If you are doing in-floor heating (hydronic heating) I would go with tile. If you are not, go with wood. That's from the energy and comfort perspective. It's OK to look at the two options and choose the one that's most attractive. Don't feel like you need to optimize for energy with every decision. Also, both flooring materials are reflective acoustically. Plan your other surfaces accordingly, or you'll drive yourself batty with echoes.

You could create an ensuite by borrowing space from the second bedroom, accessing it from the master. I would create one large luxury family bathroom by joining the current bathroom and the adjoining room into one. If you don't want to lose a room, you could swap the purpose of the two rooms, creating a medium sized bathroom and a small box room/study (expensive for some benefit). Lastly, if you really want to maintain the number of rooms but gain a bigger bathroom, you could move the family bathroom to the bottom, right-hand room, if plumbing allows. Hope this helps.

hi all, i'm finalising floor plans for single storey new build. We like the layout generally but there are a few niggling things that we need advice on. 1. The sliding door /patio doors are in the family room- there is no door out from kitchen. Would people recommend having this in Kitchen OR Leaving it as is in the family room. 2. The hotpress /linen store size? is it too small? and also it's position accessing through utility. would people recommend this or not? 3. The exterior look has a mono pitch roof on the kitchen diner family room- would people recommend full height in kitchen diner and then reduce for family room? or vice versa. 4. The width of the kitchen family diner is 4.8m- is this enough to allow for island or should we consider going to 5m deep? 5. In general the house is North facing, do people feel that we are maximising light through use of windows and position of living areas? ( that's v general question-but i feel more could be done) I'd appreciate all opinions advice as I really don't want to make any obvious mistakes that I'll regret. thanks very much.

If you are worried about the hallway being dark why not have a fully glazed door into the open plan area at this bottom of the stairs. This would allow you to see straight through the house when you walk in the front door and make the hallway feel much brighter and less closed in?