What's going in the top right corner ?
Do you need two openings into lounge ?
Maybe kitchen one, close off and turn island, use that wall for more storage and have door to hall enter where pantry is?
Can't draw it, as on old iPad.
But it's a little kitchen for a big house, IMO.
Say 6 people are all getting breakfast...ones making toast, one cereal, ones getting water for a smoothie, ones doing an omelette , ones washing up from last night, ones in bed, is there room...
If you used lounge wall with more bench space, and a wall oven.. And microwave above, more room then ?

Kate will draw something wow for you with the crayons, I can't...

Thanks Kiwimills for your feedback, much appreciated.

• 2 x double stackers 3m wide each
• We kept two openings in the lounge for visitors who we dont want to bring through the living area
• Correct. We thought having a decent size scullery with a sink/dishwasher might overcome the kitchen size. Kitchen designer has suggested to join the island into the pantry wall so island becomes 3360mm which gives more storage space?
• Also moving the wardrobe in the 2nd bedroom (opposite master) behind the walkways. This will we may be able to get another small storage wardrobe opening into the hallway?

It all comes down to how you live....but the kitchen/scullery is very small in comparison to house size, especially with all that 'empty' space beyond dining table. I also wouldn't want sink/dishwasher backing onto a bedroom....I send my dishwasher at night with the days dishes, and plumbing noise in a wall backing onto bedroom would be very annoying.

As I say, it depends how you live and how long you are going to be there - those factors may affect resale.

Sorry, I meant is it a lounge, a pool table etc in the space?

Its just empty real estate...

This is what I meant and maybe do double doors on lounge so feels posher than family room, and saves seeing mess of the kitchen from the lounge.. Makes it a private space if not part of kitchen.. Imo

Thanks, looks good. Should the scullery sit behind lounge and then kitchen as you have drawn?

Yes thinking of pool or table tennis in the empty space initially.

This is another plan which we started working off initially???

I had a pantry wall with toaster plugged in on our master.. But not by bedhead

For some reason they tended to also plug in a blender or a toastie maker, or took toaster plug out and put in kettle.. Was a double plug but the other plug was a phone answer machine, back in the day!!

and it made the loudest noise at 2am..or 7 or anytime

I vowed never to have a power point in a pantry near my head again!

It tends to echo in an empty Hollow of a wall.. No insulation.

But if u do noise insulation it might be OK.

You could play drums and still sleep!

The second plan doesn't have a pool table space..!?!

Yes, Rob also mentioned having dishwasher/sink behind the bedhead which is a fair point as the water hammer itself can be a nuisance. What do you think of the revised plan?

No. May be we will replace dining with pool and use kitchen island as informal dining.

Islands are OK to chat and eat cereal

A table is nice

There must be a solution to water hammer and a Bigger kitchen, you have a big space

@oklouise

Or @siriuskey will have an idea

Or @dreamer

Or @bigreader

They are all visionaries

where is the laundry and outside drying and utility areas for bins, garden shed, pet and kids' playing areas and how far away are the neighbours' houses from your boundaries and are their homes at the same height as yours?

why did you choose a laundry in the garage and how many people and what are the ages of those who will live in the house?

Just a note too on the positioning of your laundry in the garage....if you HAVE to have it in the garage, it's best to have it close to where you enter the garage from the house - with where you have it you will be carrying baskets of laundry past vehicles - rather impractical.

You could delete the laundry and extend out the back and put it there or keep bay for storage and extend at back still... If money is no object.

Easier access and have a door opening out and clipping on to the wall if you want to keep it open etc

You can still have a clothes line on the wall and a window for laundry

Kiwimills suggestion would work way better :)

I'm having a laundry in garage, much smaller than yours, just a washing machine and sink, but I put doors on it to make it look posh!

Yours might be to wide,

but easier to get to than opp the cars, just a thought.

my suggestions include variations on previous ideas but wondering why you have a raised floor when a slab on ground is usually cheaper, better for passive solar design and would save all those steps taking up extra space?

Thank you Louise, Rob & Kiwimills for the great feedback.

• We are family of 3, me partner & a 3 yr old kid. My parents may live with us for a year or so in the future
• Laundry was added in garage to save space in terms of adding a separate laundry and expense
• Agree, laundry will be better close to the house. I think the reason laundry was drawn the way was because the outside space at the back was redundant. See the aerial view in the first photo
• Thanks Louise for drawing up the plan with changes. I will speak to the draughtsman regarding this as quite like the idea where its still open plan but visitors can't see the living from front door. May move the dishwasher in the scullery rather than behind bed head as mentioned previously due to noise etc.
• The reason garage sits 600mm lower than the house is to give more flat area in front of garage. Therefore the stud height in the garage will be 3m and rest of the house will be 2.4m
• See below the elevations and driveway at 20% gradient. Since the engineers have not drawn any driveway/retaining wall design, I might got with 25% gradient in the driveway which will give us may be 1-2m extra flat area in front of garage and keep garage slab as same height as rest of the house (i.e. wont sit 600mm below rest of house). Initially I thought 25% is very steep but the neighbor who's property sits 1m lower than ours has a driveway gradient of 25% which isn't too bad. Suggestions?

ie the garage and driveway is lowered not the house floor being raised.. that makes more sense .. consider making sliding doors narrower and/or use windows where you need extra glass for more flexible ventilation and keep in mind that the front of the house faces west, could overheat and need external shadescreens and wide glass on NW of master creates problem with view into bedroom from living areas and do you need such big windows east of the master looking at the fence?...and double check the angle of the roof over kitchen family as the ridge doesn't need to be higher than the rest of the roof and i would have the dishwasher in the island (with or without the sink co located and this kitchen is much bigger than the original with a 3m long island) and main reason for moving the laundry is to allow the garage to be wider ie 5.8m is uncomfortable for two cars and walking space and you're also adding laundry space and the garage could also be moved towards the south to allow more parking space at the front

Love what Oklouise has done. The ensuite/walk-in-wardrobe is so much better too.

as the internal height of the garage will be taller than necessary if you have an unexpected lottery win you could lower the ceiling in the garage and add a loft in the garage roof space with a pull down staircase.. ideally with a gable and window facing west to make a great storage area or mancave?

Thanks oklouise, much appreciated. You have really challenged me with my current plan and will be checking with the architect for changes. Some thoughts:

• how can we change the powder room location so it has a window and its own basin? Or may be make toilet/batch/shower/sink as one area?
• Is it the double stacker cavity slider in the door in the lounge, haven't seen anything like this before. Are they quite expensive?
• Door leading into the living area from the entrance, would it be better making it a barn door?
• We thought of having a dishwasher and double sink in the scullery with the exhaust fan and only as small 400x400mm sink in the kitchen in line with the cooktop (not on island as the current house we live, the island is always messy due to the sink/utensils). This way all mess and dirty dishes are in scullery away from the main kitchen. Why do you see challenge with DW being in scullery?

@oklouise - agree we may not need a big window facing fence in master. What do you think of the bed positioning towards north and have a high window instead? Put a TV on the wall where bed was initially located?

windows in master bedroom need to allow views and privacy and much as i would prefer bed on NE this keeps the bed in view towards and from family room so prefer bed on south wests wall and small sliding doors pushed towards north side of room with tall narrow window beside sliding door and highlight window for light with privacy and wall space for chest of drawers...acknowledging theta the pwdr doesn't have a window but my suggested arrangement uses less total space more efficiently and is better for older kids and long stay visiting parents (more people can use the various options at the same time) and a small ventilating skylight will exhaust and brighten the toilet and vanity area ...the wide door into the lounge can be a stacker or stable door so you need to investigate local options (and everything is expensive unless it does what you want...we always use solid core doors that can be ten times the price of a basic hollow core door but love them so we economise elsewhere) and barn door between entry and family would be OK as long as you like them and it doesn't compromise lounge doors but could look ok if both doors are the same style and different widths...and location of dishwasher is personal and if you have already been unhappy with sink in main kitchen then have it in the scullery...main advantage of my suggested kitchen location is that it's closer to the front and the family area and external doors and the pantry uses the central space that can be much better illuminated with another ventilating skylight instead of a tiny external window and noisy exhaust fan

Looking good! Take it from us, also love how responsive people are to help and contribute.

Rj,

https://www.scaffoldingaucklandhire.co.nz/

our service team has done various projects like this one. We stick with the plan made by clients though we suggest some arrangements if needed.