Do you want to keep the wood floor? It is rare to see wood floors as garage floors. I've seen homes like this moved onto pour basement slabs (same concept as pile foundation...but with a basement instead of dirt. If you want to keep the wood, then there has to be a way to keep the wood off of the concrete. An 18" crawl space (dirt covered with 6mil poly sheeting or cement) is always an option. The 18" crawl space would have to be cross vented/heated properly. This is for "keeping" the wood. Flooring. I'm not sure what has to be done to remove the wood floor and have the building sit (joists and all) on concrete. Remove the joists and you have plenty of stability problems. You would need to speak with a local architect/building engineer who has some knowledge of what you are trying to do, soil conditions, etc. to get this right. In theory it can be done (we've just landed a small car on a comet...we should be able to put an old building on a cement slab)...I'm wondering about the expense to get it there (excavation + soil stabilization + concrete + piles, etc).

after watching my daughter and her husband agonize over the way their expensive timber floor has not held up well after 3 years, I would recommend tiles/wood look tiles with under heating. Their beautiful warm expensive floor looks like it always needs a clean and polish, not from neglect, they have cared for it well. One of the boards now has a slight and painful moan when it's stepped on :-( I grew up in a completely wood floor home and although it looked wonderful, my Mother hated it. ....and the mats ! Wood is a lot harder to maintain than tiles ,(no matter what the die hards say) the modern wood finishes are much better than they used to be.... But a piece of wood is rather arty no matter what it's used for and it does demand to be loved and cared for.....and if something goes wrong it's a lot more expensive to fix than sand and cement. Ultimately you have to be happy. BTW underheating tiles is warmer than timber :-)

Hi Luke, thanks for your reply. Yes, there is existing plumbing but we need to create a gradient somehow on the wood floor. Concrete floors can be ground to create the gradient but need to come up with some other solution with the wood.

To me it looks like it would be better to have a smaller kitchen as being a 1 bedroom place the living/ kitchen area is quite small. I think having the essentials along the bedroom wall is good but the island makes the living area too small in the first plan, and in the second the cabinets make the walkway too narrow. I would put sink, fridge, oven along the bedroom wall then make any other bench and storage space more like moveable furniture to make the living area seem bigger. The kitchen may be able to be shut off behind doors (a bit like a euro laundry) when not in use to make a much bigger living room, especially if it isn't used a lot.