I'll give 2 answers . Firstly , based on just the kitchen and bathroom , Option 2 with more bench space seems better , BUT even then I'd want to know more , such as the archway which I think is into the living ? Is there enough clearance ( both floor space but also head space ) for that breakfast bar ? Is it needed ?

Plus things like the toilet I doubt would work -- you enter , hide in the corner , reach behind you and try and close the door , then sit or stand , wash hands , get into the corner again and try and open the door . Imagine someone 150kgs ? Too many doors , too many cubbys and messy 'features' .

Having si=aid that , I'd want to know load bearing , exactly where downstairs areas are , can you get under the rest of the house , rooflines , you said about ceiling heights , and then when I see things marked 'sleepout' I shudder -- that conjures images of an external wall now 2 metres inside , and a flimsy external wall , loadbearing problems , all sorts .

To be mean -- the existing design has been added and altered over the years by the looks of it , and is now a bit of a dogs breakfast . The new designs have had to work with that , but it looks like it may not actually achieve too much , except spending lots of $$$ and moving most things and most services .

Basically , even if I had more info and more pictures and even more of an idea on what you wanted to achieve , I'd only come up with something that suited me , and possibly not you , BUT I'm not super convinced the new designs are a great improvement .

Personally I would do an island not a peninsula. You will find it much easier to link to the deck, which I assume you prob spend a lot of time on given climate. I know my friend in Brisbane eats all meals on deck and watches tv out there.
Change toilet door to a slider. I would prob go opt 2 but consider your linen versus study desk in bed 3, you have the extra storage space in kitchen I. Opt 2 which is your trade off.

And change access to bed 3 if it is not just a study, to having access from the bathroom hall. This will eliminate a double door and provide more usable space in bedroom as well as better connectivity to bathroom.

As OKL said we need more of your floorplan before we can spend time making suggestions. As it is bedroom 2 would be ilegal? , what do you intend doing with this space when you move the kids bedrooms downstairs., And is there a view to have the porch take up what was a perfectly usable room. I would have thought using existing Verandahs as verandahs would be a better option while enhancing the interior spaces

Thanks all for your suggestions. I've updated the questions with information on ceiling heights/roof line and the current downstairs floor plan.

We haven't planned downstairs yet. As a minimum we need two bedrooms and a laundry. Nice to have rumpus area.

Open to suggestions of moving bathroom downstairs if that makes sense.

Agree with Kate on the slider door for the toilet.

Not sure on the comment on is bedroom 2 legal? Siriuskey can you elaborate? Is this due to natural light concerns? Currently we borrow the natural light from the sleepout next door (lots of open windows and the french door out to sleepout (as per picture above). This access will be maintained when the stairs go in. But I am also considering one of the solar skylights to add light in this room.

Thanks again!

Kateb2020, b2 doesn’t have a window for ventilation. Could you put the stair in centre of house and extend bedroom into sleep out.

Thanks for the extra info kate2020, I will have to reconsider my ideas, I mentioned Bedroom 2 as it needs to have an exterior window to be legal, windows in the sleep out won't be acceptable. How many in your family , and total bedrooms needed.

what is the head height under the rear deck and the front porch and master bedroom, do you plan to use any of that space for new downstairs rooms and do you want to keep a downstairs front entry door? any plans depend on the best location for the stairs and that should be decided before any other rooms

I can't see how these rooms or any proposed new rooms under the house would have legal height ceilings given that the land slopes up to the rear of the property

Hi all. Currently 2.4m head height downstairs (inside, slightly more under deck). It is a sloped block but it slopes sideways as well as up! Workshop is lower head height.
We have a family of 4, so need a total of four bedrooms to allow a guest room for interstate relatives to visit. (Currently kids are sharing a room but as they grow will need more space).
Don’t need a downstairs main entrance as our main living areas are planned for upstairs (where all our traditional Queenslander features are).

My reading of BCA was that the room was legal as it had ventilation and light borrowed from the adjoining room. I know external window would be better but we can only change so many internal walls without affecting the roof!

‘There is a concession which is called ‘borrowed light’, where if the room in question does not have any openings which gain direct sunlight, but adjoins another room which does has an opening to direct sunlight (a sunroom for example), then this complies so long that the size of the window between the two rooms is 10% of the room in question, and the size of the window in the adjoining room is 10% of the combined room floor areas.’

Similarly to natural light, the same concession applies for rooms adjoining another room with access to natural ventilation, however for ventilation the formula is 5%.’

thanks for clarifying that, I wonder if it's the same in NSW, I have been told that in NSW an internal room could cause a problem if there was a future DA

I remember grandmothers Federation house in Sydney with a bedroom in the same situation, it always had a stuffy closed in feeling with bad light and ventilation, so not perfect. Your proposed staircase would add to this feeling in that room. Either way you mentioned a solar skylight which are good but I would certainly look at Velux opening skylight, with a blind

Can you reconfirm that the front room has become an open porch, for me that is/was the best room in the house, The entrance could have been via the existing foyer, changes made without a complete plan effect the best possible layout for the house.

Because it is a timber house keeping any features can easiy be done by removing and relocating within your new floorplan, likewise windows and doors

my suggestions begin with the location of the stairs and includes three bedrooms, rumpus, bathroom and laundry downstairs and keeps the original location of the upstairs bathroom in favour of a bigger kitchen with pantry and the family living dining and MPR area through the cooler centre of the house like a traditional QLDer and still has a study and small sleepout but best location of walls will probably require moving some windows and a central location for stacking doors to the deck and windows behind the couch instead of bifolds to allow more circulation space and solar skylights will be ideal for downstairs rooms that are likely to be too dark

Totally agree with the position of the kitchen OKL, great floorplan

Working with OKL stairs I suggest the following to open up this old girl to light and cross breezes. I have concerns about these two considerations by having bedrooms downstairs plus having an upstairs verandah facing north out over the pool which will block northern light back into the downstairs space, perhaps just stairs and a narrow verandah off the open plan kitchen family and making a larger alfresco downstairs next to the pool,

Opening up Parts of both the west and east facing original verandahs will add light, ventilation and character to the house, any left over original windows can be reperposed downs stairs

Wow. Thanks for all the ideas here. The plans look great. Thank OKLouise and Siriuskey.
I’ll have to check structurally on whether we could make the North West corner that open for the kitchen area. We have the rear gable of the house (3.2m high ceiling) only for the first 3.4m so if need to see what we could do to open the kitchen out to 3.4m

Sorry 4.5m

And to answer your question siriuskey. Yes the front room has been opened out into a verendah. This room got really hot in summer so wasn’t working as another living space.
We’re restricted to what we can change at the front of the house as we are in a heritage area. We can make changes without a DA if we don’t change the front of the house.
Agree we can change a lot with a wooden house, but I think we’ll be restricted on reusing windows. All our casement windows are original glass from the 1930s so won’t be to modern building code. If we move them, they’re gone. However replacing with modern glass would bring more light into the home.
We’ve put fans in all rooms and always have the French doors open in bed 2 so light and ventilation haven’t been an issue. Might become so if we put a moody teenager in there though!

my suggestion for the new kitchen ceiling would be to have a dropped ceiling for the 2400 x 4500 kitchen ceiling and enclose the structural beam at 3400 inside the new ceiling and maybe a decorative frieze above the island

Thanks!

I haven' suggested replacing any windows with modern ones, just part of the verandahs on both sides of the house will be open which will also open up those centre rooms. What problems did you have with opening up that beautiful front room and turning it into a large open verandah, that was a big change to the front of the house cheers

I do think sliding door for powder room or split doors may be best to allow for all size people. The later suggestions are best for flow.

Thanks Siriuskey. I think I misunderstood your earlier comment.
There are not problems with removing the aluminium window frames (the balconies were enclosed with these and heritage wise they are fine to come out!). We opened up the front room as it gets so hot with the western sun so turning it into a verandah made sense for us.
Will consider all the suggestions on here. May need to reconsider everything.
Am now questioning everything!

No problem kate, my husband lived in several Queenslanders as a kid so he described the need and use of the verandahs creating cross ventilation and how closing these made some rooms difficult to deal with humidity. We have also lived in New Guinea and the British Solomon Islands again having to deal with humidity in the coastal regions. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with, take your time to arrive at what will work best.we're happy to help, Love that you are determined to keep as many original features as possible