Do you need a shelf or just think a shelf would look good?? With your heringbone subway tile pattern, very interesting actually, you've really ruled yourself out of putting in a shelf and not interupting the tiles to such a degree that it would most definitely detract rather than enhance the wall, so I agree with myperfectadvice, leave it as it is, as it's a beautiful design and kitchen from the little I can see and the pendant light is stunning. BUT, If you are desperate for a shelf and your kitchen is black/white then I'd go metal and 50mm thick and if you have timber doors and or floors, then I'd go timber for sure, again 50mm thick. I can't see the cupboard doors but I can see a timber knife block on display, so I'm guessing you have timber??? Good luck. Cheers, Barbara

@wuff -- I bought mine a few months ago while on a trip to the USA. It wasn't on holiday and had limited shopping time, which left me with empty luggage space to fill :-). I visited a discount/surplus items store and got them cheap! I'd been looking for months for some, but nothing I saw here came close to the heavy-quality metal of the ones I bought. They're made by a company called Seville Classics. Here's a link to their website page: https://www.sevilleclassics.com/kitchen_counter_top_organizer Following my return to Oz, I emailed the company enquiring about availability in Australia. I never received a reply. Much to my surprise, I recently discovered that Howards Storage World is now selling them. Here's the link: http://www.hsw.com.au/index.php?product&id_prod=6558&id_cat=106&id_dept=510#.VcDbmSkbA5s The one available at HSW is as shown in my earlier photos and is different to the ones I have. I'm not sure if the thickness of the metal is the same. Kind of hard to tell when I didn't have mine with me at HSW. Items are so much easier to access than if they were stacked. Best part is that others in the house have no excuse about putting items back into these organising racks. Here's a link showing the Seville products being sold by HSW. http://www.hsw.com.au/?product=&search=seville&op=search_products&x=0&y=0

We generally use a foil backed insulation blanket under metal roof sheet. It comes in 55, 75 and 100mm thicknesses mainly. The metal roof sheet is laid directly over the blanket and is TEK screwed through the blanket into battens. The metal sheet compresses the insulation into the corrugates. Sarking is rarely used under metal roofing as it provides very little insulation. Tile roofs generally still use sarking but mainly for condensation/water proofing rather than insulation as like I said it provides little benefit. Bushfire prone areas or not the blanket is predominately used.

Are you sure the roof is stainless steel?? That is VERY expensive and only used in very exposed corrosive coastal locations since it lasts forever. I think it might be Zincalume, a low cost but very durable and very common roofing material that has a light silvery surface and should last for 50 years. Definitely do NOT paint the roof black (or any dark colour), it would add more than 10° to the internal heat load, and you would have to spend so much more on insulation and on-going AC costs just to get back to where you are now. Have the roof checked and repaired by a roof plumber instead. If it's an old leaky galvanised iron roof at the end of it's days, replace it with zincalume. The porch roof looks like it needs replacing, but I would replace it with new roofing, possibly the insulated sandwich panel kind, that has a smooth white underside, then add a gutter to the front edge so you don't make your visitors walk under a waterfall in the rain. The canvas awning suggested earlier would not last as long without looking tired and would require the removal of existing roof structure, so I think it would be the more costly option (and you would still have the waterfall problem). I would leave the front fence as is, it ties in nicely with the house, but trim the tree. The back deck could easily be roofed to match the front, and be more useful to tenants with weather protection. It would be good to make all trim colours the same, and against the cream brick I think the dark grey you have on the front door and columns works quite well. I would make the other windows and trim, as well as the weatherboards over the back door match that if it just involves painting. However, it's not essential and if it means changing powdercoat finishes it would be too costly to be worthwhile in a rental.