Your furniture will already improve the space. Lounge.. Face your lounge towards fire place. Dark textured rug. Make sure the rug sits just under the couch. Colourful textured cushions. Replace mirror with large clock. Lowline TV cabinet in corner. Bookcase, get MDF cut to fit in the back of each shelf. Either paint or wallpaper. I notice there is blinds in the sun room, so remove the curtains. Then add large colourful artwork. Dining...much longer wall cabinet, large artwork, replace chandelier for a dome pendant.

Our house is similar, but we are empty nesters and down sized about 4 years ago, our needs would be a bit different to a growing family, we are currently in the throes of having two smaller rooms made into one area to further open up a previous renovation to give us a bigger open space..we also have an ensuite and a combined laundry / second laundry space. The good thing is that being a brick veneer house the reconfiguring is relatively easy with modern technology and big beams. As above try and have a big open space, we have been out of our home for a month now and still a way to go, add living away from home to your budget or stay with family. I will try and post the plan but here are a couple of journey pics ..the last photo was before trying to show how the two rooms decided the space making the living room very small and a bit dark...the aim of this project is to have space for a bigger gathering than about 4 people before overcrowded. Light is really important, nice big windows essential, the darkness of the living I thought I could live with, but it did get me down, I a, looking forward to having a much lighter space

I love Marie's respect for the things we have, and her practice of thanking the things that don't actually bring us joy for what they have taught us (eg I don't suit that colour or if I don't like the feel of something, I don't end up wearing it). Her system does not generate a lot of rubbish; there are always people that will love the things that don't suit us and will be grateful to be able to buy them at a good price at a charity shop. I have found her philosophy hugely helpful especially for sentimental items which I don't love but felt I should hang on to. She has changed my life!

We had one in our previous home and hardly ever used it because of the layout of the house (kitchen was quite a distance from the outside area the servery served) and the insects. If we had one in our current home, I would use it all the time because the kitchen is more conveniently located and we screened our entire outdoor living area. We are now planning a move and top of the make-over list is a new kitchen with servery window and screening the outdoor living room completely. With the outdoor area screened, there's no need for a servery window screen and outdoor dining is a delight.