Kerrie, I live in Victoria and my pool in completely internal, that is to say it is part of the house and not an addition to the house. I planned to have an external door with the required regulation lock height and seld closing mechanism. Hubby was dead against this door and so I agreed to have a window instead, not long after, we found out that the laws had changed and you are no longer permitted to access to an indoor pool from the outside, so it was just sheer luck that we changed the door to a window. Further, when we purchased the awning windows (2) with regulation restricted 10cm windouts, our building inspector tried to tell us that the windows weren't allowed and that they would have to remain shut and we were also going to have to concrete "bars" into the brickwork on the outside. I argued that regulation pool fences had the same 10cm restriction and after contacting the Victorian Building Commission, I have confirmation in writing, that the windows are deemed to be adequately safe and the inspector has accepted the finding. My access to our pool now, is only from the inside of the home obviously and if that becomes illegal, then we'll just have to sit and look at the pool longingly through the window, as there won't be any access at all ha-ha I'm not advocating that people argue with regulations but if I hadn't investigated my options further, who knows where I would be, having spent $1,500 on these two windows with laminated glass and how beautiful would my brickwork have looked with prisson bars attached. Cheers, Barbara

#2 as it looks most like a home office/studio which is what I would use this kind of space for. In all honesty #1 #2 & #4 all look very similar. There isn't much variation in the overall style considering the range of outdoor spaces that exist.

I'm like telperien in that it depends on the season. I love hanging out on my leather sofa with a nice fire and a glass of scotch in the cooler months, and on the front veranda in more temperate months. We're on the side of a mountain facing northwest so we get some fantastic sunsets.

I so agree with bigreader. As much as I love drooling over the immaculate perfect projects where enormous dollars must have been spent, including every last thing chosen by an interior decorator, to me the most inspiring and enjoyable part of houzz is seeing 'average ordinary' people making great improvements within their budgets.