Hi Connie, It is a much busier time for professionals than it was 12 months ago, I understand why you may be going through all this. Here are 2 things to try. Try the Houzz Professional pages if you haven't already. Be clear on the phone about your timeline and budget and see what that nets you. If it doesn't work, I recommend coming to a builder via a different route. Perhaps via a subcontractor of a key department (plumber, framer, etc), an involved architect or a designer. Our professional relationships are so important to us, if a trusted builder asked me to take on an additional client to help their company out, I would expand my office staff etc to meet the demand, as we are all repeat business for each other and our livelihoods depend on the quality and quality of our professional relationships. As far as you physically performing labor, in many cases, tradespeople who spend all day every day performing tasks on an expert level save you money because they are doing it much, much faster than a DIY could and will likely have the experience to avoid mistakes that can cost you time and money or, in a more subtle way, there may be something you do that makes it more difficult or time consuming or costly for the trades that come in after your work- that could be avoided. Overall I think you should stick it out on the contractor search! You need one, there are so many good ones-- hang in there!! Good luck- this is no one's favorite part!

I'd play off the colour of the new tiles - check out Dulux Henna Red to use as a core colour then choose a red-white, a charcoal grey and high gloss black for the door and small details You could be super brave and go with a Red roof too :) This is a great site to have a look at the differences between a bunch of different colours and doing it right :) http://www.oldhouseguy.com/exterior-paint-colors/ Good luck!

Oooooh lovely to see such great work in my neck of the woods. Pity City of Bayswater doesn't do heritage awards you guys deserve one.

It's always exciting to think about potential plans for a newly purchased home. However unless you have experience and knowledge in regards to construction, costs and understand how particular design decisions impacts these things, you'd be best to (a) take some time to develop a clear picture or "vision" of the type of home you are aiming for and then (b) invest in some professional advice to help guide you towards your goals. When you say you can't afford to spend thousands on drawings, I'd argue that anyone considering a significant renovation project should allocate a certain component of their budget to professional design as a no-brainer investment to maximise the project potential and mitigate potential issues such as cost blow-outs or worse spending money in ways that misses opportunity and doesn't add value. Investment in planning and design is arguable THE most critical and $$ worth spending in order to get the best outcomes. As you have brought up, there are a whole lot of aspects to work through and negotiate, such as levels and structure. In order to get any sort of advice (either independently or on forum) measurements are critical and the first thing to establish, as well as other relevant contextual information such as levels and boundaries. Any design decisions directly impact costs, and unless you know what you're doing you can potentially head down a path of relatively expensive and extensive internal reconfiguration. Sure some of this may be required, but as we find regularly with these types of projects, mitigating renovation scope and exploring opportunity for some complimentary logical "clean"/simple extension aspect can be often the better option on a number of levels: better value, increased living space & better investment return longterm Best of luck working through it - and even if you do minimal work, it's clearly a good property investment Cheers PD :)