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 !!!

Hi Ed I was struck by the similarity with our new kitchen layout. We recently renovated and I absolutely did not want either an overhead extractor (because I wanted to raise the ceiling), but also did not want to cut expensive quartz for a pop-up extractor which all seem to give trouble eventually and basically don't work! The solution was a German-made Bora induction hob with the downdraft in the middle of the hob. I have to say that it was the best investment we made! Ours could not be ducted outside (which is always the best option) without losing too much efficiency so we went for a filtration system. It works even better than I thought removing all smells and grease! It was really well worth the money. ...and no ugly hood blocking the view out! Watch the videos on the website - it actually does work exactly like that! They also do different options where you have gas on one side and induction hob on the other with the extractor in a panel between the two. Definitely an investment! You really do need extraction though as Fiona said. Strong cooking smells will will be absorbed into your furniture and soft furnishings in an open plan area. The best of luck with your project. I hope you love the end result as much as we love ours.

Another option that I was thinking of, knock the internal glass walls of the conservatory and make the hall smaller - this leaves a very large open plan space (9m x 6.4m) but I have no idea how best a space like this could be used?? Can anyone give me their thoughts here? Need to move if I am to make an offer

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.