The McDonalds have lived in this large home in the semi-rural suburb of Park Orchards in outer Melbourne for 15 years and the current median price\u00a0for a four-bedroom home like the one they own is $1.48 million.<\/p>\n
While the house has plenty of living space it\u2019s not in the right places for a family of 11, plus cooking 33 meals a day in this kitchen isn\u2019t easy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve loved it for a really long time. But as we\u2019ve added more kids to the family, it just feels like the walls are closing in and it\u2019s not working for me anymore,\u201d says Mel.<\/p>\n
But Macca isn\u2019t convinced that this home isn\u2019t perfect for him, Mel and their nine children.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe functionality of the house is the issue. It\u2019s just not to the scale we need to fit everyone in it. To me, it\u2019s nothing that can\u2019t be fixed,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
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![\"Picture:](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/b1c47d8193e3779294e2adb6fa17ad11-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1\")
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The main lounge and living area. Picture: Love It Or List It Australia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
If the family choose to sell now, they could get up to $1.35 million for this home, but Winter says they should ideally buy a bigger house in the same area with five to six bedrooms and a study, a pool and a lovely garden.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see a house that\u2019s ready to be passed on, it\u2019s ready for the next family. I see the McDonalds as ready for the next stage of life and a bit of a nice garden and pool.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe configuration of this accommodation is limited and the low ceilings\u00a0\u2013 you can\u2019t do anything about that,\u201d says Winter.<\/p>\n
Love it: Transforming this Melbourne home<\/span><\/p>\n\n
![\"Picture:](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/2203714a44b868c30f645591ce6e1156-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1\")
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Making the kitchen area bigger and providing more storage would transform this home. Picture: Love It Or List It Australia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
But given the space\u00a0that the McDonalds already have, Whitaker thinks a smart renovation would give Mel and the kids the open-plan living they desperately need as well as extra bedrooms.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo add two more bedrooms, I\u2019m using one of the two identical living areas, creating a corridor with a dividing wall and building in storage space for both\u00a0rooms.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo make up for some of the lost space, I\u2019m expanding the other living room and knocking down the old brick fireplace and chimney,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
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![\"Picture:](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/61634285d5b39a3b569b7efb8ad4f38e-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n
An open-plan living room suits this big family. Picture: Love It Or List It Australia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Whitaker says redoing the floor plan could see the kitchen, dining and living areas flow into the one large open-plan space that this family of 11 needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy opening up the living, dining rooms and kitchen the whole family can feel connected. They\u2019ll all be together in the one space at the same time,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Watch Love It or List It Australia now exclusively on Foxtel\u2019s Lifestyle to see what Mel and Macca did with this home.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the latest episode of Love It Or List It Australia, parents Mel and Macca McDonald … Love It Or List It: Move for the kids or renovate?<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":116642,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[6944,981,4751,6946,1403,6947,6948,6949,12908,543,617,8565,8566,1366,3703,3670,6976,8567,3746,6955,6956,6957,6958,6959,6960,6961,6962,6977,8568,6964,6965,6968,6969,6970,6971,6978,8569,41,818,6973,6974,6975],"class_list":["post-7018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opportunities-in-new-markets","tag-loveitorlistit-twitter","tag-a-house","tag-amazing","tag-are-hilary-farr-and-david-visentin-married","tag-buy","tag-hgtv-loveitorlistit-where-are-they-now","tag-hgtv-com-loveitorlistit-too","tag-hgtv-com-loveitorlistit-where-are-they-now","tag-home","tag-home-buying-guide","tag-house","tag-how-to-apply-for-love-it-or-list-it-australia","tag-is-the-furniture-included-in-love-it-or-list-it","tag-love-it-or-list-it","tag-love-it-or-list-it-aus","tag-love-it-or-list-it-australia","tag-love-it-or-list-it-hgtv","tag-love-it-or-list-it-resource-guide","tag-love-it-or-list-it-vancouver","tag-loveitorlistit-apply","tag-loveitorlistit-australia","tag-loveitorlistit-australia-apply","tag-loveitorlistit-canada","tag-loveitorlistit-cast","tag-loveitorlistit-channel-4","tag-loveitorlistit-contractor","tag-loveitorlistit-episodes","tag-loveitorlistit-full-episode-2018","tag-loveitorlistit-hillary","tag-loveitorlistit-location","tag-loveitorlistit-toronto","tag-loveitorlistit-vancouver","tag-loveitorlistit-vancouver-website","tag-loveitorlistit-where-are-they-now","tag-loveitorlistit-take-part","tag-loveitorlistitcast","tag-original-love-it-or-list-it","tag-property","tag-real","tag-wnetwork-loveitorlistit","tag-wnetwork-loveitorlistit-vancouver","tag-www-network-loveitorlistit-com"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Love-It-Or-List-It.jpg?fit=600%2C450&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7018"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116652,"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7018\/revisions\/116652"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Love](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Love-It-Or-List-It.jpg?resize=600%2C450&ssl=1\")
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