I understand wanting to keep the views from as many rooms as possible. However, how much time is spent in the bedrooms? And is the view visible the majority of time one spends in the bedroom? Consider that the most restful, secure sleep is obtained when the bed is placed opposite the entry door. That is not possible in any of your current bedroom layouts. Perhaps you should consider single solid glass French doors or windows flanking the beds opposite the doors rather than the large windows you show on the plan. Choice of doors or windows would be based on accessibility to a deck. I assume bedroom 1 and the office/bedroom have built-in bunk beds. I think the deck between the family and bedroom 3 seems inaccessible and a bit of a waste, and I wonder how one gets outside from the kitchen with the trash, etc. Do you have no plans to garage the vehicles?

Provided there is 1200mm clear between the breakfast bar and the opposite bench then by rights, you should have ample room and if that's the case, I think I would opt for the design with the kitchen on the eastern side. My reason; you get a much greater feeling of open plan by having the dining and lounge on the North/South plane. I like the large WIP in this one - on paper at least. The second plan somehow feels wrong. I personally don't like the idea of having the breakfast bar being located in the lounge. If it were me though, I would ask for a 3D CAD plan of both kitchens [to walk through on the computer] before making up my mind on which one to opt for as it gives you a much clearer vision of what the finished kitchen will be like rather than looking at a flat plan.

Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3 Earlier in 2019, we retired into town and purchased a property for the location, not the house. The house is an old Lockwood with a questionable floor plan and poor traffic flow throughout. We will embark on kitchen, en-suite and master bedroom improvements in 2020. I also intend to completely paint over the wood using Resene Triple Merino. The single living space has a long barn-like appearance. It's a good sized space but the traffic flow makes it a difficult space to set up furniture etc. In the meantime the old obsolete styled, gas space-heater decided to 'spit the dummy' and we are having to replace that ahead of schedule. This has presented a dilemma. Where to locate it in the lounge so that it will work with the improvements scheduled for next year. The new fire is much larger in the room than the old one. I would really appreciate some thoughts on how to make my new gas fire more aesthetically pleasing. Originally, [pic 1] it was thought it should be placed straight on to the room but that looks wrong as is evident from the photo. Also, fire regulations have squashed that idea, because the curtains and wooden beams are too close. In Pic 2, the fireplace has been angled slightly, to overcome the regulations but the wooden posts prevented a nice 45 degree angle being achieved. The new angle now means that I have to reconsider how to rearrange the seating in the lounge for the traffic flow to work but more importantly, I'm left wondering, how do I add finish the fire? Do I build a false chimney and how do I work in all the new angles. I'm usually able to come up with good ideas to overcome problems, but this one has left me a little stumped. Pic 3 shows how I thought I might angle the couch.

Hi Chrissie, Not sure if you are still interested in some feedback for your kitchen/laundry/toilet redesign after 2 months but as you seem to have no comments, I thought I'd offer some for your consideration. Before looking at an actual solution, I'd avoid having the toilet accessed through the kitchen and try not to combine the laundry and pantry. The moisture in the laundry is not helpful in the pantry if you have a dryer. It appears that you are happy to close off the back door so I will assume that is ok. Below is a plan that might work well for you. All the external windows are kept in the same place to save some money, if the fridge can fit where I have placed it. It's good to have access to the fridge without interferring with what's going on in the kitchen, but you could put it somewhere else if you prefer. I've put the door into the bathroom as you had adjusted it but put the toilet behind that door ensuring enough leg room. This can be as little as 1m or 1100mm given the space actually goes to the shower when the door is closed. The existing walls could work for this but might need adjusting a bit. The linen cupbd can stay where it is but move the HW cylinder back and make the cupbd deeper. Then the powder room next to this pushing into the space currently occupied by your pantry. The deeper from the door wall you make the powder room, the shorter the space can be but pace it out to get it working well. Tight powder rooms are unpleasant. 1100 x 1400 should work but it depends on how big the door, toilet and basin are. Put the toilet to one side centred no more than 400mm off the wall making more space on the door side. The laundry occupies the space where your toilet is currently but widen it right out to the window so it is at least 1200mm deep if you can. If you need more space than the window allows, you can make the window smaller. Having double cavity sliders will make the space more usable. The kitchen becomes a galley arrangement with the butlers pantry just being a section of the space that is screened off from the dining and living rooms. This whole space will be really efficient. There are no corners for the kitchen in this arrangement, which I love as there are no complicated storage issues. You can move around the sinks and cooker if you like and make the peninsular an island if you don't mind losing 1000mm of it and the storage below. Also if you are a follower of Fung Shui, having fire and water (cooker and sink) on the same bench is not ideal. You could locate one of these on the peninsular and if you have young children, probably keep the cooker on the outside wall. The peninsular bench/pantry wall can be adjusted either way to suit joinery modules for better pricing. I.e, use 450 & 600mm modules or wider for big drawers. You can have an additional sink in the pantry if you want it but to save money, instead, move the sinks down in front of the other window and shunt the cooker to the left a bit. That way, all the mess is screened from the dining space. If you need some structural support on the living room end, you can have a post or short wall on the end of the peninsular. If you want the kitchen accessed from the dining room side rather than the living room, just shorten the peninsular bench so the fridge is still easily accessed. Good luck with the renovations. Christine.