Can you advise if the family room is part of the original house or a later addition? Do you need a full extra bedroom or are you looking for a space to use as a study?

Euro laundry style could be a key gaining spaces

I'll be the mean judge -- sell , and buy something you like ! I know its not always that easy , but the house is a reasonable design for what it is -- all you are going to do is cram more and more in the same 4 walls , which adds quantity but not quality . Plus I'd be surprised if you could do what you want ( including plumbing / electrics / paint ) for under $60k , and probably closer to 6 figures . Sure , you may be able to borrow that , but I still come back to is the end result worth it ?

Also on a purely practical level , there are 3 of you now , in 5 years there may be 3 or 6 , but you don't need 4 bedrooms NOW , so why not wait and see what happens in the next 5 years ?

For resale too , someone who is attracted to 4 bedrooms and ensuite , and then sees everything crammed in , and 1 less living area , is probably going to keep looking -- same as someone looking in your area who only needs 3 bedrooms -- they will initially think a 4th is a bonus , but then they'll see it !

Rejig and gain/repurpose 1 room if you really want / can justify it , but not 3 would be my thoughts .

@bigreader - the family room appears to part of the original house, but always used as a seperate space. A full extra bedroom would be ideal. Maybe with a study nook somewhere else in the house.

But I think we will run out of room for everything we want in the current footprint!

Thanks @User - good thing is there is plenty of space for us at the moment. Wanted to start planning for longer term, ideally not to move again.

I guess we could either extend upwards/outwards if required is the other thing too. Just wanted to explore options within the current footprint first!

Make lounge the master. Current master becomes sitting room/guest. You need keep 2 living spaces and have good access from back yard,,

@Jane Monte thanks so much for your design. I really like the alteration of the kitchen location. Would definitely free up more living area at the rear.

Also @Kate I never thought of having the master in the current lounge position.. Maybe incorporating this would work too.

Maybe something like this, but then moving the kitchen and opening up the rear of the house too? Plenty to think about!

all the ideas are great but you need to make sure that there is enough space to include furniture and fixtures and if you have long term plans to consider an extension or upstairs it's best to plan for the whole new house and then you won't find that short term changes spoil long term opportunities....is your block on a corner with access at the back or side, what is the width and length of the block and (ignoring the garage) what is the distance from the house to all boundaries and what is the garage built out of?

Thanks @oklouise - yes best to plan for the long term for sure. Would definitely consider upstairs addition one day but it's not in our budget for the moment..

It is a corner block but the only access is on the driveway side. Block is approx 18m X 30.5m and its a brick garage, space for 2 cars back to front.

These are approx setback distances too, cheers!

@oklouise this is stunning. Thankyou so much for your work. Its really given us something to dream towards!

I wonder with the kitchen (current family room), the current windows are 2m high starting at the floor level, would these be difficult to alter if the kitchen benchtop were to go up against this wall? Only a very minor detail though.

The garage measures 3.8m x 10.4m currently and sits on the East boundary. Gap between garage and house is about 2.5m (mostly unused space at the moment really)

it's quite easy to remove tall windows and replace them with short windows for the new kitchen and fill in the gap below the window with a stud wall covered with insulated cladding...it's surprising that the garage was built this way when it could have been extended from the boundary to the side of the house to make a generous double drive through garage with more garden towards the rear but, if it was my house i would enclose the gap with a flat roofed room (with bathroom windows replaced with in wall storage and add ceiling skylights) and, although there is enough room to add an ensuite and wiw in the gap (and/or at the front of the house) for the price it will be much more cost effective to add an extension in the rear garden....in the meantime a reorganised kitchen, family dining and living room would provide much more comfortable space for a young family and a generous alfresco (with umbrella or basic shadecloth covered pergola) at right angles to the house would be better use of that space and could be a simple gravel paved area or a deck that could be recycled if/when you need to add the rear extension

@oklouise this is fantastic. Absolutely love the plans. Thankyou so much.

We're looking forward to getting stuck into it. I think we're going to tackle a laundry room fitout first as it's basically just a blank canvas currently. Then will look at removing/altering some walls.

The wall between the current family room and kitchen is actually a brick wall, so could be load bearing, will have to get it inspected. This could prove to be costly I would guess.

Will definitely be worth the cost to remove the wall to open up the space anyway. Will see how we go!

where the brick wall is removed could be replaced by a big ceiling beam (where i show the dotted line) but well worth the cost to create a family friendly kitchen family room.. look forward to seeing your progress reports and depending on the size of the laundry maybe you could include an extra toilet but need to know the internal dimensions and existing location of laundry plumbing??

@oklouise cheers! will post progress as we go for sure.

Laundry measures 2.4 X 2.7m internal, only currently has an old double trough with taps and plumbing central to the window, and hot/cold taps for WM are on the north side wall about 1m in from the window.

Extra toilet may be nice. Priority would be for lots of storage and to create bench space with washer and dryer underneath.

i tried several options for including a toilet and although possible, unless the toilet has no walls to separate it from the rest of the laundry, the inclusion of the extra toilet uses too much space and makes the laundry too cramped so a long bench under the window should be enough space for a tub and underbench washer and condensor dryer and moving the door to install a cavity slider will allow a full wall of storage and easier access through the laundry to outside carrying baskets and you could consider a combination of tall storage and a low bench (sit at for sewing or hobbies? with tall clothes baskets underneath) and wall cabinets or shelves for out of reach storage for washing and cleaning products and make sure that your tradies includes wm taps and drainage and power points under the bench

and with the extra storage you might consider sacrificing the old linen cupboard for an extra handbasin and when you add the extension there would enough space to include an extra powder room accessed from outside

This is great thanks again @oklouise. Do you just recommend a 600mm benchtop, is that enough to fit appliances and plumbing underneath?

to save money i would be considering a flat pac collection of cupboards and counters and the laundry would be a great place to practice your assembly skills and the cabinets i suggested are all standard sizes and counters usually come in 600mm depth and work quite well with underbench appliances although (depending on precise width of the back door) you may find that a skinny laundry tub will allow a little extra width for the appliances to fit more easily under the bench btw i would choose a condensor dryer to avoid steam in the laundry and make sure that you have an extra power point above the other counter if you plan to use an iron or sewing machine etc and you could include an extra power point through the wall for bed 3 at the same time