Perhaps if you look at your outdoor spaces as outdoor rooms, it may help you personalize and organize the areas. What I see in the photo is a small front yard divided in half, and a tree placed exactly in the center of the other half, within a little square of bed. I expect you would not do that with an interior room. A visitor will be compelled to race down the hallway to the front door, and probably not even notice the tree, since it is not part of a composition, a furniture grouping. You enter your living room to a welcoming composition of a furniture grouping, lamps, pictures on the wall, drapes (I hope) on the windows. You get the idea. Would you put a post lamp in the middle of an empty room? It would tend to diminish the size of the space and it's usefulness as a space. Would you put a carpet down the center of a room? -- only if you were creating two separate scenarios of equal size. You need some on-site advisers, whether they be landscape architects or interior designers, someone or more than one who will offer their experienced suggestions for you to consider, but not immediately act upon. You need to live with your new spaces and walk through their ideas for weeks, or months, before making a decision on how to proceed. Perhaps it would help you to read the thoughts of some international designers like Bunny Williams, with her book, On Garden Style, where you will get the feeling that the views of the outside rooms from within the house are as important as the views from the street. You will want to move the maple out of its central location, remove the central path, - and the conifers scare me. You really have a very small space up front here. Take a look in the park at the size of a mature conifer. They will occupy your yard and that of your neighbor, as they develop as nature intended. They are very beautiful, a work of art, but space-consuming. You may have room in the back yard, but be careful when blocking the magnificent views from within the house. Perhaps you will provide an entrance to your outdoor room over to the right, near your property line, with the tree, the lamp post, a small chair or bench, a bed of small plants that have beauty and fragrance throughout the seasons - a space you would like to sit in yourself, perhaps have coffee with the neighbor, or the kids hang out with a pal. Then have the walk work its way over toward the entrance area - not the door, but the welcoming area before the door, slow them down to enjoy the sequence, while providing a most pleasant view of this area from within. Make the plantings permanent, with no soil or mulch to show, after two years, as the groundcover plants mature and cover the beds. Keep all the annual plants in containers, to be stored away if empty, so the views of your spaces are not distracted by an open area in the bed where the annuals have departed, or an empty pot. Consider excluding your auto from your outdoor room, your welcoming area. You don't have room for a real screen, so just a suggestion, as a small hedge or plant bed to stop the eye before it gets to the drive. Perhaps the view beyond the drive is attractive, so all you need to filter from the view is the driveway pavement itself, as the car belongs in the garage, yes? Sometimes a little perimeter fence with a gate says welcome to my special space. In your case perhaps a darker color, not the typical white, which would be a high contrast to the house and not appropriate here, grabbing all the attention. What I have offered may be of no use to you, however, the intent of my words is to provoke you to analyze first, then plan. Consider alternatives from all viewpoints before deciding how to proceed, as these spaces and plants will be a part of your life for many years. Good luck to you. Continue the process at the tortoise pace, not the hare.

Thanks annb1997 and Bernadette Staal. Bernadette, I do like the red roof; it is the creamy yellow walls and dark green trim that I'm not a fan of... But good point though, my husband actually suggested the same thing on the weekend! :) Annb, I just thought if I incorporated some red into the trim work it would tie the whole colour scheme together. Door is currently same as wall colour, so painting it the red sounds like a good idea. And I do like the idea of fewer colours, then it wouldn't look so busy.... Currently leaning towards the soft sage green, just need to find the right shade now.

I would suggest 3x3.5 m for the room as a minimum, plus the robe. I think anything smaller feels pokey and is hard to furnish with a desk, bookshelf and perhaps a double or queen bed. Particularly as kids tend to stay at home longer these days. Your 9 year old boy might not leave home until he’s a 24 year old man. And try, where possible, to make them all the same size. I don’t think walk in robes are necessary for kids’ rooms, though the teens may disagree. I think it depends what works in your floor plan and budget. A well planned smaller robe is better than a poorly planned larger one. Double hanging rails are great for shirts, trousers, skirts but some of your kids will need single rails too for dresses. Also think about their stuff. What do they need to store? Toys and games, sports equipment, bags and backpacks, hobby paraphernalia? Will their linen be stored in their rooms or in a central linen cupboard? How much other storage is there in the house? Outside the house? For the bathroom, I love the floor plan my Mum has. It has separate toilet, wet area (bath, shower, space for drying) and vanity. You can have one person on the loo, one in the shower, and another brushing their teeth at the same time. It also has storage for towels. Its genius, great for the morning rush, but it takes up about 2.7x 3.3m of space. If space is really tight then the minimum you could get away with for a main bathroom/toilet is probably about 1.5x3m but it would be tight. You would either need a shower over bath or to forego the bath. If possible, have a separate toilet and bathroom. It makes for a more peaceful household. Good luck with the build.

check "pinch pleat" style hooks...usually available at Spotlight, Bunnings, some department stores or any curtain maker but you can often find a few odd ones at teh Opshops to test which shape suits your curtain...they have the hook part that hangs on the track but also have prongs that project upwards and can be fed through several vertical loops to make a pleat every 10 cms then a smooth gap, rather than continuous gathers, and hold the curtain upright..the different styles have the hook attached a different levels along the prongs so that the hook can be hung higher or lower....the right one may depend on the weight and width of the fabric to suit the curtain space...making the curtain narrower can sometimes help and another option is to add weights to the hem of the curtain.. some special curtain weights look like big flat metal rings about the size of a 20 cent coin and are wrapped in a small pouch of fabric that is sewn at intervals along the inside of the curtain hems...(lots of work so try hanging a few keys on safety pins along the hem to see if that helps before you start sewing) best of luck with this very annoying dilemma