I like the classic and cozy. BUT I was looking at the picture and DO NOT like the way it was Photoshoped! I've been noticing that there are more and more photos that are so fake looking. Good point about the weight of books. Some attics are not built to carry the weight of regular rooms, never mind books. A local woman left her house to the town here to be used as a library and it had to be re-enforced. Granted that's a lot of books, but it is worth noting the weight issue.

Whatever you do never plant a gum! They have no place in suburban areas! The sooner the council realises that these trees kill people the better! We have had two gum trees fall on the back of our house now, one in 2012 and one in 2014. We are so lucky that myself, my husband, three children, three dogs, five Guinea pigs, two parrots and one bearded dragon were not injured. It's just a miracle not once but twice! I still don't know how we escaped unharmed. The gums do not have a stable root system and they grow very shallow, they get to the point where they just fall over. And the scary thing is they fall silently. They are not called 'Widow Makers' in the bush for no reason. I like the Tuckeroo tree, not sure of scientific name. They grow with a straight trunk and keep their foliage in a straight and symmetrical line along the bottom and grow hiding their branches. Essentially they look like a large mushroom. They are green all year too. I think they get to about 6 metre or ten if they have to reach for the sun.

Although, I love soft, pale, barely there yellow, the canary (egg yolk as I call it) yellow is just too garish. I do like the mint green and I'm finding lots of sites that are showing myriad options in décor for it now. I imagine it's one of those "get it while it's hot" colors but it's a beautiful one to me. I've used the hot pink in much smaller doses for my daughter's room when she was little but I doubt I would use it in large quantities. I also deal with blue best in small doses.

Small deck, no view, except of the fence and the neighbour's garage. We have had a few BBQs there, and hope to get into a pattern of having breakfast and lunch there in better weather. I've got some herbs planted (but not really enough sunlight) and am working on other plants. Dog loves it: he sprawls on his bed or rolls on the 1.5 m of grass, and is content. Birds also love it: they come in at regular intervals to eat the dog's food. Me, I'm just deciding how to best enjoy the fairly new house, and I think the deck will be a big part of it as we go along.