I read an article about changing your roof structure to be able to convert.. I wouldn't totally rule out a conversion. One builder's view doesn't make it so..

Hi - with a 16 month old and another on the way I’m with you in planning the house to fit kids. The thing that really hit us with layout design is that you want to make sure the rooms you and the children spend the most time in are close or connected. In our case thats the kitchen and living room. With very young kids they want to be in your sight at all times (at least until they are 2 years) and after that you want to keep them in your sights. Given kitchens and dining rooms aren’t the best places for kids to play perhaps you could consider swapping your dining room and lounge so that they can play while you cook? That’s how we’d do it anyway. Good luck!

Hi Andrew, Here is a quick sketch I came up with. You said that the north bay window doesn't provide a lot of light so that end could become a bedroom. but that does create a very cramped living area and a bathroom which is basically just off the kitchen. But if you have high enough ceilings you might be able to create a clever split height layout for a small, fully enclosed second bedroom (this should work for a 3m ceiling). These split level/low height spaces are becoming popular in the ‘Tiny house movement. By changing the bathroom around a low ceiling could be created over the toilet and bath, and then a bed could be added in the space above this and a wardrobe on the bedroom side. The bed would be reached with a ladder or built-in steps with storage under it. The area over the sink would be normal height with some storage space above. This creates a fully usable bedroom without using as much floor space but it is only really suitable as a guest or kid’s bedroom. It is definitely fair to say it's an even 2 bedroom flat. And because of the expense of the extra walls, floor and custom furniture, it’s usually undertaken by someone planning to live in the space themselves. So this may not be suitable for your case, I just thought it was an interesting and unusual idea. Please let me know what you think? And I wish you all the best with your project!! Phill

Hi Jonathan! Wow! Thanks for taking the time, this is so helpful, especially the upstairs visual that I hadn’t considered. So considerate of you. The garden is east facing but with no house to the South side, so my only concern about extending the full depth to the right side of the house is it would mean the patio would be in shadow once the sun passes round it after morning. I guess if we have to knock down the garage space to redo the foundations, it might make sense to just build the extension on the left hand side and create a patio on the right hand side instead. Then window then wouldn’t look onto the cars. Or perhaps by the time we do foundations again for garage it isn’t much more squaremeters/ cost to do the side extension, perhaps 3m out so the shape of the house is less peculiar. I really appreciate you taking the time to respond so we don’t invest anymore time looking into something that isn’t feasible for the space.