Dear Houzz community,

We would be really grateful for your ideas and advice on how to remodel the back of our house please. We have actually had plans drawn up/building warrant approval for a rear extension, however the quotes are all coming back as way more than we expected based on the ballpark figures we were given, so we are now back to the drawing board.

Our list of things we want to improve from the current set up are:

• Better connection to the garden from the current kitchen / dining area
• Enough space around the table so that people can get passed without having to squish yourself against the table
• Knock the wall to allow an open plan sitting area (we have a living room at the front of the house however with 2 children (11 and 8) and a dog we would really like to have a second area for when children and adults don't want to watch the same thing on TV!)

We cook a lot so in terms of the kitchen our wish list includes:

• NO corner cupboards ideally (currently have 3)
• An additional undercounter freezer
• A pantry cupboard
• The laundry room to include space for a pulley ceiling clothes dryer

I've attached the current floor plan and a couple of photos, as well as the original extension plans that we can't afford to give you an idea of what we were after if money was no object. We are now struggling to come up with a layout that doesn't veer too far from the current floorplan. Any help or advice you can give would be greatly appreciated!

Many thanks

Niki