If your kitchen is small then I'd think about using this space to extend the kitchen with cabinets or utilities etc. without seeing it you may even be able to include a table for 2 combined with storage. Images from homedit

Great minds think alike Carolina:) some great inspiration pics. Was just thinking about neighbours emergency access. How about a something like a half arch attached to the house wall. Think it will create a visual barrier but not a physical one and could be a lot cheaper in the short term. Long term I’d be looking at a gate which can accessed from both sides but big wooden gates don’t come cheap. Or how about western style saloon doors:) will probably need a catch to stop them flapping about in the wind...anyway, I’m just brainstorming. Gate at the bottom of the steps probably not necessary but I would think about one at the top of the steps if you plan to have any escape artist toddlers. Like you say the path is in your garden so a tall fence between path and lawn would spoil it imho. After all how often will your neighbor need to use the access. I’m rattling on. Here’s some more inspo pics for half arch/saloon doors. Would love to see your progress when you’ve done the fence. All the best.

Hi J Green, another vote for 4 bedrooms option from us. We are big fans of large landings. This is space where family can meet, chat and hang out in the morning or just before bed. If you have kids, they will love it. Add seating and it could be a nice space to be in when your ground floor is busy and you just want to escape or have a private chat. There are million reasons why but of course this is your home so go with what feels right for you and your loved ones. It is easy to annotate the drawing and write BEDROOM into the square or rectangle of space, but is it really a bedroom? Looking at the sizes, I am already feeling quite anxious that bedroom 4 and possibly also bedroom 3 are going to be difficult to furnish and made functional with decent size beds, storage etc. I would also suggest that you push your hired professional and re-visit your master suite design and your family bathroom design. If your family bathroom is efficiently designed, you will have more space to give to both bedrooms. Dressing room is a must these days, but the space you allowed for it seems really tiny. Also your en suite master bathroom layout worries me slightly. Good Luck with your project. Best Wishes Suzanne

Thanks Katie, this looks great! The view is lovely I can definately see why you have done it this way. I love the window too. Do you mind If I ask what the dimensions of the room are for reference? My only concern would be if we could get enough full height storage on the eaves wall behind the bed, I don't think our room will be as big as this. The reason we planning to go for lots of tall storage is so that we can store away all our clothes and any other bits away as we don't have much storage throughout the rest of the house. So storage is a big thing on this build. But orientating the bed in that way make loads of sense. Ideally I would be able to just let them build the main shell and then get up there and position a bed in various places. But I guess so much has to be determined before that stage so the wall lights, plug points etc... are all in the correct place. I think I might draw some options up in CAD and then start a new thread and see which people prefer and what they would do themselves. Thanks for your comments and pictures :)