I would for sure spend the money to remove the wall and I think the idea of a large island with stools is great if you have the space it is hard to tell from the pics a floor plan woulf be very helpful and maybe some more pics from different perspectives also.

The taupe countertops are nice. Have you seen all the new choices of backsplash tiles that are available currently? There are so many beautiful ones, there isn't a need to settle on white subway tiles. Venture out to the big box stores or flooring showrooms and take a look... There are tile caps of all sizes to finish off the ends. A nice one is called a tile liner, and it's about 1/2"-wide. There's also metal strips that can be laid in to finish the tile, it looks very nice. They are called: Schluter Systems 0.375-in W x 98.5-in L Aluminum Commercial/Residential Tile Edge Trim and can be found at Lowe's. They come in different colors.

Hi IdaC, I had the pleasure of living in a California Bungalow many years ago now that had almost exactly the same plan as yours apart from a few modifications that your house has had. The living and master bedroom were switched and the ensuite was just a bathroom from the hallway. The problem with the house plan is the blocking of the rear of the house by the kitchen wall to the hallway and so the circulation goes around through the dining. If you want to alter the layout for a more modern lifestyle with good access to the back yard, I would make the living room another bedroom and put in a new long but narrow bathroom occupying some of the current dining room or possibly part of the existing living if you don't mind a smaller bedroom. The new bathroom can be just 1200mm wide having a 1200 long shower against the outside wall with a high window in it and then the toilet and the vanity near the door. Put the plumbing on the new living wall unless you install full length wardrobes on the wall between it and the new front bedroom. Then I'd delete the back bathroom and make that and the laundry into a walkthrough scullery and laundry and keep the outside door. Put a galley kitchen along the central back wall of the house with an island facing a new dining area where your current kitchen is with double glazed doors to the front hallway. Then make the back bedroom and 3/4 dining room, the living room and open that up to the rear yard. Ideally you'd want the living space on the North side of the house and the plumbing areas on the South, but that might be an expense too far. You could build a really great outdoor entertaining space outside the living room that links with the backyard bungalow if that became an overflow living area/man-woman cave!!!! or just a granny flat or office. If you want to do it in two stages, start by builing the new bathroom and opening up the back bedroom and 3/4 dining into the living room. That way you can start with the three bedrooms where they intend to be. Then you can look at doing the kitchen, scullery, laundry and dining when you are ready and either set up a temporary kitchen in the living space or eat out for a few weeks between when the old kitchen is removed and the new one becomes usable. Good luck, Christine.

my suggestions has the central entry and a small study off the living room...(twin desks provides more counter and wall storage and avoids sitting face to the wall) there's a generous laundry mudroom with direct external access, a bathroom with separate powder room, more space in the master suite with the window offsett for furniture and more privacy from views across the courtyard and reversing the wiw and ens allows for morning sun in the shower and the wiw creates a sound barrier against the guest room.. adding furniture helps suggest room sizes and there's various setdown spaces and extra storage throughout the house ...luckily there's plenty of room for more than minimum offsets to create a garden, alfresco, courtyard, screened spa room, entry, kitchen and laundry porches, garden sheds and drying areas and careful choice of building sizes allows for a neat gable roof with the extended eaves and a hip roof over bed 3 keeps the whole roof simple and economical to build