Congratulations Aaron on finding your "Forever home" & wanting to preserve it's 70's vibe. It does look like a big project to get your teeth into! I would think the black to be a bit strong & tend towards a warmer tone with the brick. Sandstone is also a light stone with yellows, apricots & warm tones. Woodland Grey from the Colorbond range has olive/brown tones which might suit. It depends on the vision you are trying to achieve but it looks like a natural modern style would suit the theme of the house. By that I mean taking cues from nature for colours. Good luck!

If you plant a flowering creeper in your pots and guide it using a piece of string.... You can grow yourself a piece of art. The creeper will always follow the string.

Hi Erin, Some very good points made by everyone. First, I'll start by recommending that your have a read of the government's Your Home website. Tonnes & tonnes of information about designing a comfortable, energy efficient home. I'll link to the orientation section, as that's what I'll discuss, but recommend that you read more. http://yourhome.gov.au/passive-design/orientation A western frontage with no northern neighbour is a great block. This has allowed you to locate the garage on the SW corner, blocking the very hot afternoon summer sun, which is brilliant. But the western facing master bedroom is a major concern. Western sunshine (& eastern to some degree) is very difficult to shade, as eaves are ineffective when the sun is low in the sky. So usually it's a good idea to minimise western windows & place rarely used rooms, like bathrooms, laundries (along with the garage) facing west. But this becomes difficult for west facing houses, as you don't want to negatively effect street appeal. So I'll start by asking, do you envisage using all of your bedrooms, all the time? Or will one or the bedrooms be a guest bedroom, that will be rarely used? If one of the bedrooms is a spare bedroom, is recommend moving it to the front of the house, so that it bares the brunt of the hot afternoon sun. I'd then move the master to the SE corner, so it has an outlook to the backyard. If this can't be done is recommend following the above designs, moving either the ensuite or WIR to the W frontage, while still trying to maintain an attractive western facade. Pity you don't have access from the north. A northern entrance could have limited the length of the hallway, & brightened it up. One option I like a lot for this type of block orientation is designing a split skillion roof, with north facing clerestory (highlight) windows running down the spine of the build. These windows will greatly brighten the hallway, & also the kitchen which will be quite dark otherwise. These high level windows can also be great in summer, purging the house of heat in the evenings & throughout the night. Just make sure they have appropriate eaves, so they receive no sunshine in the warmer months. Next question. You explained a little of what's to your north. But how is the outlook. Generally it is a good idea to face your living areas, & a large portion of your windows north. If you will have a nice outlook to the north you may consider more north facing glazing. Though, do your research, as I'm not too sure of your actual climate, & you wouldn't want to overglaze. Also, orientating your glazing for cooling summer breezes is important, particularly in hot QLD. Which direction do your breezes come from, throughout the year, & throughout the day. I'd recommend finding this out by looking for the local "wind roses" on the BOM, Bureau of Meteorology. That's it for now, phone battery's about to die. Good luck

I would contact the builder and explain that although it was agreed on, you now look at it and realise it wasn’t right for your house. Ask if you can pay him to fix it, and how much a quote would be. You might find he offers you a cheaper price. When you have an exact figure, your hubby may agree. I would fix it ‘right’ now. As if you spend dollars with a ‘near enough is good enough’ solution, your hubby is even more likely not to spend that money to get it fixed.