Yes it is a bit further where we have the kitchen now from the garage - its hard to tell from these images of course(!) but we are on a hill site that has all front yard for entertaining and amazing view, so we wanted all of the areas possible to face out/open onto this. The back side is looking mostly at retaining wall so it would be quite dark if we put the kitchen on that end. The bedroom is the 4th one and as it is only my husband and I, it won't be used that often so we prioritized having the living areas bright and in the best spots over the guest bedroom.

I think the first layout is fine. You might want to consider moving the door for the storage room of the master bedroom so that it opens into the hall. That way the kids can use it for overflow storage. Also, that hallway is big enough that I think it could hold a large armour, providing more closet space. (There's no need to sleep in the same room as your clothes, so long as they're not too far off.) Also, don't forget that while the drawing shows kids in double beds, this need not be the case, so there will be more room for furniture (dressers or whatever) in their rooms. Finally, that step to bedroom 4 will not be odd at all. I've seen it in other homes. It looks clumsy in the drawing but it isn't. What you'll see when you come up the stairs is a bedroom door on a slight diagonal. It's only an odd jagged step if you walk like a robot, in straight lines along the wall, which is what your eye is doing on the drawing but you won't do in real life.

I disagree with respected commenter above. I strongly believe that having the correct provisions will ensure your house is ready for any future technology you might want to install. Having no provisions you will have to find ways to pull cable in the future, or go with less reliable wireless products. We have experienced this with so many clients. At first they install the bare minimum, but once the house is completed and they have some funds to spare, they can easily upgrade if they have the right provisions. Feel free to email me at nicos@qioto.com and I can provide some advise if you wish. No obligation of course...

Just wanted to post the most recent plan that incorporates all of the suggestions that I have received from the very helpful people on the Internet! Changes made: - added an extra bathroom on far left of the house near kids bedrooms - changed the toilet/main bathroom to move the shower over to the toilet room so that we could have 2 separate kids showering at a time (without coming into our room - although that remains and option) - moved the door to the library so that it doesn't look into the toilets/bathroom - optimised the space in our bedroom by moving walk in closet and bathroom around. This modification even allowed us room for a tub in the bathroom a so thankful for that suggestion! Now we just have to find room in the budget lol Questions: - when you walk into a bathroom, do you prefer to walk into a shower (from the door) or into a toilet? What would you prefer visible from the door itself? Logically you are going to use a toilet 9 times out of 10 so you would think that should be there first, but there is something odd about walking past a door and just seeing a toilet there... Thoughts? - is there enough room in the 2 bathrooms we created by joining the toilet and main bathroom? Dimensions are 3m by 2m (roughly) and with a shower coming out about 1m and the vanity about 550mm, that leaves more or less 1.45m to walk around, surely sufficient? If there are any other suggestions or thoughts on what you would do if this was your home we would greatly appreciate the feedback. Thanks you all so much in advance!