Thanks houssaon and rinqreation! Funny - hubby has the same 2 door hate! It sounds like I'm being outvoted on the shared ensuite idea. :) We've actually been set on both the configurations you suggested, we moved away from yours houssaon because we really wanted to keep a closed off office space (and hubby built the front deck and landing already for the door at the end of the hallway!). And I don't know why we shifted the door on the bedroom back to the same area, I think it was about having easy access to all the kids bedrooms. But maybe we should shift it back as you suggest rinqreation. Joice, the door at the end of the hallway is the front door, the entrance closest to the street, that you would come to first if you were a visitor. Not totally necessary, but we reinstated it before we decided we wanted the entrance up the stairs (middle bottom) which would be under a carport. Thanks for all your input!! It's really helpful to have some unattached opinions. I'm keen to hear from anyone else on the shared ensuite or 2 door hate question! :)

You could reverse the layout of the ensuite, and have the door to it through the walk in wardrobe (so you would only have one door coming off the bedroom). If I were you, I'd consider swapping the positions of the ensuite and wardrobe, so the current ensuite door becomes the wardrobe door. That way you could move the bed to the east (right), and you would have room for a seating area in the north west corner of the room (as your bedroom looks huge!). I'd also add a window on the small bit of north facing wall in that room; you already have corner windows in the living and another bedroom, so you could match those in style. Personally I don't particularly like the current layout of the main bathroom, although I can see the reasoning behind it (i.e. vanity at entrance, toilet hidden behind wall, window above bath). I think it might work better if you put the shower in the corner where the bath currently is (i.e. beside the toilet, opening to the west), and the bath on the same wall as the vanity. You'd have to move the window, of course. Alternatively, do you actually need three toilets? You could remove the toilet in the main bathroom, and you'd have room for a freestanding bath and/or a bigger shower. You could consider stealing a bit of space from the kitchen to create some storage at the entryway. I'm not sure where your garage will be, but it's really handy to have a designated place at the point of entry for all the stuff you tend to dump when you first come into the house (schoolbags, coats, mail etc). Overall, I think the layout is pretty good, but you could potentially lower the build cost by making it all a bit smaller. It's really worthwhile taking the time to figure out just how much space you actually need, and where you need it. For example, if it were my house, I'd take about half a metre off both the east bedrooms (so the house is shorter from east to west), plus I'd make it smaller north to south by slightly reducing the size of all three bedrooms, and making the kitchen a bit smaller (so the hall cupboard lines up with the back wall of the small living room). But your priorities may be completely different from mine!

It all depends on what you want to do in your laundry and what in your bathroom I guess. I appreciate the fact that there might not be enough space to do this but I store outdoor shoes in the laundry and the dog's leash and cleaning stuff. I need room to sort the dirty laundry into piles before washing it. I keep the ironing board in there and I need a tub to wash things in and to do flowers in and to put the odd cloth that wiped up the cat sick before it gets rinsed and washed.. heaps of things other than just washing. Couldn't manage with a cupboard laundry ( piles of washing on the hall floor when using it) and think these kinds of laundry functions might not make a gorgeous lavendery bath or shower feel that luxurious. So I am for as big a laundry with tubs, cupboard and bench nearest the outside back entrance and yes washing line as poss. And a lovely fresh warm bathroom near the bedroom separate from the dirty clothes and boots and all that other stuff.

Hi there, We have a rural site in Wellington (NZ) that we are planning to build on. It gets really high winds and so we need a robust house concept. Hubby is keen on a two story half round haybarn or Quonset style house but I can't even imagine the floor plan for this type of design. He wants 4 bedrooms upstairs with the master, (WIW and ensuite), living, main bathroom, kitchen and skullery/utility on the main floor. Aiming for about 10m wide by 12-14m long. Anyone got any experience with this kind of design? Any recommendations? Any insights much appreciated :-)