I like the look of the outside of the house , and initially I wouldn't change the yellowy beige colour . What I would do is get the concrete block retaining wall either rendered in the same colour as the house , or if the budget ran to it -- get a genuine stone facade . As far as gardens to soften the look , I'd stick to the meditarreanian theme , and do a couple of 2 metre tall green leafy plants in wooden round planters ( half wine barrels or similar ) , and maybe a long , slim garden ( 4 or 5 metres long by 40cm wide ) with marigolds or similar .

What's the window doing? If you do a window to the floor then a free stander will look awesome - cleaning factor? well, that ultimately depends on your opinion/priority/thoughts on that vs the aesthetic/look - that's the question you need to answer....& do you have a view out of your bathroom? If the window is a high level window then you could realistically go either way successfully....we seem to find freestanders are chosen more so than not, despite the cleaning behind factor..... my clients went for a freestander for this little bathroom and visually by just keeping it off the wall the tight space feels more open than it would have been with either a hob or back to wall. Just make sure you have enough room to get behind it to clean and all good :) PD

For most people of standard height and reach this should be no problem. If you want to be sure then check your reach distance when standing at a dining table. How far can you reach across comfortably to pick up a full kettle? Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls

Has anyone installed hob mounted tapware into a Caroma Cube acrylic back to wall bath? The installation instructions give advice on drilling through the bath to install taps yet, when specifically asked, Caroma advise against installing hob mounted tapware on any of their freestanding baths. They wouldn’t give specifics as to why though. Can anyone shed any further light on this issue to help us decide which way to go?