Gal will go grey (mid to dark grey) over 12 - 18 months. Initially VERY bright. The energy absorbed changes accordingly, from sub 5% absorbed to ~35%. Zinc maintains brightness for longer, though still suffers some dulling. Say 5% to 15% over time. This can be avoided by coating with a product called 'Sharkhide' metal protectant, used to stop aluminium boats oxidising. For there reasons many councils will not allow zinc or gal roofing (visual amenity, reflection issues), while making the houses more prone to requiring summer aircon at the same time. Surfmist Colorbond starts around 9% absorbed. If purely for energy reasons, a light colour might be the only option. If going dark, I would suggest at least doing the 'less aesthetically important' sides and rear in a light colour. Your call. If you go all dark, ensure you have good roof space ventilation for the summer that can be closed in the winter, and lots of well installed ceiling level insulation. Spray foam is more reliable over time than batts, see Spray It Solutions or similar (they have the Formaldahyde free Canadian Icenene foam).

Just to confirm I have taken the great ideas presented here as advice only and have no intention to do some dodgy diy reno's. With the exception of a couple of quirky exposed timbers as you can see in my pictures there are no other exposed beams. As you can also see from the pictures there is a large roof space on the right (east) side of the house but the ceilings themselves are flat with a slight dip on the north wall. Based on my own personal experiences I would have to agree with Two's Company that there is a tendency towards rendered brick in WA (although there are still many exposed brick houses in my suburb) while double enclosed double garages are also highly desirable. I would also agree that toilets within the main bathroom and non traditional laundries may be considered unusual by many (but not all). Ensuites with toilets however are still very common. Also due to the nature of our work we would prefer the laundry separated from food/kitchen area. For a 4x2 house it is only around 155m2 excluding carport/alfresco which makes the rooms feel quite cramped, hence the desire to open up the family room. However, as Two's Company suggests we will need to first get a builder/eng in to check load bearing walls etc as this will undoubtedly affect what we can achieve within our budget. Having said that I still excited by many of your ideas and with luck hopefully can work some of them into the budget. Cheers all :)

Hi Val, Your house has beautiful timber floors and Cornices to work with and the kitchen even though very good quality has limited storage from what we can see in the photo hence my suggestion to change the glass to allow for better storage. You could add extra shelves and use as pantry space. A long light similar to the one in the photo could look good, you can get them a bit shorter as well, check out the splash of colour in the stools, New York Bar style. Can we see a photo of what's opposite the kitchen. Have you had any quotes to have the kitchen painted and what do you think you could sell it for. I say this because even though it is a high quality kitchen from the 80's they don't necessarily function very well. cheers

depends on the type of tiles and climate but our old concrete tiles lasted almost 50 years and had been repointed and painted in the last 15 years but ongoing problems with waterproofing convinced us to replace the old tiles with Colorbond steel roofing, fascias and gutters...(we also vacuum cleaned the roof space and installed new ceiling insulation, replaced all the old electrical wiring and added a power point and light inside the roof for future inspections) not very glamorous but the $150 we made from recylcing the old wiring was a nice surprise after all the hard work and expense!