Put in taller, longer windows to replace the existing windows...........Add tall french doors or glass sliding doors..........

My parents have a covered south facing alfresco in Perth. It's great in summer. In winter, they use a paved and pergolaed (with deciduous vines) area further from the house that gets full sun. Consider losing the bay windows. They will be unbearable in summer. Or push the eaves out, or plant some deciduous trees in the front. I would shift the rumpus room to where the laundry is. Give it a view. Also, it's probably where you'll end up sitting on hot summer days, as your formal lounge will still get a lot of heat. Consider shifting the master to the righthand side of the plan. You could get a lovely triple aspect (north, east and south) bedroom. You could have double doors that open onto a private seating area too. Put the laundry where the master is.

Oh thank you oklouise. Our issue with the “lounge” area is how long the room is... with the tv on the longest wall, and the chairs on the opposite wall we feel so far away from the tv. Dilemma

If you are worried about invasive roots you might want to get rid of the magnolia in your front lawn. These little gem magnolia's might be dwarves for their genus but their genus is a massive tree way too large for a suburban yard at maturity. A lot of people don't realise how large they will get because they are slow growing. The tropical garden look is all about large sized leaves and vivid colour. So a mix of coloured leaf plants and greenery with over sized leaves works best. A rhapis palm is a good screening palm as well as having architectural appeal since it's globular in shape. Looks best in a feature pot and one each side of your portico would look great. For hedging I can't urge you NOT to use bamboo enough. I purchased a house where a bamboo has been hedged on 2 sides. I hate it for these reasons. The particular variety I have cannot be clipped to keep it at a specific height. The entire thing keeps growing skyward until it set seeds and then dies back. Giving me a hedge that looks okay for around 6 months of the year and looks like dead grass for the other 6 months. Clumping bamboos are NOT non invasive. They will take over your yard. They just do it by the clumps getting larger over time and spreading outwards in concentric fashion instead of sending out runners linearly. They are high maintenance if you want them to look lush. You have to get into the clump and constantly cut out the dying culms otherwise you get a yellowed and dead looking section in your hedge. They are extremely messy constantly dropping leaves. I've tried mulching the continual fall but the leaves actually clog a mulcher and can't be recycled easily. Getting rid of a clump is nigh on impossible once established. I tried digging one of mine out. The rhizomes are like concrete and cannot be easily broken up with any kind of tool. I would need to hire a bobcat and dig them out to get rid of them. They have to actually be tied up into clumps with string, otherwise they fall over and look like weeds. The rhapis palm above is very bamboo like but unlike bamboo it isn't a grass so it will grow perennially without the massive die off of bamboo for many years to come. Most people don't realise that because bamboo is a grass it's lifecycle is very short. Each culm will live only 1-2yrs then die. The clump renews itself by sending up new shoots which results in an ever increasing clump size and a lot of dead poles in the clump. Bamboo is wonderful stuff in a plantation where the culms are continually harvested and clumps thinned out. They are a massive amount of work in a garden though.