How much laundry do you do? For example, I have kids, so cupboards would need to be very accessible. But if you mostly do it on the weekends and yuo have somewhere for storing the dirty washing, then cupboard laundry sounds like a great use of space. What about noise? Will that be a problem with the open living space? Sometimes when the fridge hums, the dishwasher whirls and swishes and the washing machine spins, we have rouble hearing the to at night! Another option could be to stick it in the garage at the back wall, and place shelving all around. Stuff doesn't have to be perfect! And a spot of paint could make it bright!

You are most welcome, I have always said that I haven't been put on this earth to "Hug" toilets, so I'am wondering who is going to clean all of these Bathrooms. Our two kids a boy and a girl had the upstairs "apartment" which they and all their friends loved. I have added a timber stair case for fun, there's plenty of space but you will need to decide what you want to do in the attic and place the stairs to open up into a tall space. I have also turned one of the ensuites into a powder room. Your Jacaranda's only drop once a year!, you used to be able to trim them by 25% each year, you would need to check with your council, we were on the lower North Shore, I think you should consider the patio side of the house and make better use of that, is the front deck something you plan on adding because of aspect, and plant some tall growing hedge ready for the apartments. Our kids Attic desk/study space over looked our pool in the rear garden. With respect to using the formal rooms for bedrooms, you will find that once you have your large family/alfresco and the kids have their upstairs space if you still feel you need it, it would make a great office. You spend most of the time there only using only using the front room in the evening for watching movies etc. I have had another play with my floor plan, I think if your wife sees this you may be in trouble, it's a Master Suite, the free standing bath in the window alcove with white timber shutters for sun and privacy control..... Iam' adding a couple of photos of our old Federation which wasn't protected, when we sold it the new owners removed all of the Fret work & posts replacing them with simple timber posts. The front rooms which we didn't use very much once we opened up the rear rooms into a family area. The room with the Bay window had a Baby grand sitting there, we sold the piano before we took the photo. Cheers

siriuskey, Yes, the courtyard is open to the sky (no roof over it), I assume this is what you mean by double story. Ref. below photos, I would love to get this look, especially the first and last photo, where you can see family living space from the first floor. I can't achieve this in my plan as it eats a lot of floor space upstairs. The referred plan (photos) has a very big void combining staircase, hallway and dining area. I know it is not easy with cooling and heating when you have such a big void. So, I explored a few ideas (with my limited knowledge on this topic) before achieving the current floorplan. I have also thought about, in my current plan, extending the void on the staircase to the dining area (it is more like L shape) but i wasn't sure if that makes any difference. keen to hear your thoughts.

Hi peeps, Apologies that i've been offline over the past few days. Suffice to day that i'm incredibly grateful for your contributions. If you will indulge me for one second (or minute), i never thought that i would get this house. I separated a few years ago and was on the lookout for a small renovation project. I figured out what i wanted to spend on a reno, or what i wanted to spend on a completed house. I also identified an area that i wanted to move to. During what felt like a long process, this house came up and i fell in love with it instantly, although being realistic i figured that it would be waaaay out of my price range (mainly due to size and location). But i attended two open houses and it was even better in person than in the pictures. I mentioned earlier about how i have a basement and when seeing it in person, my inner child came out and all i could think of was what it must have been like growing up in the house. So the auction came around and so i decided that i wanted to attend because i wanted to see how much it would be sold for. Whilst i was going through the pre-approval process, i hadn't quite dotted the 'i's' and crossed the 't's'. Having said that, my friends still convinced me to register! :-) Now i had no intention of bidding, but to my shock the house got passed in. And even after a vendor bid it got passed in for a value that was below my budget (albeit my budget for a completed house!). From speaking with the agent, i put in an offer subject to finance the following day and after a little bit of negotiation i secured it. Whilst acknowledging that buying a house is a huge investment, i really believe that i got the house for 150-200k less than it should have gone for. I guess that i was in the right place at the right time because i don't think that there were any other serious buyers at the time. Of course that means that i need to save (and borrow more) to do the renovations. But i love the house. Again, it's way to big for me so i'm not going to neccessarily be here forever. But it's very cool and in renovating i just want to do it justice :-)