Oh C'mon V Richards...every epoch has its treasures. B4 you make a mad run for it stop a while and consider the period and the reasons for the style...it can be extremely enlightening....unless its not the period you want to escape from but from some of the opinions. I spent many years of my youth outside of Australia living surrounded by old ruins in Europe. I forgot what it was like here. When finally I returned to Australia and found myself living in some of the 60s and 70s places..I found much to admire and wonder about. I may not have fallen in love with much of it but there was a certain mistique and a feel that I can still conjure when talking about certain places. Not saying that it was all romantic and pleasant but it conveyed something of the era and the kind of Aussie from those days.

PET PEEVE: INDOOR BAREFOOTERS NEWSFLASH: It is a plainly observable though controversial fact, to me at least, that very few people keep their indoor floors pristine enough for barefoot traffic. However, that does not seem to stop the oh-so-carefree, INDOOR BAREFOOTERS from taking their grubby, 'floor-feet' on little excursions upon coffee tables, chairs, couches and beds, etc. YUCK! Imagine seating yourself upon someone's couch and making the mistake of placing your hand beside you ON the couch, or forward upon the coffee table, only to feel an icky graininess...or stickiness? So, then you're stuck with continuous hand-washing throughout your visit because THEY could not be bothered to keep their 'floor-feet' off anything....their home being their slovenly castle and all. The YUCK factor and the politics which invariably follow my well-meaning interventions, (I'm an idealist), makes me an irritable, reluctant guest. Which ironically, never seems to stave off the invitations (sigh)! But, it also makes me a tyrannical host: "feet off my settee, Jerri! Not on my mid-century coffee table! No! Your white socks are no longer white, Jade! Aaargh!" WORSE YET, these oblivious INDOOR BAREFOOTERS tend to then touch and scratch their grubby 'floor-feet' while chatting, and touching their faces, fixing a meal or eating something...OR, shaking my hand. Oh, the humani-...'hygienity!' I feel ill!!! Yes, yes, I know that I'm whining AND yes, I know that there are worse things in the world: children suffering in Africa etc., but now that you mention it, even THEY tend to wash their feet BEFORE placing them on furniture! Maybe because they value the little they have. I know this from firsthand experience!! SIMPLE SOLUTION: Indoor shoes! Outdoor Shoes! And, when you place your feet upon anything slip OFF your shoes to reveal your lovely clean feet, which will appreciate the pristine lack of graininess from your last considerate visit. Anklet and pedicure but...floor-feet!!

Yes, this is very much a 'how long is a piece of string' question! And the answer is probably very much a 'you get what you pay for' answer! We have just built a house and paid in the vicinity 0f $1800/m2 - the builder we used has 3 lots of 'specs' for houses - basically the lower budget, the middle, and the higher end. For our given floor plan they could quote on each of the specs and we went with the middle one. This involve things like the quality of the fittings/appliances etc. eg. with the low spec we would have got a basic kitchen with formica benchtops, the middle spec included soft-close drawers and hinges with stone benchtops etc and it was the same for all the fittings throughout the house - toilets/vanities/laundry fit out/quality of carpet/type of concrete for drive etc. A word of warning - we had a friend who was very happy because he built a house for just over $1000/m2 - but you could tell! It looked all fine when it was brand new but after a few months you could tell the poor quality of some fittings. And the carpets were already looking worn! so - you get what you pay for.

I really feel for you. I had a similar experience when a neighbour recommended someone she knew who was 'really good'! He was extremely lazy and, apparently, suffering from depression and he had split up with his girlfriend! He did a dreadful job which took a week - because he was too depressed to work on some days - he only did about half the job and I wasn't impressed. It has ruined my relationship with my neighbour because she knew him to be really good. She won't even come into my place - I assume she doesn't want to see the mess he created! To top it all off (I had paid him cash - fortunately only half of what he 'wanted' (not 'earned') so he wouldn't be paying tax on it )- I didn't get a receipt. He also took my house keys so I had to have the locks replaced. Such a mess and then, I had some tradies through a couple of weeks later for an unrelated job and they asked me when I was getting the place painted? When I told them it had just been done, they really didn't know where to look. I seem to constantly get ripped off, so I'm not getting much done any more - too expensive and depressing.