I have to join this discussion of Hardwood in the kitchen. I am a little biased in this discussion because of being a tile contractor for almost 30 years. I have seen alot of hardwood kitchen floors. I have to give you the cons of putting hardwood in. Hardwood floors look great. As far as durability I am not sold. Hardwood floors look great when they are first put in. Depending on the traffic in the kitchen I give them about 4 to 5 years is when you see significant wear. I have seen alot of hardwood floors in kitchens with water damage. Now I know you think you wont have a leak from your dishwasher, refrigerator or a general plumbing leak. Well these things do happen and when it does the hardwood needs to be totally removed. Some times this is not so easy if the hardwood goes under the base cabinets. I am not saying do not put hardwood in the kitchen I think you should look at whats going to work for you. There are plenty of porcelain tiles that will give you the look of hardwood but give you the durability of a porcelain tile. Tile installed properly will last a long time. Hardwood will last but it will look warn to the point that it would need to be refinished at a cost around $2000.00 depending on the size of the room. I don't want to upset the hardwood floor lovers I have it all over my house except the bathrooms and kitchen. The floor is 20 years old 4 kids 2 dogs and still looks great. I am sure what ever you choose it will look great.

It might be possible for you to make your bedroom taller by building into the roof void- measure how much space you have- you may be able to fit two floors in.

I think introducing an angled wall will not give you anything other than something a bit different. We have this in our house and it is difficult re positioning of furniture etc. You are also limiting what you can do it the kitchen, ie removing a wall of presses or increasing the cost of having custom made to fit! You have lots of space so I would leave that as it is. I dont know if you have kids, but think about how you will use this open plan space as they get older and you need more privacy! In relation to upstairs I like the idea of the Jack and jill but prefer the layout of the master bedrooms in the original. That is a really big dressing room compared to the size of the bedroom, but if this is what you wanted go for it!

Hello, I am hoping to get some inspirational ideas for our new extension please! We have engaged with an architect but we are not happy with what is being proposed - we need an en-suite in the downstairs bedroom to future proof our home. The new living space is required as our kids get older and have friends dropping in / for our son to ultimately live in, as he has an intellectual disability / potentially for us to use later on as we get older and can't manage stairs. We only need a kitchenette with island as opposed to a huge kitchen (I am not good at imagining space but presume it is large as it can hold a 6-seater dining table). I am also concerned about furniture placement in the living space and the tight side access at our boundary fence. We are happy to 'shrink' the room by moving the building and doorway level to where the kitchen starts. We have a tight budget so want to maximise what we can do. We would like an additional bedroom upstairs for us but I think the bathroom and wardrobe are over-sized. We also got a picture of the elevations and it does not look good. We are considering making them smaller so it is a 'staggered' two-storey extension but will this add to the cost? We are in Ireland and costs have rocketed! Apologies for the long-winded intro but all ideas would be very much appreciated - thank you!