can you post a site plan showing the distance from the house to each boundary, describe your climate, what are the floor walls and roof built out of .does the block slope down towards the rear , where is north and some photos of front back and roof would help

Hi there, you could jump onto Blum inspirations and check out Blum's ideas towards small living spaces! This study shows possibilities for living in just 22 square meters and is full of ideas and opportunities to make the most out of the space available to you in your home.

Could you extend out onto paved area. Kitchen becomes bath and a desk. Kitchen moves to where heaters are. This depends on a number of factors like roof line . New window to bedroom would be a high wide window so above car level. Need to plan with furniture in mind so you get the wall space you need in living

Following thread. This is going to be good !!

You want to be careful not to pull everything apart for little gain. The logical answer involves maximising outcomes for the cost involved and likely requires a rear extension to the existing living dining pushing into your rear yard, current kitchen becoming main bathroom, current bathroom isolated to ensuite, existing verandah becomes 2nd Living area for kids. It's a Min $250K+ exercise though for this type of project

Oklouise, that is a really great layout ! Fantastic job doubling the space with that rear extension

Oh WOW! Thank you so much to everyone that has commented already! I am so surprised at how helpful strangers can be. oklouise I LOVE that floor plan. My biggest concern to extend out the back is moving the plumbing to that area and how expensive that gets. We do have a reasonable budget, somewhere between 80-100K at this stage. We need to consult with a real estate agent to see if we would be set to get it back if and when we sold.

To answer your question about the boundaries, they are very tight. Approx 1.5m to the fence line either side of the house/carport. There is a decent space in the backyard. Approx Where you have drawn the extension on for the living space there is a retaining wall - I will post a photo to see whether you think you can extend out over that and how the footings will be gained as the garden drops off. My other question about the bathroom moving to the old kitchen, there is no window. Is that a problem for ventilation etc??

This is the back of the house - I just dont know if it is possible to extend out from the back to create another living space due to the drop off

Call up a builder and show them oklouise's plan. They will be able to tell you straight away the problem and costing. I don't see much problem, unless you are constrained with a rear setback requirement.

IMO, you can extend with a box gutter and rake the roof up again.

It can be done, just need to properly do the box gutter.

You could have a skylight, opening or not, plus a fan and light in a bathroom with no windows. Very common in hotels where windows are scarce

anything is possible with enough money but with such a modest budget you might achieve the new bathroom and kitchen OR the extension but it would be difficult to achieve both at the same time but you haven't answered the questions??? what is the distance from the house to the back fence, what are all the floors, walls and roof built out of (ie inside and outside walls, concrete slab on ground, or is it a timber floor with crawl space underneath the house?? and NB where is north? ...what is the shape of the roof (hip or gable tiled roof or??) ...do you have an aerial photo of the roof like Google earth??...extending over the retaining wall shouldn't be a problem with proper cosntruction and there isn't anywhere else to go without losing the best outdoor area that has easy access to inside...the extra lengths of pipe isn't the biggest cost of new plumbing and a ventilating skylight will make a great light source for an internal bathroom...

I have internal bathroom. No probs, skylight and fan. Extension on footings should be no probs. Budget maybe though.

80-100K budget will realistically only cover just internal works only OR just a barebones extension shell without touching anything else

I did wonder about budget... Like I said, we are new to this. To answer your questions oklouise; there is approx 9 metres to the back fence and no scope to go out the front. It is a steel framed/bricked house on a concrete slab. The roof is colour bond steel. I will attach a satellite view (bit fuzzy). You have given me heaps to think about and will consult with a builder next. Cheers

based on the shape of the roof the rear extension could be a simple extension of the existing hip roof cladd in matching steel and the walls could also be single thickness cladd in well insulated steel but concrete floors make the new bathrooms more challenging and expensive so you could also consider having the extra bathroom as an enuite with a new master suite extension and use the old bed 2 as a dining area

Clever.
You are also not digging up concrete to add a loo to bathroom, for bed 1.
Which isn't cheap. This might be a good alternative on your budget.

I think that you should decide on a floor plan that you like and work towards doing that not what you can't afford at the monent