Hi lovely lady's. I'm still going around in circles with the floor plan.. I've just found out that I can't put a toilet on the Right hand side of the house as it woukd require a very complicated and expensive trench to connect the existing sewer pipe to a new toilet on the Right hand side. So a bathroom woukd need to stay on the left. I have a structural engineer taking a look T the load bearing walls next week.. Any other suggestions would be great appreciated. I thought about leaving kitchen where is is and knocking the wall thrpufh to make sauna and dressing room one room and turning this into a dining room. connecting the kitchen with the dining room with an archway. but this looses some cupboard space on the left wall and with the current kitchen only being 3 metres wide it's a bit too small. The other challenge is I would like the laundry door relocated to the kitchen wall instead of walking through a bedroom to get to the laundry... I'm stuck..

First consider views/outlooks and then consider vistas from internal space and also from the deck and position the deck to capture that the best. Re your kitchen, I'd try and locate it on an internal wall to promote outwards/external connection which then would give you more flexibility/options as to where to move in and out of and how you can to the external areas - whether that be double doors or whatever.... Make sure you are clear about outdoor furniture size and how you want to use it and start with that and then adjust the size/proportion of the deck to how you see it best working.......those decisions will be yours/personal as to how far you go with that. I'd also try and avoid fixing an external BBQ set-up where you you have to walk around it - think about flow and movement when you position the elements and consider furniture positioning/orientation as equal importance as any built in elements...I think you're generally on the right track if you want to keep spend to a minimum........decks are not that cheap /m2 either, so try an plan it efficiently to the functional requirements of what you need.....good luck! :)

Appreciate the thoughts and this may be a solid option elsewhere in the country but in my circumstances I don't plan to be moving from this property any time before the kids are 18. It is located in Sydney's inner west, and in a specific high school catchment I plan to take advantage of when the kids are older. Stamp duty to buy the property was close to $100k and if moving out even in ten years to a larger property; that averages $10k a year spent on stamp duty. I know 115m2 internal is tight, as is the fixed layout due to existing bedroom walls, ceiling heights, wet areas, and the like - but there has to be a way to make this work... I have read that 4 bedroom apartments should be 102m2 or bigger. I am willing to make compromises where possible but I really want to create that extra separate room "Multi-purpose room" which can double as a study/work area/kids play area/media room/ad-hoc sleeping accommodation". Paul Di Stefano: I don't think these changes essentially equate to 'rearranging a sock drawer' - this is my PPOR so I am not too concerned what other buyers want or resale value if I plan to hold the property for 10-20 years +... (any trends we design for now may well be outdated by then anyway). Many buyers highly value indoor-outdoor integration. By moving the kitchen to centre, it opens up the rear and creates indoor living->outdoor living link. If I get IKEA flatpack kitchen and DIY as much as possible - have a friend reroute the water/drainage/+his licenced electrical friend...hopefully this work would cost sub-$20k. Adding the sliding door to rear is $2.5k. Ensuite, bathroom and laundry I believe I can fitout for $10-15k all up- let's say 15k (again, tiling, raise flooring, showers/fixtures/flat pack laudnry cabinetry install all done in-house without tradies). The only thing I really need professionals for is to move the gas line in kitchen, BIR installs, stone benchtop, and maybe a few adhoc wall demo/construction/doorway moving - lets call that 10k. All up ballpark that is 47.5k? Sirius- If I go with your style plan then I lose the potential 4th bed space and have no where for relatives to stay, babysitter, nanny; etc :( Maybe it is a possibility that the main living space be used for lounge room and kitchen, we can always put dining table in the Multi-purpose room, then when that room is needed for sleeping accommodation, the dining table be moved to the side and kids can eat dinner on island bench bar; lounge or outside table... ? those doors to each side of the fireplace as you suggest - this space is very cramped outside (2.45m width) and potentially would be used to store trailer or garden shed, there is an old terrace built on zero-boundary there and they have a DA to go 2 storeys; which will shadow the whole area. This is why I planned to make the rear south corner a raised deck and try to channel house activity leading out the existing glass french door to that deck, or the rear sliding door. See photo-(my house is on the left, terrace zero boundary on right, and front on is a wooden dividing fence which on the opposite side is the driveway/1 car park and front street.

I would borrow from the lounge to relocate the entry, open it up to the kitchen dining and open your kitchen up to the laundry to incorporate butlers with laundry behind cupboard. You would have to re-thing the layout of the kitchen but could easily re-use some of the original elements