Thanks Katie. That actually might work. I had not thought of trying that layout.

Just some lateral thinking. Maybe have an alcove for your sink. Then dishes can sit there for when you are ready, without being on show. This would also help with noise transfer between master and kitchen as discussed on a previous comment. My husband and I still do how dishes as well. Dishwasher is for gatherings. But I do ALL the cooking, my husband does not cook. He washes and I dry. 20mins or less, or done and put away. Have done this for 33 years!

My thoughts

That's a great idea, Dreamer. Still have easy traffic flow. I like it.

more suggestions for you

That's great, oklouise. I really like that idea.

Great work okl.
Lorraine, my powder room is similar size I think. I have a semi recessed basin which allows enough room for hand towel rail beside door. I’ll measure it tomorrow

Question where is visitor parking on your block

Hi siriuskey

Thank you for raising that question. I really hadn't thought about it, but we will now make sure there is space. Perhaps a 3-car pad near the end of the driveway - bitumen or gravel if concreting gets too costly. There will be quite a bit of concreting required to satisfy my hubby that he doesn't have to weave in and out of small or odd-shaped spaces on the ride-on. As long as it's not too wet, there will be plenty of grassed areas near the back shed for parking, and generally there will be space along the kerb for anyone willing to walk down the long drive (not really much imposition!)

Hello Lorraine. Can you possible flip the bath and pwd room so the loo has window. The space might be best arranged in the 3 way bathroom layout with door into the loo room or add some wall to make it separate if you prefer. Waltz linen store around it too. Why not pop the entry next to garage so you have direct entry as well as through the pantry. Also for the random people landing on the door step they wont be able to see into living and most of your rooms to check out the potential of coming back to rob you! Also is it possible to move master etc over to the east some and sort out the wiggly wooms at the end of the kitchen? Just straight lines are really good! The exterior walls seem to be rather in and out too that might be better neater. Just ideas.... Hope it is getting there for you. Cheers Margot

Hi Margot.

Thank you for those suggestions. I really prefer the bathroom to have the window. The loo will have an exhaust fan. I do like 3-way bathrooms but not sure there is enough space for that. Anyway, the main bathroom won't get a lot of use. We will use it when swimming or gardening and otherwise it's just for guests. Putting the entry near the garage is something I considered earlier but it didn't seem to work to have guests invited directly into the living room. I don't really want guests coming into the kitchen area and moving the living room closer to the garage meant losing the convenient access from garage to pantry.

I have, however, asked the designer if he could modify the pantry/laundry to this layout.

I made the WIR smaller as it was quite large. I took inspiration from OKL to reshape the pantry and laundry and I like it much better this way. I can have a servery window from pantry to terrace and more natural light in the pantry and laundry. The food stores are further from light and sun and there is better separation between the prep area of the pantry and the storage area. There is still a straight and easy path from garage to pantry for unloading groceries.

The laundry gains and loses. My sewing niche is not quite as nicely-shaped but there is more overall space and the porch is larger which is good because we like our clothes dryer outside on the porch where ventilation is better. I should also be able to get a small cpd beside it for gardening shoes and hats and a few garden tools.

I also took up Kate's suggestion to swap the bath and vanity and I put the wall back in that I took out of OKL's original design when I saw the comment about light in the hallway. I figured the hall might be dark, so I put the wall back and will have a glass door at the end of the hall. At least that's what I've asked the designer for. Hopefully it works. I think the bathroom is larger than I had first thought so it should be fine.

Happily we don't have to worry much about people seeing in when approaching the front door as there will be a gate at the top of the drive and only invited guests will get through. Also, I plan to have some screening between the front path and the house. The path will run from driveway to the north end of the porch (not through the side) and there will be a screen wall to just above eye height running from the porch post to a post at the front of the garage. The path will run in front of that so people won't see in as they are approaching. It is a very secure rural area, and anyone wanting to rob us has to get past the house in front unseen. Not easy! I believe thieves choose easier targets generally!

I have spoken with the designer about the ins and outs and he explained that the way he arranges wall claddings any extra costs are negligible but the ins and outs enhance the exterior appearance. They add a lot of interest. There are still some changes to be made, but overall I'm feeling very happy with it. I think it will work for our lifestyle. Hubby has his media room whcih can be closed off to hide his untidiness. I can lounge in the sunny living room with my book. The kitchen services both the terrace and the outdoor room conveniently. We have a small dinette very close to the kitchen and in a sunny spot for our casual meals and another on the terrace for eating outdoors. And I have my lovely spacious kitchen and butler pantry and a laundry large enough to sew in, plus the office space I need. Nice private room near the bathroom for guests staying over - well away from our private space. And good storage. Ticks almost all the boxes I think - which wasn't easy on a north-facing lot.

i love your laundry porch for many reasons but there's no need to place a dryer outside for ventilation.. research condensor dryers that sit on the floor under the bench and don't have any hot steamy exhaust as the water is condensed inside the machine and good ones even have the exhaust plumbed in to the drain...we love ours but where is the kitchen sink with servery and i don't understand two dining tables in the one room?

Hi okl.

Thanks for those comments. I have removed the extra dining table - the large one, actually, because we only need a small one for most meals and I love the sunny spot. We will have a large one in the outdoor room for entertaining. It's very rarely cold where we live and we can always put a heater out there if needed. Having a large one indoors just creates more work for me as hubby will clutter it up with stuff.

Re the dryer - ours is well over 40 years old and still working fine, and it will stay outside until it dies completely which, given it's very limited use, isn't likely any time soon! Not investing in a new one just so it can go indoors. But your comment might be helpful to others who don't know there are options.

Still some work to do on kitchen and pantry design and the servery is part of the plan I hope.

well here goes, I think your house should have the entrance beside the garage facing the driveway as it's going past that side and into the shed and possible visitor parking, allow enough width for reversing out of the garage with ease. This will also reduce the cost of extra hard surface. I haven't added dimensions as I needed to see how you responded to something like the following.

I have added the pool to the north side of the house and a new 3 way bathroom with access from the pool to this. The pantry/laundry should have plenty of light and ventilation

Have to say I love it, siriuskey. It's brilliant. I just wish I hadn't gone so far down the track with a paid designer before seeing it. I will give some thought to where this leaves us after I speak with the designer today as he is due to send me another draft this afternoon and then call me.

One thing that really appeals is the way the kitchen and pantry work together. The sink services both neatly, though a small second sink in the island is possible if desired. My only concerns are the lack of a window for the media room and access to the bathroom from the pool and garden - though maybe that hallway next to Bed 3 is meant to have an external door, which would solve the problem. I would be interested to know the overall size? I would need to grow the laundry a little to provide a sewing nook. Curious about dimensions now.

The Media Room could have floor to ceiling cavity doors/walls, or and a roof/ceiling that slopes up to the north with opening highlight windows (with blinds).

The size of the floorplan is shown on the following with the added visitor car park.

Having trouble with my workhorse laptop Outdoor access from pool to bathroom shown

Sorry this idea is late but I felt you wanted what you posted I had an Aunt who had a beautiful house on a arrow fronted deep block with a similar setup.

This is a very rough plan as you will see from the room dimensions, which can be fine tuned, we can certainly get a wider laundry mudroom sewing space taking from the width of the kitchen which is shown with a 1200 x 2900 island

Yes, that could be reduced as we do not like to eat at the island. Hubby hates bar stools and prefers to eat at table height. Our current home has a dropped section in feature timber wrapping abound one end of the island, and the island is only 800 wide, which I find adequate.

here it is

Very nice, siriuskey. Well done! Just a few minor tweaks I would make. Depending on the shower size and space next to it, I think I would move the bath down against the wall and put the vanity next to it on the south wall (making it slightly smaller and single basin as it's only for guests) and put a large linen cpd where the vanity is. Main bedroom would need some rearranging as my bed and bedside tables require 3m so there would not be room in 4m of width for openings either side. I would remove the opening from main bed to WIR and swap shwr and toilet so steam didn't get into the robe. Then just have an opening from the ensuite to robe, because it will never be closed anyway!!! (Husband born in a tent I think!) I would also crib a bit of space from the vanity area and add a tad to the shwr/wc to make a slightly wider shower.

I would axe the second entry to the media rm (from dining) also as we have a big wall unit that I like along the dining room wall. It has huge sentimental value. Hubby and I gave it to each other for our 1st wedding anniversary (nearly 51 years ago now) after watching a Singaporean craftsman hand carve it from a design in his head, with no tools except a pencil, chisel and hammer. It took him about 3 hours to carve an elaborate design on each of 6 cpd doors and they all match perfectly despite it drawing everything freehand. It has followed us all over Australia and is still in excellent condition, though hubby removed the metal end supports and made wooden ones when the metal started to corrode.

Garage could come back to 6 x 6 and if the kitchen/dining was reduced a little the laundry could grow for a sewing bench.

Overall, it's a great concept. You are very talented (and in good company here, with dreamer, OKL and a few others).

Still haven't heard from my designer. Waiting patiently! (Trying to be patient, anyway!)

we don't charge for our time here on Houzz so it will be quite cheap for you to make any changes I spent quite a few hrs thinking and working up this floorplan today with my feet up trying to stay cool. Happy to take another look at it again tomorrow.

Hi again Siriuskey

I hope I didn't seem ungrateful, and I certainly don't expect you or anyone to work for free. Of course I can make changes. What you have done is a great start. I really appreciate the time you have invested. I know concepts like this take time to figure.

Sorry that wasn't what I intended, I love to help, I would recommend looking at a program on 9Life at 2030 tonight it shows what the designer planned and what the owner did with it. For every change there can be a reaction or multiple and not always for the best.

I think one of the best changes was to move the Master suite it stopped the flow of the house

Hello.... NOW this is getting much better: Siriuskey's plan is far more streamlined and neater. Few tweaks I would suggest: you wanted the study on the n/e crn so pop it over there, then beds with 3 way bath between: meaning loo room along the ext wall with door, 2 vanities. shower and bath is second room. The south bedroom next to the ensuite. Swap the media for the lounge and pop lounge where Suri has study next to entry. It is then at front north of home with access from entry and onto deck and near dining/kit... If the garage moves back south a bit the laundry will have access to the outdoor area.. with a screen from the social end and help supply all the benefits for coming and going. The plan is looking fantastic now with more order and not the wibbly corners and zig zags. Cheers Margot

i also prefer the garage at the side and siruskey's ideas are always excellent as she includes plans to show how they can be achieved so would love to see Margo's suggestions include plans with dimensions so we can have a better understanding of her ideas

Agree OKL. I'm afraid I am struggling to understand Margot's comments. I tried to fiddle with the design using cut and paste to shift rooms as I thought she was suggesting but ended up with a horrid unworkable mess.

I did like the idea of putting the living room where the study is, as I don't like bringing guests through the kitchen to the living area. And I suspect her suggestion re the laundry might enable a porch off the laundry to be included easily.

Lou I did like your office in it's new position at the front of the house, visitors would walk down the entrance gallery and look through to the living room. with pool and garden on the left, you would have morning sun coming in through french or stacking doors into the office while overlooking the pool.

I have just come back to my floorplan and have started making the changes you suggested ,along with other ideas, I wish we could sit down together and adjust things on the large screen how did you go with your designer.

Please let me know your thoughts and which you prefer

Hi Siriuskey

I did like the office in that position but I don't like visitors walking through the kitchen and dining to get to the living room. Can't have it all I guess, but I think I'd rather the living at the front. Not worried about visitors looking in the living room window as it would be the west window and therefore mostly have binds or curtains closed to keep out the fierce sun from that direction. Or we could even make a nice feature wall there and have all the windows facing north and east as that side won't be visible to anyone but a neighbor well away from us behind trees on the west side.

Designer didn't get back to me yet. I emailed him this morning but have not yet had a reply.

On the other hand, I don't want my office too close to the media room as I work in the evenings and hubby watches TV.

I really appreciate your lovely comments OKL, thank you, we do try to help Houzzers with their floorplans to then feel more confident and understanding of what they are looking at when they go back to their local designer to complete and proceed to council

Some other ideas for you to consider

1) Front living room I thinks would need a powder room access

2) New Media room off family

3) New Office/bedroom , would need extra soundproof between it and the Media, having built in cabinets on that wall would do that.

4) Bedroom 2 could be swapped with Bathroom or bedroom 3.

5) Kitchen Island is 1200 x 3m.

6) Sewing..... Having done a whole lot of sewing, soft furnishings, formal gowns etc etc, I don't think having a sewing nook in the laundry Pantry area is the best solution. plus that you need to drop the benchtop height from 900 down to table height. we will be able to find a better space once you have selected layout of rooms.

Remember that the named rooms can be swapped to suit you, they are only names.

(you could certainly have the drop down eating bench add to the island if you would like it)

Add a Pergola across the North side

Another 3 way bathroom and larger Media

It's a great plan, siriuskey. You are one very talented designer.

I have shown it to my designer and asked for his thoughts, but he is well advanced with the plans already so I have a feeling he won't want to start over. And to be honest, although I love your idea, I don't feel there's enough gain in switching to be worth paying a lot more for drawings and spending a couple more weeks getting to council application stage.

My husband's comment was that the design had a lot going for it, but it seemed to have a lot of hallway which he didn't like. Bedrooms are a great size and the 3-way bathroom is fabulous, but given that our main bathroom will be rarely used - only by occasional guests and when we swim or garden - I don't think the bathroom is a huge issue. Having the access to the bathroom at the front certainly has some big plusses - though we are unlikely to have a pool. Maybe a swim spa. I would want a roofed area at the front rather than pergola - though possibly only in front of the bathroom and media room. With minor tweaking, I'm sure I could make your plan work a treat, but it's left me in a bit of a quandary because I've paid for my plans and the drawings are very well advanced. He's done the elevations and window and door schedules and most of the costing work.

I am meeting with him on Saturday so I guess we'll discuss things then and make firm decisions with my husband present to join in the discussion. I really appreciate your time and effort and I'd love to use your design. Hopefully someone will make use of it if I can't.

Totally understand your dilemma and being aware of costs but keep in mind that the money spent on your design is money spent wisely to make sure that the large amount about to be spent on the build is the best it can be. This new plan comes in just over 295 sq m,

Moving passageway /gallery to allow extra space in the Media Room and easy access to the guest wing which would allow you do remove the front Powder room or not.

A larger Office ,

Media room with sewing space.

Doors openings can be changed but this gives a few more ideas, I didn't think that the Media room should fill the Prime Northern aspect so I tried to share it with something else.

A pergola that can be open or closed to suit weather would be ideal on the Northern side, with a crazy paved terrace underneath.

A sliding glass door from that into the Office/guest wing, with the 3 way bathroom having a narrow highlight opening window above the bath for light and ventilation. An opening skylight in the entrance to the 3 way plus adding tall narrow windows opposite the doors in both bedrooms will add to that.

Getting the floorplan right is so important even if your designer has to change things, by offering these ideas to take to your designer will have saved you quite a lot of money and time to get the best result and by slightly reducing the overall size will contribute to this

Hi Siriuskey

I do take your point, and will discuss tomorrow with designer and hubby and then decide. It's a tough one because despite the criticisms, I still like the design the designer is working on. But if I did switch to your idea, I would do the following:

Remove WC at front of house

Close off along the wall between entry hall and laundry/pantry and put cabinets/shelving along that wall. I don't feel the second access is needed.

Extend laundry width 600mm and put sewing area in there. Possibly put a part height wall at the end of the WM/tub area and cut a hole in the wall between entry and laundry so I could get more light into the sewing area and feel less boxed in. Maybe put some plantation shutters across there.

Move door from laundry to garage up to near the rear laundry door and delete door from garage to entry.

Maybe play with bathroom design to try to make WC easier to access from living areas (not a biggy)

Possibly swap living and media.

Enlarge Master bed slightly and rearrange.

I agree with shelves but felt that the access from that end was more important to you , few changes for you Good luck with what you choose to do

That's much better. Now it's a matter of convincing hubby that it's worth a few extra days and dollars. He keeps saying, ''What's it matter? A house is 4 walls and a roof." But it DOES matter to me.

Just one question, your original way back design had the garage door opening on the west side. Then your designer changed to a north opening garage door. You said you were going to look at site and see which would be best. With the current wonderful designs that siriusky has posted these are all west garage door opening.....this will make a huge difference if you decide that a north opening garage door is better.....

Thanks dreamer. It really doesn't matter - west or north opening. Either will work. But the decision is made. Hubby has withdrawn his annoying statement about a house being only 4 walls and a roof and actually sat with me and studied both plans. The designer's version has changed again a little and will be further modified slightly to get the kitchen right, and hubby decided ''that's it"". I think the designer influenced him a bit because he said he thought the side opening made it look like we had taken a standard design for a skinny town block and stuck it on acreage. He thinks his design looks more impressive. Frankly, I don't much care who my house does or doesn't impress. I live in it. I don't sit outside staring at the facade! But in the end, we both decided we really like the designer's version and it will be less costly and less time consuming (and time is of the essence) to go with it. Had I seen siriuskey's design before we engaged the designer I'd most likely be building that plan. But I am happy with the plan we have now. I really don't have an issue with the master bedroom location. It's well removed from the other bedrooms and living areas so quite private. We've figured out how to make the kitchen work. The plan has everything we wanted, and the designer has created a very attractive facade. I hope siriuskey isn't offended and doesn't feel a lot of time was wasted that could have been better used if I'd made my decision earlier? I'm sure someone will use that design one day, because it is excellent. Maybe it can be sold to a builder?

I believe that men design from the outside in and women from the inside out maybe that's where the 4 walls and a roof comes from. Your designers opinion about the end access is what you would find on a narrow city block, but with 2-3 cars parking space, Living room, entrance and double garage does not make for a narrow city block.

It must be a big relief to finally settle on your original design, congratulations, I'am sure you will both love it.

I hope you don't feel offended or that you wasted precious time and energy, siriuskey? I really do wish we'd reached the point of seeing your concept earlier. But I am happy with the design we settled on. Perfection isn't achievable. There will be things that we wish we'd done differently for sure, but overall I think we will end up with a home we can enjoy living in and be very happy with. This will be the 28th house we've lived in, and definitely the last (Said that four time before, but we really are getting too old to be moving! And this move is only happening because of a family crisis. We had renovated this house to be forever.).

You do get a feel for the things that work best for your lifestyle after living in that many different homes. Things like the sewing nook in the laundry, for example, I wouldn't have considered years ago, but having had to run from one end of the house to the other to press a seam open, it's a biggy! And laundries today are not like they once were. They are clean, streamlined and pleasant to be in. My sewing bench will be under a north-facing window with a pleasant outlook and the washing area will be at the other end of the room. The kitchen will be very close so I can keep an eye on any cooking in progress while sewing or ironing.

I have also decided that for me, the cooktop should be on the same bench as the sink - not opposite as is usual. So we have settled on an L-shaped island with the sink tucked behind a raised section so it's largely out of sight (as was suggested here), and the cooktop in the leg of the L. Hubby cooks a lot so the kitchen design ended up being important to him and he hated the main sink being far away from the cooktop. For some reason, the small sink on the island didn't work for him. Little things - but little things can be really annoying sometimes.

I loved the idea of the sink near the servery window but it didn't appeal to him at all. In the end, we compromised on having the pantry sink under a servery window to the terrace, since the outdoor room won't be used a lot for dining and when it is, there will be a team to carry things out from the kitchen, whereas we will dine on the terrace frequently, especially when we have just one or two guests, and the servery there will be useful.

So, final draft this weekend and on to working drawings, shed plans and council applications.

No offense taken, you only asked how to work out Square M with your new program, and as usual we offer other options. Mine was mainly to change access to the house on your Battle Axe Block plus to allow access and parking for others without having to walk up a long driveway in all weather and times of day.

You did help me by pointing out the need for visitor parking and there were several other ideas put forward here that were helpful. e.g. the sink in an alcove - not that I adopted exactly that idea but a variation of it that I would not have thought of without the suggestion. Houzz is a great site, thanks to some of the wonderful people who post on it regularly.

Hi Margot

Thank you for that. Yes, that plan has a lot to commend it. Unfortunately we have already locked in, but I am happy with what we have at present. I do think your plan is very good. The only negative I can see is the master bedroom next to the other bedrooms. We prefer good separation, and I suspect most people do these days unless they have babies they need close by.