Can you post the new floor plan. I am not sure what is bottom wall, which has window and is toilet staying?
The raised washer is chopping up bench space. Consider building it into tall cupboards and having a bigger bench with overhead shelf

And dimensions

Are you planning on renovating the bathroom? Could you pivot the bath across the short wall on the left and have the toilet and vanity opposite (top and bottom walls) at each end of the bath. This would allow flow straight through from the bathroom door into a new door where the current vanity is in the bathroom. (right side of the bathroom). This will allow you to design a laundry that is an L-Shape layout

it would be easier to understand if you could post the whole floor plan showing laundry and bathroom in relation to the rest of the house and is the animal health equipment for domestic or farm animals, what size space/equipment is needed and could that cleaning space be added to an external bench with sink and tap?

@oklouise and @Edwards - thanks for your quick responses. Below is the bathroom. Yes the bath would JUST fit across. I don't think we'd ever be able to get it out so will be the same beautiful claw foot (that needs re-enamelling).

Laundry: toilet, WM and sink are currently on north wall, water heater out of view in top right corner (South-east).

The diagram below seems a bit low res unfortunately. I hope it works ok. I plan to put a sink on the back of a new shed (yet to be built) for cleaning animal equipment and a lockup in the back o the shed for storing, so that will clear a bit of space in the laundry. The design above puts the machine and sink on the east wall. Toilet is staying. Yes the raised washer does chop up the bench space, AND I'm thinking about aging..... Mind you, on a farm the WM being on the floor will be one of my lesser issues!

@Edwards I would need to keep the outside door from laundry (I was standing in the doorway taking the photo) to get to the clothes lines which we use regularly (no drier and not likely to ever have one), and also we wash up in the laundry before going into the house.

@Kate Sorry about the resolution.

Why change the layout in the laundry? The ceiling drops significantly so I would install full height cupboards along the bathroom/south wall. Install narrow shelf storage or wall hook system along the east wall. Having the blind corner of cupboards as per your drawing of proposed change would be wasteful and annoying.

There are lots of heritage homes with verandah/gable coverage. A gable roof cover from new extension to existing building may be acceptable.

@dreamer I agree on blind corners - I designed out all wasted space in the house. I just hate the tight corner where the tub is, and haven't been able to find a corner cabinet - we could build that. Maybe we should be keeping the layout. Our draftsman struggled with covering the outdoor patio to laundry because of the different heights of the two wings. The new one is a lot higher.

This for internal access

@Kate that's a very interesting idea, thank you.

You don’t have to have the sink in the corner, the sink can be in the middle of that bench. Toilet, washing machine, sink and then cupboard. Utilise the entire wall, and put the washing machine closer to toilet. All enclosed with bench top, and cabinets under bench. I was more commenting on the way the new layout was a negative change.

Some considerations, washing eggs and animal health is not hygienic, healthy or legal on a farm, when done where they could come in contact eg sink or bench with human needs of washing, toileting or dumping stuff onto benches. Have you thought of an outdoor sink and bench under a tin awning? Easy by extending plumbing from the laundry. Storage could be second-hand metal lockers. As outdoor shower could also be considered. Then you could reconfigure laundry.

I think your farm house needs a powder room if you could manage to fit it in, I also wondered if that could back onto the WIP. But this similar plan keeping two toilets and existing external door

I should also add that entering the house via a bathroom is not ideal for a farm, a mud room/laundry first is better from experience

as you already know adding internal laundry access loses wall space for both bathroom and laundry so my suggestion would be to use siruskey's idea but lose the external access from laundry and take advantage of the extra nook and entry space to add the separate powder room, outside egg and hand washing bench and undercover mudroom, use the double doors for outside access and the covered verandah for a mudroom ..hopefully any damage done to the old bathroom tiles can be covered by new cabinets in the new laundry and maybe match new bathroom and powder room to old bathroom (new laundry) tiles for continuity

With such a large extension why are the family bathroom and laundry small compared to the size of the house, is the new extension only an open plan kitchen dining living. I also wonder why the Pergola is running a long the side of the new room when I thought it would be better on the laundry side. What with the rear of the house facing north this would make the laundry bathroom subject to western afternoon sun the new room facing East won't have a this problem.

Your current bathroom has a beautiful timber ceiling sloping up from West to East and the very ordinary laundry from North to South it would be shame to change that ceiling. Just some things that I would consider.

@CHRISTINE HALL ARCHITECTS LTD thanks for all your effort and thoughts here. So am I right in understanding you propose reversing the location of the bathroom and laundry?

@siriuskey the small bathroom and laundry is in the heritage part of the house which was renovated before we bought it in 2009. It had white ants I believe. We wouldn't want to change the ceilings. I have often thought about painting the ceiling white to make the room feel bigger but just can't bring myself to do it. It is beautiful cedar and once done can't easily be undone.

The new extension (kitchen, dining, living) is north and west facing (not ideal in Australia but it worked on the site and for the views). We didn't put the pergola in.

I agree with not painting that beautiful Cedar timber ceiling and not making any changes to it and would paint the original laundry ceiling white I try to work with any existing features where possible, like that ceiling, tiles and your claw foot bath and the existing external door. Looking at what you have said, the original farm house is timber which does make it easier to work with, ie accessing plumbing etc.

Your new extension looks amazing and compliments the old building, by adding a pergola to the original laundry bathroom could give these spaces protection from Western sun plus as OKL has suggested even include an exterior sink for washing eggs or any veggies that are grown and picked on the farm

Hi Janelle,

Yes, I am suggesting the switch. It is the only way to have internal access to both spaces, maintain privacy for the bathroom and have external access for the laundry with the bonus of having external access to a toilet.

By including just one toilet in a separate room, a powder room if you like, it frees up a bit of space for extra storage or bench space. It also allows the three spaces to be used at the same time without tripping over each other. I also like the idea of creating access to the laundry from your dressing room to a washing basket but maintaining privacy via doors over the laundry bench etc. A sideways laundry chute!!!!!

The separate toilet should be at least 1m wide so it does not feel pokey but also keep 1m clear from the outside corner to the corner of the wall where the old bathroom meets the new entry glazing. See my plan on previous posting.

I would keep your nice cedar ceiling where it is and edit it to suit the new laundry layout. Paint the new bathroom ceiling white as that appears to be lower and you don't want it to feel like it is closing in on you.

From the heritage issues, I assume you will need to keep the roof form as it is and just occupy the space below as per the plan. You may need to put a beam in on the line of the existing internal wall that is being removed as it appears the existing laundry roof is supported by that internal wall. It is only short so will not cost a lot.

My feeling too is that if you don't spend the time to get it right now and only do a minor change, you will regret having this as the weak point of the house.

I hope that helps.

C.

Love the Edwards Reno comments that’s exactly what I was thinking it’s also much cheaper to cut the claw bath whilst still in bathroom and remove pieces at a time than getting it re-enamelled 😄