Hi Paul In apartments, the killer for layout changes are always drains, then water supply, then load bearing walls. Before you consider doing any changes to the layout, I would advise you to locate the drains (pics would be good) as they will likely restrict you. The drains are important for obvious reasons but also important is the fall (ie downward slope) of any drain you wish to install in a separate location. It means you have to take into account more height the further away from the existing drain you go. It is likely that your existing laundry trough/basin has a drain going down to the floor, and this is going to interfere with the proposed ensuite entry location. Ditto if it is going into the wall. The big one is the new shower. It will need to have a 50mm waste (drain) in the centre of where your washing machine now is.... and the question is where is it going to go.... I would suggest swapping the vanity and shower over to access the existing trough waste if it is large enough. In a lot of these older apartment buildings, the waste sizes are down at 38mm, which is not going to drain fast enough for a shower. If your existing waste is that size, you will need to have a hob to the shower as it will fill up, and you will also need to check health regs to see if it is allowed in your state. To get the drain for the new ensuite vanity and new laundrette sorted, I would punch through the new kitchen wall and run drainage along the wall behind the new cupboards and around to the existing kitchen sink waste. This will give you plenty of fall and a place to hide the pipes. For the new basin to the existing, you will need to see if you can get it around to the existing basin waste in the bathroom adjacent by running it around and under the bath. Cheers

Great job- really fantastic. A tip for anyone in the process of renovating a bathroom: I used Blake and Taylor chalk paint with a couple of sealer coats to paint a laminex vanity in our bathroom- and it looks great. Easy to apply and looks like a million dollars now. include new knobs from the great range at Paddington Hardware, and you can spend the money you've saved on good tapware.

OP, as soon as I saw the floorplan & block, I thought what a great home layout, incorporating many "passive solar design" elements. What are these? A rectangular building envelope, with longer faces looking north & south, perfect! Designing with living areas (& a large proportion of glazing) facing north, perfect! Minimizing (or even eliminating) western windows, perfect! These elements will mean you'll have a nice bright home, & will help insure that you have a comfortable energy efficient home, that is warm in winter & cool in summer. Read more about passive solar design on this government website, http://yourhome.gov.au/passive-design I wouldn't advise adding a verandah to the northern side of the house (unless you're in a very warm climate that requires no heating in winter), as the verandah will rob your house of sunshine in winter, making it cold. Adequate northern eaves are a much better idea, admitting winter sunshine (when the sun is lower in the sky), while shading summer sunshine (when the sun is higher in the sky). A pergola to the north (with deciduous vines) is OK, as it doesn't lock winter sunshine too much. If you are going to open up towards the backyard, to the west, this would be the perfect place for a verandah (or pergola). This is because western windows are not shaded very well by eaves. A larger verandah does a better job at keeping the hot afternoon summer sun out of the house. One other thing I might advise. It might be a good idea to add a couple of small south facing windows to your living area. Nothing too large, just something to promote cross ventilation. This will ensure you will get cooling breezes through your home in summertime.

the narrowest walking space would be about 60cms (and there won't be a lot of traffic in the space and with 3800 (not 3400) the ens doorway can be pushed towards the front of the house, not centred and makes more standing room in front of the shower and easier access from the bedroom to the ens but also depends on the distance from the new wall to the side of the bay opening and that was probably centred when the house was built and before the wardrobe was installed so you need to carefully measure the room again... we now have three different widths for the room and the hall is shown as metres wide!!...is the master bedroom 3400 or 3800 or 4460 wide (ignoring the bay window) and what is the length of the whole room (ignoring the wardrobe) and what is the depth of the wardrobe from the outside and also measure from the outside of the architrave around the bedroom door to the front of the wardrobe ..could you gain some space by moving the bedroom door closer to the wardrobe and/or hinging the door to open towards the wardrobe to feel less cramped? ...we can make lots of suggestions but need to start with precise information about what you already have and based on new information and the size of an average king sized bed and the wider room my suggestion would be to place the bed in the centre of the room, lined up with the centre of the bay window and then measure how much space is available on either side for the ens and for wardrobe and bedroom door and you'll probably find that even if the bedroom door is moved there would probably be about 60-70cms between the bed and the new wall and minimal space between the bed and the door on the other side so try losing big bedside tables and use hanging lamps and mismatched side table or shelves ( a cut down stool makes a tiny side table) and keep in mind that, unless you remove the whole chimney (big job but will supply a huge number of bricks if you need some paving) the thickness of the brick walls will decide how much space is available in the chimney alcove for the vanity so measure inside the chimney not outside wall spaces but, despite limitations imo the ens is well worth the effort, cost for the improved resale value and quality of family life.. but, why not move the bed and add something to create a barrier to represent the proposed ens wall and see how it feels as something like this could work but depends on accurate measurements