Just trying to study your floor plans which unfortunately I can't read so can only guess at the room use. I have no idea of the room sizes either, but I'm just wondering if you have actually done furniture layouts for each room to scale. This is really important. It seems to me like you have some great ideas you have picked up but then tried to make the rest of the house fit around them. How many people do you intend having live in the house? You have a lovely generous ensuite with a private toilet area for two people, but then have a main bathroom for how many people, jammed into a space almost half the size of the ensuite. Even the toilet is in there with no privacy whatsoever meaning that entire space can only be used by one person at a time. If you are planning this for kids, that will translate into lots of fights and arguments. If you want to create a really luxe and practical space, create a separate enclosed toilet, the shower and bath in an enclosed space and the vanity open for use at any time. This would be more in keeping with the standard you have set in the ensuite and balance the house so much better. These sort of details have a major impact on the overall value and attractiveness of your home. I don't know what you plan for the open space upstairs, but with a window along one wall a passageway the other side and only minimal wall space your use of this room will be severely restricted. Similarly the room under it will be very limited in its use. All the more reason to plan furniture to scale. I have seen master bedrooms done with the double doors which look very grand in the right sized room but in the wrong sized room, it just looks ridiculously pretentious to fling the doors open with a flourish, take two steps into the room and fall over the end of the bed. I'm sorry if I'm sounding harsh here, just trying to use my years of experience to help you create an amazing house. I've seen many pitfalls and I know how easy they are to make. You obviously intend spending a lot of money and you have some great ideas judging by your Ideas Books. Create more Ideas Books to cover every room of your house, then go talk to an architect, show him/her what you want, your Ideas Books will be invaluable to understand your likes and tastes and let him/her create something unique and special for you.

As I've already said, it's going to be an excellent home to live in. Very very practical and simple and I mean that as a huge compliment! Too many houses these days built too large and end up having wasted space along with having to buy stuff you don't need to fill rooms you don't use. Much prefer a smaller home and pour the money into quality finishes and furniture. My only suggestion would be to enclose the ensuite toilet. Put it where the shower is, put the shower on the external wall with a window high up and as wide as room. Move vanity to the middle and door into ensuite would be from the middle of the wir which gives a bit more privacy and mystery upon entering wir. Even if you sacrificed a little of that storage provision beside the ensuite from the entry side, to me that would be worth it to get a larger and more private ensuite. Anyway will be great either way. Cheers

Hi there Dave, sorry for not responding sooner, I have been a bit unwell. I would like to add the following ideas. 1) You mention going to a kitchen company and showing your current kitchen plan, the better thing for you to have done would to have taken your floor plan with measurements and asked them what they would suggest, as long as they didn't want to charge you. This way you would get more ideas, not just them politely agreeing hoping to get your business, and why not, 2) I would contact several builders to come on site and give you their ideas of what needs to be done and advise if you would need to involve council and the building costs involved in doing this. The builders will have their own trades electrical and plumbing that work as a team 3) You mention flat packs, they are a great option and can save you a lot of money, Bunnings will do a kitchen plan and cost in store at no charge, Ikea will do the same but not sure about any charges. You can also go online to both and work out a plan, but I would strongly suggest you speak face to face them as they know their product. Bunnings run in store programs where they show you how to assemble their cabinets, both stores have video tutorials, believe me it's worth watching as flat pack anything can be a nightmare. If you can assemble your own cabinets in your own time it will save you a.lot of money, starting sooner than later would be a very good idea I didn't get up to mentioning in planning the layout of your kitchen that the larger the cabinets you use will also save money, ie 2 x 900 as against 3 x 600, the cost per unit plus instead of paying for 3 cabinets to be installed it's 2. It's also makes for a simpler looking design. Most of our Bunnings kitchen is made up of 900 units 2 x Drawers & 900 units 3 x drawer. The exception is 800 cabinet for the sink. 5) Cook top, I would strongly suggest you work a 900 into your kitchen (this would mean having to use a smaller cabinet either side or just between the cook top and the wall). 900 cook tops give superior space to use especially when using large pots/woks and fry pans, they also help to protect laminated bench tops from accidental put down and burns, 6) Range hood, the best look for your kitchen wouldn't be a large stainless wall mounted unit and that's good news as the intergrated ones in over head cabinets would not only look better, give more storage and would cost less. 7) The Island, you have been trying to decide what size, well if you don't have plumbing installed, the island can be free standing with or with out plinths and can be moved if you decide you need more space. You do need to have a couple of power points but make sure they have a longer connection. Our Island is 2.7 x 1200 and has both a cook top and oven with power points and can be moved approx 500m in each direction due to having longer connections. 8) Bench tops, you mention laminate due to cost, we had that problem what with the size of the island. So we went with Plywood (not Marine) We went to Mr Plywood who when the next delivery came in chose a piece with a beautiful grain, had it cut to size and delivered. The plywood sheet came in a 3 meter length but not all do, we had enough to do the sink bench and a top for a tressel table & legs my better half made. cost with delivery 2hrs approx $400. We did a shadow line bench top which had a smaller size white set back under lay. You need to use a good two pack pot sealant on the Plywood. Finally I don't know where I got the picture of the retro coloured kitchen cabinets, but look online at both Bunnings and Ikea cheers

my suggestions includes two new bathrooms, wiw and changes to the kitchen plus the new laundry, pwdr and mudroom and the alfresco or family room at the same floor level as inside (with or without the extra laundry door from the dining room with the alfresco)....separate areas could be improved in order of importance and work done as funds allow but imo a variation of the existing carports is the best use of the space (and you may not be able to erect anything else on the boundary and occasionally leaving the cars at the front would allow the courtyard and rear carport to be used for an undercover drying or kids or big kids extra play area) and there's an optional covered entry from the carport with sliding glass doors to help brighten the dining room and aligning the pool east west uses boundary fences for the pool, allows unrestricted supervision from inside and also retains some kids' safe garden and, i would also be interested to see if there is space inside the roof for a loft with pull down stairs and north facing roof window