I'll tell you what -- I love 75% of the bathroom -- that rustic style is different enough , and well enough done , to be different but great ! Then the tiles and cupboard doors let it down -- try and stick to the rustic styles there too would be my thoughts .

The kitchen looks to have good bones , obviously the benchtop has to go , and maybe a bit of colour and new flooring , but it seems to flow okay , and looks great . I'd probably keep the stainless sink , but onyx marble benchtops would be classy , add more modern tiles and/or a splashback ( depending on colours , how about just basic white square 150 x 150 tiles , with a horizontal top row of black or red or orange subway tiles on their sides ?

The lounge , in comparison , is all over the place . Light wood , purple carpet , and ( shiver ) a faded look on the coffee table . Take it outside and shoot it , burn it , it's just wrong ! The lighter wood panel might work , or maybe stain it dark , paint it white -- it depends on carpet tones . A wheat colour carpet , for example , with mid reddy brown stain wall , the bricks under the fire , it would look a bit rustic but with a tinge of class !

So what about changing the rooms ? Here's a quick idea -- The main 'rustic' bathroom could be turned into an en-suite for the 'upstairs; bedroom ( I assume that is the master ? ) , through a walk-through robe . The downstairs bedroom seems to have a shower and toilet ( almost its own en-suite ) but possibly keep the 'direct' door to the upper bathroom , as well as an entry from the upper bedroom , so the bath can be used by everyone if need be .

You also have a seperate toilet there too , and the laundry is okay -- you'll spoend money doing one under the house , but not really gain much space , because of the door into the laundry ( I assume that door is useful , but what it does it makes enlarging the kitchen , or moving the bathroom more difficult ) . In other words , no real gain .

It looks and sounds like it works okay -- why spend $$$ that aren't needed to be spent ? Just some minor stuff , maybe some furniture , Spend $30k and it will be getting close to what you are after IMO .

do you want to keep the changes within the existing house or are you considering an extension? and you said that you want to move the laundry downstairs but does downstairs have enough headroom, how will you reach the laundry, could you include a plan of all the downstairs space. .do you want/need a bathtub for yourself, and please include dimensions of the kitchen, both bathrooms and existing laundry and where is your front door?

So are you happy with two bedrooms- one for yourselves and one for guests. Our plan gurus will come up with ideas but you could use the ensuite bedroom for guests, incorporate the main bathroom as an ensuite and use the laundry as a pantry.

Can you Swap the small bedroom with the useless wir and shower that is so far from toilet with the kitchen.

pending more information and thinking you already have enough steps my suggestion would be to keep the laundry/mudroom upstairs, new kitchen with shallow pantry and 75cm deep pensinsula, rearrange the bathroom and guest room, relocate the inside steps for more comfortable living and dining room using a storage wall (about 30 cms deep ideal for dinnerware, books and display) instead of the open railing... move the entry to the master bedroom, remove the old ens wiw in favour of a biw, with drawers and desk to suit the small window and add new ens with dropped floor and step up? from master and include the bath in the ens to keep the bigger bathroom for yourselves

Hi h101, We had a client with a very similar Kitchen - Dining layout as yours adjacent to a split level lounge. This is what we designed to suit our client's needs, providing significantly more storage and work bench-space while designing a practical work flow and creating a social space for their small family and friends.

Hope these ideas help, Malcolm.

Oh wow. You Houzz folk are amazing. Thank you all so much for the thoughtful advice and suggestions. You've proposed some really novel and interesting ideas we had not previously considered.

In answer to questions posed:

- I believe an extension would be overkill for our needs. We really just want to maximise the utility of the space already available to us.

- We do have a significant amount of space with clearance of 2m or more under portions of the house. None would be suitable for habitable space. But some could be enclosed (with suitable ventilation) to provide storage and perhaps a laundry/mud room.

I will do my best to provide a plan of the space under the house more dimensional info in a follow up post.

- We would like a bathtub. But if push came to shove, we would probably forgo one and perhaps look at installing a hot tub outside instead.

- Master bedroom is on the lower level (alongside the lounge). The views from the lower level are spectacular (I'll dig up a photo) and, as such, we'd be very reluctant to move the master bedroom and give up the views.

- The main entrance ("front door") use to be the door into the laundry. Since we installed the doors into the 'dining' area and side deck, we now use one of those as our main entrance.

The laundry door is now pretty redundant. We are happy to lose it or perhaps move it closer to the back end of the carport.

- Yes we are happy with two bedrooms. In fact we are leaning toward the prospect of spare room with a murphy bed rather than a second bedroom as such. Being a small house, we like the idea of reconfigurable spaces that can be utilised as needed.

Great views. I would maybe move the staircase into bathroom to increase space in lounge. Move bathroom into the internal end of spare room, adding seperate powder room next to stair and a toilet in the bathroom. Laundry becomes pantry. In master do away with the tiny shower room and extend
Built in robe across whole wall.