I would remove the entire wall between kitchen and dining room only. I think if you remove the rumpus room wall, you are going to end up with a really long narrow space, which will be difficult to use. do you want a "separate room" (what about in the future-kids? play room,office, formal dining , etc? An alternative to completely opening up the rumpus room to the kitchen, would be to create openings on either side, and leave the wall in the middle section. 2 advantages-a solid space to place a piece of furniture, and create a zone, whilst still opening it up quite a bit. depending on what you intend to use the rumpus room area for- you might even consider moving that wall across, so it is centered between the windows-a bit more space on the kitchen side, and a cozy space on the rumpus room side - if its going to be a play room/office/small sitting area, it would end up being about 3.7*3.4, which is still a good size (just not enough for a dining room or pool table) And then completely remove the wall section that is between the living room and dining room Depending on whether you think heating/noise etc is a problem with it so open, you could add either a barn door, or double glass doors to the opening. DEFINITELY remove the arches- i would just square them straight of to the ceiling. and leave the openings..or add a barn door Paint all that brick white-you will be amazed how much lighter the house will be. consider a doorway from the garage into the kitchen-it must be a pain carting the shopping through the house. Also, your windows need some timber architraves on the inside. Have fun - its always so exciting starting a new reno (for me-into my tenth year on the one house-not so much anymore :/ )

Hi Mel, Kitchens are an integral part of any home and particularly a busy family, so much to consider. I personally think an Island clear of any sinks or utilities makes for a more workable space. It lends itself to food prep, kids homework, meals, guests perched on a bench whilst you prep. Sinks always accumulate mess so I think a sink put to the side works better. Gone are the days where you will stand at a sink hours at a time. Think about how you like to cook and use a kitchen a cooktop not far from the sink works best think straining pasta pots, vegies etc.. As for butler's pantry's I'm not a fan, why spend money on a lovely kitchen only to be cooped up in a small kitchen off to the side, very unsociable. Houses are made to be lived in and sometimes that comes with a little mess particularly in the kitchen. Don't hide away in a butlers pantry embrace your home and kitchen and all that it entails. I recently completed a kitchen with a similar colour scheme to what you are suggesting black, white and timber, I anchored the kitchen with the black Island and used white cabinets for the rest of the kitchen. Matt surfaces are on trend at the moment as opposed to gloss or semi gloss, matt finishes hide finger prints and children's hand marks better, dust will show up on darker surfaces so be mindful of this. I adore natural materials and feel that a timber floor really adds warmth. Take a look at the kitchen I recently designed for my clients, would love to hear your thoughts. Happy to assist you any way - Good luck with your renos. Thanks Collaborative Interiors

Hi Sarah, I completely sympathise with your situation and very sorry to hear about it for you. You're in a complete mess with this. As a Pro it's super frustrating to look on and hear of these stories because 100% this is so easily avoided with the right approach and astute investment in using a competent design professional. I've lost count of the number of times I've had people eventually come to find us, but in a bit of state/heads done in/in a shemozzle of a situation, after spending time/(sometimes years) and money getting nowhere, being disappointed with higher than expected quotes etc yet still pretty much back exactly where they begun with no logical plan forward.........sound familiar? The common thread is lack of alignment or management of expectations of Project budget to Project brief relationship. And that's why we have a job as professional designers - we develop solutions for specific needs, balanced within context and balanced within constraints, the biggest one always being budget. You just can't bypass this process and expect to get good results. And you won't achieve it effectively on a Houzz forum. Hopefully though a few of our Pro responses will help steer you in the right direction. Unfortunately people think it's a good way to save money on their projects to not pay for design - it's actually quite the opposite. There's no easy answer here of say "move the kitchen there, flip that over, change this or that" etc unfortunately you're back to the drawing board....and you're best to accept the time and money put in so far is actually part of the process and your particular journey. This reminds me of a project years back where clients came in asking me to tweak and draw up a design that someone else had done - they already spent $40K and had a planning permit for it but there were big budget problems - it was clearly/unfortunately a poor & inefficiently resolved design beyond budget (similar to yours) & I could visualise a much better alternative solution. So I convinced them to move on, toss it all away and we go back to the drawing board - I'd redesign it from scratch much better and better value/cost effective overall - they reluctantly agreed and that's exactly what I did. Fortunately they did themselves a favour knowing deep down that they had to go backwards to go forwards. I designed and delivered a far better, less expensive and more impressive home. that they are eternally grateful for, and for my honesty and advice at the time that was ultimately in their best interests. Like always, with all projects, it ALWAYS comes down to money.........so their success relies predominantly in the design solution..... I'll try and keep it simple: 1. Design is a process of balancing requirements within context within constraint/limits 2. Good design decisions involve having understanding of cost/budget consequences 3. the above points are primarily what distinguishes design professionals from amateurs 4. It's therefore false economy trying to DIY design and/or pursue projects of this scale as Owner Builder unless you (a) have a passive income (b) significant construction experience (c) a flexible budget and are just in it for a hit & a giggle So our Advice: Seek Professional Design assistance How we manage these types of projects is by starting with clarifying the project brief in writing - forget about the floor plan - define and specify your brief requirements and goals and define the budget. The next step is to look at broad form options that we develop in a "Feasibility' stage of service in which we analyse the context, identify some logical options/variations of format for a nominated project scope relative to context and apply accurate construction cost projects to each to compare. So in your case we'd be looking at answering the critical questions of in what particular format can we best meet the requirements? Is it with an extension, or hybrid alterations&additions, do we go up, down or out, what are the cost differences and pro's and cons to the different configuration options, how much should we renovate, how does the investment one way or the other stack up in regards to property value? Is it actually better value to do more than less (more often yes!) Is staging/breaking up a project into parts beneficial or proven to be less cost effective? So many questions that need professional assistance and experience to answer to get the best outcome for you and your family. It's not easy business........Labour cost these days is the killer on renos - if you don't know what you're doing (ie understanding how certain design decisions translate to X cost) then you've got no hope in balancing the numbers to success................ Apologies for the long winded response! Hope this helps Sarah. Trust us, we know what we're talking about. Happy to provide further advice/assistance if you'd like to contact us directly Kind regards, Paul Di Stefano Paul Di Stefano Design www.pauldistefanodesign.com

I think if you were willing to lose the back covered porch next to the bath, you could extend the bathroom and just have a walk way to those stairs. What concerns me about using the meals area, however, is how you would access the stairs to the cellar. That is something you need to figure out. Walk around your house, consider the options and walk the spaces to see how they might work for you. If you have trouble visualising it, you may need to measure it all out and draw up a plan of the space yourself. measure your furniture and cut little shapes to scale and move them around the plan to see how they fit. The bigger your plan, the easier it will be to figure it out. You need to think, too, about how you live in the spaces at the moment and what works for you as well as what doesn't. We lived with our kitchen for three years before settling on a layout we both agreed would work for us. We totally renovated our downstairs, changing the layout of the spaces and putting up walls to define spaces in what had basically been a walled in under house area. We discussed, changed and drew out the layout about 4 times over about 18 months, until we got the one that just felt right. We have lived with it for 18 months now and it is working very well, enhancing the way we live just as we wanted it to. My point is, don't rush to a decision. This is going to cost you a lot of money and you are going to have to live with the result for a number of years. Think it through carefully and figure out what will work for you and your family.