Hi ! I think this house will benefit from from plenty of toy storage in the main family living space ( assuming this will be in the extension at rear ) as while little ones are so small they need to be in view - so perhaps you could design with this in mind and add a dedicated laundry room near the WC perhaps ? The current play room could maybe be used as a different function ? Do you need a guest room /study perhaps ? For when family members come to stay ? If so maybe the wc could be upgraded to a shower room ? There's lots of things you can do to make this work for you - just write a list of what could make your life easier now and for the next 5-10 years or so ... Some things will evolve or be ready to change by then - so being clever with your designing and planning now should put you in a good place further down the line too !! If this is something you need help with - hiring in a pro might be a good way of dealing with it - or alternatively put your wish list on here and see if you can get some fab ideas from the helpful Houzzers !!!

Thank you both. The staircase does actually have a turn in it, near the top. And we are planning glass doors in the hall to the kitchen so you can see all the way from the front door out through to the garden! I'm not sure about opening up the playroom & family room. We would really value an 'adult' room at the front of the house for TV in the evenings, and somewhere to close off the kid's toys! We could also use the playroom as a 4th bedroom/guest room if necessary. Thanks again

And also there is some original tile left and I was toying with the idea of tiling over that strip all the way to the wall to create a small corridor of tile as you come in the front door for the 'hallway' that once was, to add interest and a sense of separation between kitchen and hall because the door opens into the kitchen directly which isn't ideal (we had to do away with a small pocket door and partition wall there.) and then do the rest in marmoleum. Would this look weird or should I just do the marmoleum throughout?

Thank you so much for coming back to me, I really appreciate it. We are now thinking a max 30 sq metre extension and we'll have to tear down the poorly constructed extension that's there at the moment that houses the kitchen and utility etc. The front room will be a formal Living room and the next room which is currently the dining room will become the open plan living dining kitchen. I need to include a utility playroom and office in there somewhere too