That is a hard one with those tiles. I would have to think if you did a white, it would kind of work with the colour of your tiles. At the end of the day, they do need to be replaces, but as you said, due to budgeting reasons, you cannot, I can pass on this photo of a nice bathroom with those tiles for you though for inspiration... : )

Hi fb57, Great charming federation house, retain the front and fix the back, then maybe later you can put in a granny flat - depending on cost and local council bylaws. I would not put in an attic - stairs are a good place for mishaps and as we age it might have limited functionality - but if its something you have your heart set on it might prove worth while. It appears that you are competent enough to do a decent measure up plan, going from what you have posted - you might need to take a few photo and a few other dimension to get a good design from someone working online. The idea is to get a design that you are happy with and then get a local competent Drafts-person to do your working drawings for a Building Permit and then get it built with a Builder of your choice. This would result in my opinion in a significant saving and a design of your choice, especially if you are willing to do some of the legwork with council and other authorities. To get a good design that you feel is a solution to your requirements, you need to produce a variety of design schemes (plans elevations perspectives etc.) and this can be done online with any competent Building Designer that you can get along with. It will not take one go at it - and it will not be quick, as you need time to digest every scheme but generally it works out in the long run. These are some of the things I would look at: 1. The possibility of breaking up the build into stages - maybe stage one do the renovations at the back and the stage 2 place in a granny flat. 2. As you have good access on both sides of the property I would place a new garage on the largest width and possible gate and walkway on the other side to give individual access to the granny flat. The new garage would be as closely to the front as possible, with the new fence an gate on the other side it would greatly improve security. 3. Depending on budget I would provide a bathroom shower and toilet with a walk in robe to the main bedroom and redo the kitchen and laundry if required. 4.The area next to the lounge area I would develop into an external entertainment area. 5 Since you mentioned that you have a "Fibro Extension" it implies to me that you may have asbestos on the property - get an expert in and determine if you need to remove asbestos when you renovate - this is a dangerous material and you should take all precautions possible to avoid long term damage. 6. An indication of the position of your neighbors windows and setback might also help in providing a design that complies with your planning laws and respects your adjoining neighbors. Like all things it will take a few revisions to get it right , but if you are willing to work at it, it will payoff in the end. The first thing is to draw up the existing conditions to scale so that an initial proposal showing possibilities can be worked on. I would be willing to work on this project with you online, I hope this is of some help. Regards Michael Manias mm407p@gmail.com

Yes, all the Houzzers have been extraordinarily helpful. I am sure in the end, it will be a beautiful room. With regards to the change of sofa style, I was unsure of my ability to keep the white leather clean - particularly the stitching. By finally going with the "Julio" it is slightly more comfy sofa than the "Ariel". It has a higher back and I feel the "granite" colour will give me less hassles. In reality, the "granite" colour has slight yellow/creme undertones which tie back better with the curtains but this doesn't really show up in pictures. Golly, I hope I am on the right track. Thanks everyone for your help and suggestions. Keep them coming please

I also place safety from all sorts of hazards very high on my list - so high I won'y buy land unless it is free from such problems. In NSW Australia checking on this is now a few clicks away. If you search for NSW Planning Portal - you can input a NSW address and hey presto - all information collated about bush fire risk, flooding or other water inundation, mine subsidence and geo tech problems, things like acid sulphate soil - along with lot size, zoning and any permissible and prohibited activities. Apart from ensuring the NBN is available at a prospective purchase in NSW and crime stats are low - this portal hosted by Planning NSW is a fast way of checking on safety, zoning and other issues affecting a property. It saved me a lot of time as I could eliminate a high percentage of properties [and save myself pointless inspections or shelling out money for checks] immediately and only put time and resources into genuinely contenders. It assisted me whittle down 100+ properties down to 4 solid options. Phoning an insurance company and asking what they would charge you to insure a property is also tremendously revealing - as a rough rule - the more outrageous the premiums the more serious the underlying safety and other problems are.