I have just cleared out an area under the house - a small room at the back of the garage that connects to the laundry/come storage room on the other side - a bit hard to explain the layout, but it works perfectly now as a second office/study area that I am using to gather and sort literature for further study. It has a large filing cabinet, desk, sorting table and lots of shelving for pre-sorting piles of literature which I have accumulated so effortlessly over the years! It comes with window views out to the garden and lovely water glimpses (if I open the garage door) and is lovely and cool in summer. While it is well organised and tidy, I have deliberately left it fairly rustic (read 'man cave' like) as I don't want to feel like I need to be 'cleaning and tidying' while I am there. I have a stack of classical and choral music that I play while down there ... in between listening to the cricket in summer, of course! Some great names in here re what to call it .... perhaps my 'She Nook' or 'the Reading Room'

At the moment I don't have a coffee table but a good tip is to use a tray to display or place items on as you can easily pick it up and move it if you need more space or to clean the table. You could use a wooden one, rattan or even a vintage silver plated tray, whatever suits your style. As for items, a few lovely coffee table books stacked neatly, a decorative container, maybe a bowl with wooden, glass or ceramic balls, a hurricane lamp with candle could be placed on the table and a vase of flowers is a must. Look around for items that suit the theme of your decor, ie if it's coastal you could use a lovely piece of white coral, a blue and white vase and some lovely books on coastal style.

We have a couple of really great ready-made or made to order bars you might like. The first is a first is a fully equipped bar, ready made, but no castors. The second two are moveable bars that can be made to order. The next is a simple bar table that can be made in a variety of sizes and materials, with or without castors. I've included a pic of one of these installed (on client's deck). The last picture is great looking, practical bar with storage, prep and serving space. This can also be custom made and comes on castors so you can move it wherever you need. Let us know if any of these suit.

Hi and thanks for your feedback. The rear building might now move further around to the north of the !7 acre rural block (2+ hours from Melbourne), where there is a flatter patch. We are now hoping to make it 2 story, with the storage shed below and living above. That way the huge views to the south and east can be seen over the top of the house. The idea is to build the shed (with studio accom) hopefully at the end of 2020, as a place to stay while the house building starts towards the end of 2021, when we will have the funds, fingers crossed. The width of the building area is only about 30 metres before it dips away a bit steeply to the east and west. We hope to avoid too much excavating for a slab (for thermal mass) but may need to consider stumps if the slab is far more costly. Looking at Carbonlite floor system as a reluctant alternative... A local architect has done the initial design to maximise the views and northern sun. We think the slight kink in the middle will add complexity to the roof so the kink can go. It is a big 'entry' which might need to go to cut costs but we do want an 'air lock' entry... The hallway along the bedrooms is intended to warm up in winter, ideally trombe wall style. We hope to keep the house to about 150 sq meters- we don't need bigger. The council has indicated where the dispersal field for the septic tank needs to go... We love the reverse brick veneer principle. The architect has been fairly open to our ideas but says the budget will be tight at approx $3,500 per sq meter. How does an internal masonry spine work? We figured a continuous skillion roof would be simpler and cheaper- going for a rural shed look...