Tania, you initially asked about whether to use carpet or vinyl in your entryway. That's a good question. It probably isnt practical to extend carpet to entry. It does seem to be more practical (as far as wet, dirty or muddy shoes/feet) to have an easy-to-clean and damage resistant floor there, such as vinyl. If I was in your shoes, I would use the same flooring as kitchen (in this case vinyl) and extend it out along the line with where old wall was and finishing at the corner where the opposite walls meet (see your 2nd photo where there's a picture or something leaning up against the wall). I can't tell what is beyond that wall; is there another hallway? By extending the kitchen flooring out to include your entry, it seems more practical to me. It also creates an invisible boundary between the entryway and the living room. I hope this makes sense. Please keep us updated of your plans. Best wishes!

Thank you oklouise The house started out as a small single storey fibro house (left section). By the time we bought it, it had a 2 storey extension 6.2m w x 12.1m d added to the right side and the whole house was bricked over - leaving a strange stairwell on the side of the new extension (which we faux brick stamped 15+ years ago as it was bright white). There is a small step down to the front verandah but still good head height. The current garage doors are also quite high at 2.5m and would not need to be as high when replaced. So hoping the bulk head (if that is all we come up with) would be consistent / level across the front. That was just my first thought, but fresh eyes and fresh/other ideas are welcome!

This was my thinking about that pantry window (and there has been a lot of thinking, to my draughtie's despair!) : I guess it comes down to the fact that this is a renovation rather than a new-build, so it will always involve compromises. I chose to have the pantry on that front side rather than the back in order to get big stacking sliding doors across the whole back wall, which is north-facing - where the kitchen-dining area will open onto a deck. I have ensured that the renovation plan works with the current layout as much as possible, rather than forcing it to be something it isn't (I had a more complex design done initially, that was much more expensive, because it was trying to make the layout like you might see in a new build). Having said that, it also has to be functional and work for the lifestyle we have in this era. I think our floorplan achieves that - with the only minor point of contention now being that rather unobtrusive pantry window! I think for resale, and for the majority of people, if it came down to a choice between having a walk-in pantry with a window that isn't the same height/width as the others at the front of the house, or not having the WIP, the WIP would come out well ahead.

I saw these today and they seem to match well with our wall bricks and roof colour and well priced too. Now I think I'll consider retaining wall options and compare to brick. https://tilemarket.com.au/product/trevi-grey-external-300x300/ Edit: definitely going with brick I think