it is a gorgeous backyard but how many bedrooms do you need, what are the walls, roof and floor built out of, what is the width and length of the whole block and the distance from the house to the sides, front and rear boundaries and can you share a site plan showing the house, any driveway, garage or sheds

Suggestion

Is the back bedroom, laundry, meals etc an add-on?
Do you have the budget to totally relocate the kitchen and laundry?

Hi bigreader, the back bedroom, laundry ect is an add on. It’s quite old so I guess it was added not too long after the build which was 1950. We do have a healthy budget that would allow for moving of rooms such as kitchen and laundry.

Hi oklouise, the block size is 14 metres by 37 metres. The base floors are timber underneath, the bedrooms have carpet and kitchen/meals, laundry and toilet are tiled. The house is weatherboard. The walls are the old style plasterboard which has a stringy affect when you cut it.

The house or setback 6m, the back of the house is 11m to the back fence which includes a 5m pergola. Right side of the house is 1.2m from the house and the left side is 4m.

I’ll get a site plan uploaded soon.

Thanks 😊

And we only require three bedrooms as the garage has a study/4th bedroom.

My other thought is switch 3rd bedroom to living. Place laundry/extra loo etc where kitchen is now and open up the whole width of back area and push kitchen a bit further back to incorporate all of this.

Is that roundy rhombus thing drawn between the kitchen and the living a servery , or a fireplace ? It probably makes a difference haha . I'd also like to see a pic or plan of the 4th bedroom/study . How big is it , is it 1 room or 2 , does it have a toilet , if so is it only cold water or is there a basin with hot water ?

Depending on the answers , a possible solution would be to move the laundry into the garage , move the 'living' ( kitchen and living rooms ) back so they get views over the garden , and make the existing living Bed 3 ( as per CP's suggestion ) although because of its size , maybe make it the Master . It may even be big enough to add an ensuite ?

CP has suggested making the existing kitchen into laundry and a powder room , which would work , but I even wondered about making it Bed 4 , and possibly move the laundry to the garage . Of course , some people ( often sons haha ) prefer to be in a seperate building , so there may be some opposition , and also if there isn't hot water there , that could be a dealbreaker .

Basically , not quite enough info to make more defined suggestions IMO .

Your house’s age and block size/measurements are very similar to mine. And I’m planning an extension after investigating exhaustive options including getting advice here on house. I have a lovely north backyard but I’m sacrificing some of it for the extension as I desperately need more room inside. The add on at the back of your house will cause the most problems with your plan to stay within the footprint. The original back wall of the house will be holding everything up and means we can’t just shuffled things along. I’m guessing there is also a change in floor level to deal with as well. Would you consider ripping down the add on section and doing a small extension?

Minor variation to yesterday. Swapping basin and new toilet as per BigReader

Oklouise - Here’s a site plan shows the proximity of the house on the block. The roof is tiled

Pottsy99 - The rhombus shape in between the living and kitchen is a breakfast bar. The outdoor room is purely just a room with no ammenities ‘yet’ haha

bigreader - I like your house design, in particular having the laundry and pantry behind the kitchen. I was thinking of something similar minus the pantry due to lack of room.

Kate - if we go for a simple kitchen change your idea is great, one issue with extending the bathroom is that the return for heater takes up half of the cabinet.

Aaron, another similarity is that I have a return in a cupboard blocking my plans. You need to think long term. What will you replace the heater with in this age of solar and batteries? Will you be using RC or Ducted? Don’t let a functional plan be impacted by something like an air return which can be moved or may be replaced.

to make more space for the new renovations it should be possible to make a better location for the heater and the servery from the old kitchen needs to go to make space for TV media storage and/or fireplace for the living area and biw for the new master suite and there's some ideas for the family bathroom, ens, kitchen/dining and laundry and potentially keep the existing extra toilet for a powder room

Amazing oklouise!!
I just need to convince my mrs that little ones will be ok in the front bedrooms as she prefers the master to be at the front.
Thanks so much!

no reason why you can't sleep at the front as they won't be little for long but here's another variation that mum might prefer

Now we know where North I agree that swapping out back bedroom and placing it in current kitchen location is your best option.

OKL your first floorplan is what I would suggest as well

Oklouise - Mrs loves the second design!
Do you think the wall between the living and kitchen could be shorter?
I’m thinking it will open up the rear of the home.
We would also look to setup the lounge so the tv would be against the wall shared with bed 3

before we start taking out more wall you need to identify locations for the furniture ..if the TV is on the wall to bed 3 and the wall to the kitchen is gone where will you put everything else and what else will need to be in the room?.. draw up a sketch to post and i can make a plan to scale

Here's where I believe our sofa would be positioned with the TV against the bedroom 3 wall. I have also extended the kitchen bench a bit, not sure if that would work though. I was also trying to work out where a little pantry would go if there was space for one. The wall I have shortened quite a bit would act as a bulkhead of sorts to separate the living from the kitchen, again not sure if that would work either. Thanks

It’s a good looking plan. You’ll need to price laminated or steel beams to expand the lounge wall opening. The wider the gap, the more expensive the beam. If you can work with a standard width you’ll save some money.

the 4 m beam is probably worth several thousand dollars but the cost of removing the old wall and installing the new support is the biggest unknown ..look carefully and decide if you can be satisfied with a wider opening without changing ceilings in living or kitchen rather than attempting to remove the whole wall which means significant damage and repairs needed for old ceilings and don't forget that you will also have to repair the floors where the old wall is removed

i've added a small pantry but width of kitchen window will decide impact on stove location and size of pantry, the island is now 1800 and i found a space for extra storage in the old kitchen doorway

I’m genuinely spoilt for choice here! I like have the kitchen were the living room as it’s something I’ve never considered. My only concern would be the windows opposite the fireplace which are quite low and would needed to be made shorter then I’d have to change the re do the weatherboards to fill the gap. Maybe I can mix both floor plans and end up with a winner! 👌🏻

RE the window to the left of the fireplace where the kitchen cabinets run up to it, just stop the cabinets 20-30cms from the window.

I have already mixed OKL Master suite into my Plan, but have changed how it's accessed.

While making changes, you could have a door framed up within the wall so that down the track when the kids are bigger you could open up that doorway again and close off the other.

The wardrobe could be flat packs from Ikea so that the section of robe built up to OKL doorway, could be taken out and inserted at the other end when that doorway isn't required, That doorway would need to be covered/built over

Hi Aaron, Only my opinion of course, but, I do not like a toilet of the dinning room, I would find it a bit off putting eating a meal and having someone coming out of the toilet into the eating area, would it be possible to add a toilet to the laundry instead ?

I agree with Belinda that's why OKL first plan to move the master suite to the rear is the best.

And working with that I have made further changes ie: swapping the kitchen,living and giving easy access to the family bathroom from all bedrooms plus family living so you don't need a 3rd toilet in the laundry coming off the dining.

Possible future you could consider adding a 3rd toilet to what could be a 4th bedroom/pool house etc,

I like the plan you have but to make full use of that beautiful garden view, perhaps swap position of the kitchen with the laundry and toilet, they don't need a view. Then there may be enough room to squeeze in a second bathroom where kitchen was, cheaper because all the plumbing will still be there. Also a toilet where it is now is not very private. Then you could have the kitchen and eating area looking over the garden and for more view add some sliding or folding doors? The bedroom at the back could be an all purpose room office/bedroom using murphy bed/another lounge area? Or could you swap it around and turn the loungeroom into another bedroom and the bedroom overlooking the garden can become part of a lounge room?

this might give you an opportunity to make the current bathroom a bit smaller as an ensuite for the bedroom, with the possible second bathroom beside it to service the other two bedrooms.

This might not be the style you are wanting but using current doors and windows will give you and idea of outlook to the garden from within the house

So where do I start! lol. I definitely agree with you Belinda Gray, having a bathroom and toilet that opens next to the dining room just doesn't make sense and it's something we have currently have a don't like at all. siriuskey, having the all the bedrooms at the front with doors all close by is something we really like. Taking some space from the front bedroom to create a bigger bath is also a great idea. We certainly don't need a 3rd toilet in our house, possibly in the future adding one to our room but not for the foreseeable future. Moving to the kitchen as per your illustration would be great however the windows and old fireplace may pose too many challenges as in return a lot of $$$. (It does look amazing though and thank you so much for showing us that)

Hi

Re the second design with the bathroom off the dining room , that would be a problem with the kids having to walk through the living and dining room at night or when there are guests. The first design seems better . Security on windows and outside doors will keep the little ones safe , plus monitors to keep an eye on them .

Aaron, just a thought. You don't happen to have a driveway on the left side of the property do you?

Hi C P, yes we do have a driveway on the left side. There’s a site map that I shared in one of my earlier comments that shows the driveway.

Oh so you do but the garage is further back so you would use it then.
I was just thinking that if unused or would be nice to create a side garden and open up the living room that way for light.

How about something like this... It keeps all the plumbing near where it currently is, so not terribly expensive for alterations, and groups the bedrooms together. Two small bathrooms, but could be one big one with access from the front bedroom if you prefered not to have an ensuite

Hi all, I have been deliberating with the mrs and myself! (LOL) and we have managed to come up with an plan that we believe will best suit our needs without going over the top. Happy for any feedback positive or negative.

If anyone can point me in the direction of a free program that I can use to create a basic 3D image of this plan that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks everyone for all your help and suggestions

looks good but i have to remind you that your wife has a name and should never be referred to as "the Mrs"

With all do respect oklouise, she isn’t my wife because we aren’t married yet, secondly it’s her request that I don’t add her name and there’s reasons for that. My fiancé reads all of these posts and has no issue with the posts I publish. Not that I need to justify that to you or anyone!

we don't need a name ...my wife, my partner my fiancee just not "thë Mrs"

I hate the Mrs too. Can’t tolerate it from my 86yo neighbour but from anyone under 80 it’s just blah.

my husband used to call me the Tart, I would prefer that or just about anything but the Mrs or the little wife. . Interesting to see that your plan now only shows 1 bathroom, that large laundry could be an ensuite bathroom.

Looks great Aaron

I understand what all of you saying… rest assured I treat my fiancé with all the respect she deserves and more. We discussed this siriuskey and realised that one bathroom with a powder room is plenty. We need the bigger laundry as this can be also accommodate our storage needs.

What width are you allowing for the laundry, it's a long way to reach the Powder Room, storage could be in the outer building

The width of the laundry is 1.6m as my assumption is that bench/storage will be .6m with 1m for the path. The length of the laundry is about 3.5m and powder will be 1.2m. We like the idea of having the powder room there as it's quick access for visitors when we're entertaining. Where on the outer building would you suggest? By storage I was referring to linen mosley too, just in case there was some confusion.

I like this plan the best of all the plans because when you sit down for the evening you are slightly seperate from the kitchen, the dining and kitchen are located next to the doors leading out to the garden, the powder room is far enough away from the kitchen to be private and all the bedrooms are located at the front of the house. Good use of space.