Because of the narrowness of the area, there is only room for the screening plant. And I would keep the edges straight - curved edging is cottagey, and would look totally our of place here. Your house is not a cottage. I don't like the suggestion of trees with trunks visible. It is a colourbond fence at the look of it. I hide these - there's nothing special about them I'm sorry. And views are in the eye of the beholder. If it isn't on par with the best view that you've ever seen, then make your own view within your garden. You'll be far happier in the long run. And if you have plants of varying height so that the bottom corner is shorter in order to show the rooftops of neighbouring houses as a 'view', then the design within the garden will be spoilt. I know that there are those who think that lily pillies are common, but a plant that grows well in its position is far better than struggling to grow some uncommon plant that is a failure to thrive. I would aim for a lily pilly that is at least 3 metres tall. Consider Acmena 'Sublime' which doesn't get psyllid and doesn't need to be hedged if you don't want to. And I would run this plant the full length and around from the corner along the bottom fenceline. Your plants also would do better if the garden beds were 1.5 metres wide with the plant placed in the middle of the bed. Plants don't do well in narrow beds unless managed by a professional who knows what they are doing. As for the dwarf magnolias - these plants are dwarves of the Magnolia grandiflora which can get to 100 feet tall in maturity. So as a dwarf form, they still get up to 50 feet tall when they mature. The labels don't give a precise indication of height at maturity and are deceiving to novices. So don't go there is my advice. They also have bad root systems for so close to the house. You would also never be able to keep your lawn alive as they plants grow as they are water guzzlers as they get bigger. Nobody considers how plants behave once they are planted, but the care varies enormously with different plants.

Love the choice of kitchen - shaker style! I have that style myself and I love it. An interior designer definitely will be able to help you with design and configuration, colour scheme etc. Just letting you know, we had to put 5 structural beams in our ceiling for support and the cost blew us away, it is a very expensive exercise. You'll need an engineer to draw these up. Your draftsman will know of an engineer. Also, as a rule you have to allow for budget blowout. Everyone who has ever done a renovation will tell you. Once you start on the journey, you're emotionally involved and you want it all to be right, and you always add on more changes as you go along. It might be worth pricing things from your kitchen to floorboards to fixtures and fittings, ovens, fridges, lighting choices etc and then draw up your own costings. Builders generally don't do costings, they allow a budget for certain things, like $5 a handle, but then if you choose a $7 handle, then you get hit with a bill at the end of the job with all the extra costs. Make sure you know what the builder has allowed for when it comes to the kitchen, fixtures and fittings etc. I also agree with the others, the oven is too tight in that spot. I would swap that with the sink and put the sink in the island. Hope this is helpful. Good luck with it all, it's very exciting!

Looks like manly from the pic - great ! also looks like second floor windows with limited access to the problem window ? An external solution maybe very costly . One might say pull the blind but obviously during the day it's more discomforting than good so I'm going to suggest plantation shutters.

Thanks For the inspiration Julie. I’m thinking we might go with a darker colour for the back wall like one of your photos. I’m not sure if we will retain the jasmine creeper or go with another approach to planting. There is only about 1m between the pool edge and the walll The main view is at the end of the pool and that will definitely stay!