Thank you for all the ideas, it was great as we had a couple of builders through yesterday to give quotes for the various pieces, and I was able to add these to the list we were already thinking of.
Bob - thanks a lot for the very detailed reply! The builders both thought that we would struggle to get floor ducts in through the front section as the ground clearance gets very low as you move towards the second set of bedrooms. One of them suggested hydronic, as apparently the gas or water pipe is very thin and much easier to run in tight spaces. That doesn't help us with cooling, and I always thought hydronic was super expensive, so I asked for a quote on all 3 options, hydronic, ducted and individual split systems, and we'll go from there.
You were right about the boards. They are in all of the 4 bedrooms. Unfortunately, in the kitchen and dining room, it's just chipboard. Both builders suggested just replacing the carpet in those rooms and the living room. I am against carpet as one of our dogs was a rescue and we were never able to fully train her not to poo inside, so it could be a pain cleaning up after her on carpet. I'm thinking maybe vinyl plans in those areas, since we may not have the same issues with the floor levels not matching, compared to if we tried to do floor boards, engineered or solid. They said boards would require grinding of the concrete and would be labour intensive. Whereas the vinyl planks + underlay might not be too different to the height of the current carpet. I'll keep thinking about that one.
We've had a couple of stumping guys call out, and they both said house is pretty good, maybe about $1500 of packing to fix up the levels a bit, which seems reasonable to me. Also, I really like your floor plan ideas, especially the U shaped kitchen, I was wondering how we could open it up but not leave ourselves with no cupboards, but that looks great! Thank you, I really appreciate you spending the time to do that.
Angel - I love the idea of turning the WIR into an ensuite and it makes sense to extend the bathroom wall to the hallway to be level with the bedrooms, wasted space as it is now. Both builders said that living room wall is load bearing, so I suspect these changes will go on the wish list rather than the "do immediately" list, as I think most of our budget will be eaten up by the floors, heating & cooling, packing, plastering. If we can afford it, I would love to take out the wall between the kitchen and dining room, that space really feels cramped, and that would be the first room rearranging thing that I would like to tackle.
Marg - Agreed, I stressed this with the builder, given we have 2 young babies, safety of the major elements is number 1 priority, then we can tackle the cosmetic stuff later. Funny, one of the builders said the same thing about waiting 12 months for the things like wardrobes, he said you need to live in a space in order to work out what you really need. Thought that was nice of him, as he was potentially talking himself out of some work.
Thanks again everyone!