Yep, totally agree! I’ve added the north direction on the updated plan 😊

Other helpful information:

general location or climate, make-up of residents, ages etc.

You gave your wants, what are your needs? How do you entertain, how often? What is your lifestyle when not entertaining? Do you do your own housecleaning? What kind of storage do you need, that you want to maximize it? (a better word can be ”optimize”. Put the kind of storage you need, where you need it, so that it works for you.)

And just looking at the plan, why is the master bath so small? That’s a room where the right storage in the right place matters. Also, the hall bath is also an ensuite? Why?

How will the space between kitchen and living be used?

Is this in Canada? Maybe BC? or North York? oh, Australia? (Beaufighter, Nirimba)

Thanks Bpath. We’re in Sydney Australia, our household has four adults (30, 32, 58, 60) and two little kids (1 and 3). We usually have guests over every other weekend. My husband works, and I stay at home looking after the kids and the house, with the robot cleaner helping out sometimes.

I was trying to avoid adding a powder room on the ground floor, so that’s why I thought a shared ensuite for Bedroom 1 plus a guest toilet would work instead.

Oh, I meant the upstairs hall bath,

But also, if your parents live with you, do they want to share their bathroom with visitors? Like, even the kids’ friends?

Never mind, I see everyone will be upstairs, and downstairs is guest suite.

I might also look into expanding the master bath. My initial plan is to do most of the cooking in the kitchen while the kids play or entertain themselves in the living area, where I can keep an eye on them, and have plenty of kitchen storage around a walk-around pantry.

Is it a reverse layout? It’s an interesting space. The kitchen seems complicated?

South Africa? Where the winter sun is mainly to the north (opposite the northern hemisphere)?

good point..might need to rethink about adding a powder room downstairs..would also look neater when guests come around

So, guest suite: I stayed at a house where the den doubled as the guest bedroom. The bathroom was ensuite and door to the hall. But the ensuite door led to the shower room, which had a pocket door to the half-bath, which then led to the hall. When guests were staying in the guest room, and company was coming for dinner, the guests’ personal shower things, towel, robe, and anything else they might want more out of view than in a vanity drawer, were tucked away behind the door, so a little more private. I liked that solution a lot.

edit about guest suite, a guest might want to be able to step from bedroom to bathroom without seeing or being seen from the living room.

Will the Rumpus Room be more of a private sitting area for that bedroom, making it a better suite? Hence the sliders between it and the bedroom? Those occupants can create their own rumpus?

The kitchen layout may look a bit complicated on paper, but the idea is simple in practice: main cooking happens in the kitchen itself, with the dining table conveniently on the right. Most of the prep work and storage will be in a walk-around, butler-style pantry at the back, which will also handle dish cleaning

Well, I was close with South Africa, same hemisphere.

I’m envisioning the rumpus as a versatile space where the kids can play while I’m upstairs. I’d also like to create a cozy corner near the window with seating, where I can sit and enjoy a book.

So the island kitchen is for entertaining?

yes that is correct

So the north wall of the pantry, media , and garage will receive full sun?

So, that is your bedroom, and the one labeled masterbed is for the parents?

Pantry, media & garage will receive the 3pm sun

Bed 2 at this stage will be guest bedroom & master bed would be our bedroom & the downstairs room is for the parents

Here in the northern hemisphere if someone wants a lot of light in their house they have a good number of their windows generally facing south. In the southern hemisphere, like the one Australia is located in, they have a good number of their windows generally facing north.

While I agree with you Mark someone has to live on the other aide of the street too. It does look like there are windows on the north side?

Looking more closely the kitchen pantry area does block a huge opportunity for windows.

What kinds of things do you need to store? Items for the future pool, seasonal decor, outside activites like sports, crafts, books, travel gear, hardware?

I can't read most of the plan as the fonts are too small. However, the one glaring thing I see is the attached garage, which will block light and air from that side. If you're wanting a light airy home, see if you can have a semi-attached garage.

I was wondering about the garage entry. Will there be a drop zone under the stairs for the kids’ backpacks and jackets and shoes?

I imagine it is not a wide lot, so the garage takes up a lot of frontage, too bad.

Do you have elevations?

Oh good catch bpath. There are no closets or places to put things

Luxury means different things to different people. What does it mean for you and your household?

A dim awful to work in servants kitchen generally comes with servants living quarters to man it.

For me the plan is unrradble I need to know sizes of spaces for sure . Why small windows anywhere since Aus. usually pretty mild weather . Please darken and enlarge the measurements for sure . I am a chef by training and cook often for guests I much prefer my work done all in my kitchen not back and forth for prep between 2 spaces .IMO you coukld have afab kitchen with everything you need and a much nicer sized DR. I love true pullout pantries on the same wall as my fridge for sure .My dream would be huge floor to ceiling windows in any spaces where possible .

This is so exciting to design your own home!

Did you try Houzz Australia?

https://www.houzz.com.au/discussions/building-a-home

To lighten this first floor layout I'd start by flipping the floorplan left to right and flipping that top to bottom. The north side of the new layout will need some kind of overhang to block the Summer sun while allowing the Winter lower angle sun to come in across the space.

And I'm not a fan of the pantry for main prep and cleanup separation. Similar to the two island setup with a lot of steps to do things.

I am hesitant to advise anything, because it looks like you are very far in the process. However, I'm reading the OP and you've mentioned natural light and bright many times, and a pool/spa. The design doesn't seem to meet those very prominent concept features at all.

I'm not sure what is adjacent to the north, and assume the garage has to go where it is because of the corner streets. I also notice a 2nd floor beam dissecting your Kitchen. Setbacks assumed to be the as-is footprint.

The Scullery location seems to prevent good opportunity for natural light, and is very proportionally long. I also have seen examples of Australian Rumpus Rooms that are adjacent to the main Living to give opportunity to open them up if desired (or at least group similar functional adjacencies).

So just swapping, rotating, maybe stretching/pulling a few adjacencies, it seems you might be able to open the house and the yard to the northern sun (boy, is that strange for me to say). The 2nd floor footprint remains intact. There's opportunity for all the main spaces to be visually and literally open to outdoor living, utilities (water storage) tucked in by the garage, outdoor cooking closer to Kitchen, and integral overhead sun trellis/overhang in front of Dining and Living.

Based on the posted site plan, the house seems to be right up against the north setback. Unless there is an open field on this side, this will limit the amount of northern sun your house will receive, so brightness and light-filled is going to be a problem. And the garage location seems to be a given based on the street configuration. So...the best option is just to provide as many windows on the other sides as you can, preferably floor-to-ceiling if possible.

As for luxurious, that is more a function of materials and furnishings than it is of layout. People here can't make your house luxurious, but you can by a careful selection of everything you see and touch inside the house.