to invest $100,000 or $200,000 in the stock market, what level of expert would you speak to about that? Perhaps thinking about it that frame of mind will help. Because you could be spending this renovation money on anything - so it needs to be an investment that adds value to your home, and your lifestyle in it. I have lots of free help and advice on my website, and send out more in my free weekly UA News (which you can get by popping your email address in on my website). Best wishes as you progress with your planning for your home. Warm Regards Your Secret Ally, Amelia, UA x www.undercoverarchitect.com amelia@undercoverarchitect.com ps - here are some before and after shots of a home we renovated in The Gap. You can see more piccies here ... http://undercoverarchitect.com/portfolio/denning-st/

This is really a job for a professional, as there are so many implications for town planning, fire and acoustic separation between dwellings (covered under the building regulations), legal (are you on seperate titles, or is it strata titled), front setbacks, and structural implications. I haven't seen too many houses that have been subdivided into two units that are on two seperate titles in recent times as the complexities are so challenging with the current planning and building regulations. Your project will need a lot of research and careful management of the bureaucracies, depending on where you live. Your best bet would be to start with a local professional who is familiar with the local planning laws and council requirements. You will find it a lot easier to limit your new work to the existing building envelope. Best of luck, Dr Retro

Thank you both for your feedback. Yes, these are the agents plans - just trying to get some general ideas. This is my first renovation and first time posting to the forum, sorry for lack of info. I've included the downstairs of the house (agent plans again sorry, but for context). The laundry has already been moved in towards the workshop area and a new bathroom in it's place. The landing of the stairs will open onto a new deck, and the utility area will be two small bedrooms. The house is on a sloping block with the entrance at road level, so want to keep the front door where it is (to the right of the kitchen). All internal walls upstairs are asbestos so we are having this all removed, which will give us the opportunity to install a beam if we were to remove walls and open the space. The space between bedroom 2 and the kitchen is currently unused space, where I think the previous owners may have used this corner of the house as an office and put in a wall before selling (to sell as a 2 bedroom house instead of 1 bed). I was hoping to get some preliminary ideas before we engage draftsman & engineer - we will be removing the existing deck on the back of the house as well as building a new two car carport on the front of the house.

OK, a few issue here. General comment : It could be heaps better - there's nothing much exciting here. What do you see when you walk in the front door? The back of the garage door beyond the window. There is a disconnect of flow from the kitchen and the living/dining zone. To start with The plan is missing furniture (big designer fail). You'll see once that is put in whether it's working appropriately for what you want or not. I'd guess if you got a lounge onto the plan immediately you'd see that you'd be squeezed walking into the end of it trying to access the dining table and depending on the dining table proportion's likely that area is squeezed. The relationship between the dining and kitchen area could be improved. I'd suggest there is an alternative that avoids such an exaggerated doglegged end to the space that renders some precious unusable outdoor space and is a clunky resolution. You'd be better off building hard up to the end and enlarging the main outdoor areas so it's a single space, or potentially getting some external storage into it. The living/kitchen dining could be a lot cleaner and more spacious feeling. Would be good to understand where north is. On something like this you're better to exploit the site length rather than try and compromise the width. If north is up the page my instinct would be to flip the whole thing entirely having the kitchen running along the south. Also for a house this smallish scale arguably it would be more efficient to combine pantry and laundry for a more spacious outcome. Also I'd suggest that the outdoor kitchen is oversized and out of proportion for the site. It's always about balancing and prioritising elements, and in tight sites you have to work harder and make robust decisions about where you give & take. You can't afford to waste a square inch here, and if you want it to be awesome the design needs to be super efficient and to achieve a reasonable amenity that doesn't feel squeezed in the main spaces. It takes experience and skill to get this stuff right. Sorry if am seeming overly critical, but when engaged in resolving spaces for people I consider it a responsibility as a professional to ensure a client gets the absolute most out of the opportunity. There is so much underwhelming "vanilla" design work that people pay good money for, thinking that it's "good" when they are no idea how much better it can be. It doesn't have to necessarily be more expensive, but it does have to be throughly considered and properly managed, and opportunities identified and harnessed. Typically this involves considering a number of various broad options and then fine-tuning towards an outcome that is properly aligned to budget and project brief. Budget of course is the biggest factor to get a proper handle of, think here at least $500K+. If that's pushing it, then you'll have some hard decisions to make and need to be consolidating the extent of the expensive fit-out areas in conjunction with a more efficient design that achieves something in a smaller extension......if that's so then possibly one of the front rooms may have to be repurposed for bathroom.......again this comes back to starting the process by considering various options in broad form together with properly applied costings to each option so you can be making informed decisions on what's possible, rather than nitpicking detail on options that are likely beyond budget. Hope this provides some food for thought from a professional perspective Good luck with it PD :) www.pauldistefanodesign.com