Hi Chris Good plan revision there may be a couple of things that may help 1. You need 3Ds to make a decision on the front, its not to difficult to do if your Building Designer has the appropriate software, in all my design I give my clients 3Ds because it is difficult to understand spatial concepts from 2D's drawings - even fro people that do it every day. 2. Internal views are often more important than external - you spend more time inside the house than outside., your neighbours my spend more time outside looking at the house. 3. Upstairs I really like the master bedroom, but one of the robe has a window in it this would mean that the clothes would become decoloured. I would remove the window. 4. Also I would remove the window next to the TV in the recreation room - TV's will increase in size and the window might not add to better viewing. In my opinion the recreation area forces people to go around the sofa - children wont they will walk over them - more fun. I think the Tv should be on the Bathroom wall and the room squared of and the real furniture put in to scale - might help a bit with the final decision, some 3D's would help. 5. There seem to be no window in bedroom 4. 6. The downstairs works well, just that the kitchen bench still has a sink in it - not very practical, and a bit old fashioned because it really does not work - tend to spill between sink - stove and fridge - wet floors are not very helpful in work areas like kitchens. Hope this is of some help Regards Michael

Hi Emma, Lots of great ideas, love the idea of a larger fridge to fill that large space, build in s/s microwave, shelf or shelves either side of range hood , timber but I think stainless steel would add a bit of glamour, fill with beautiful items, then stand back and decide if you want to update cupboard doors, if so plain would look great, some great stools ... gorgeous

Agree with Siriuskey above. Hard to decide without seeing the style and layout of the house. If the expense of 3m windows is prohibitive, stick with the 2.7m ones and go for the 3m ceilings in the larger spaces. Install curtains at ceiling height so when drawn, it has the perception of full height windows and gives you nice simple lines. See below. Smaller spaces like powder rooms and studies perhaps you could have lower ceilings but that doesn't always save any money but small tall spaces need to be treated differently with the decor. Also heating in winter in Melbourne will have an impact on your energy bills. Heat rises so having low down heat like in slab heating will make the space more comfortable for the dollar spent. Think about fans in winter to bring the heat back down as well as for cooling in summer. Are all the downstairs spaces flat ceilings? I.e, no double height or sloping ceiling spaces? The amount of light in a space doesn't only depend on how high the windows are. Sun shines downward and so having windows go down to the floor and spread across floors may have more impact on light levels. This depends on where you place furnishings, what floor coverings you have etc. In bedrooms for instance where there may not be great views and you want to maintain privacy, I often prefer to have narrow tall windows carefully placed rather than the typical developer wide high sill windows centrally located on the outside wall. Are you on a suburban or urban site of in the country? That will impact privacy vs views. How much overhang or screening will you have to prevent summer overheating? If someone is designing this house for you, they should deal with all these issues with you. My feeling is there is much more complexity to consider than just your one query. Share your plan and elevations for us to help you more, even if they are just sketches. Good luck, C.

The garage has exactly nothing in common with the house . Totally different colours , totally different designs , totally different eras . If you have $100 , try this experiment -- go and buy some white paint , paint the front of the roof of your garage white to match the guttering of your house . Let it dry , stand back -- does it look better ? Give you any ideas ? Okay , what colour is your house entrance door ? Lets say it is black , and your windows are obviously white , because we can see one . So paint the garage door surround white , and the door black . Now the bricks are trickier -- painting the garage orange may backfire , as there are several shades in the bricks , whereas the garage will just look like an orange shed . But the actual front is only a very small area , so maybe go to a demolition firm ( or see if theres similar tones still made ) and get as close to the bricks as you can , and get a brickie to do a false facade in them , just that 300mm or whatever around the door ? The rest ( down the side of the garage ) I'd do an offwhite with orange undertones , add a black lattice ( even just that concrete reiforcing painted black would do , bolted 150mm out from the wall with spacers ) , plant a creeper and/or shrubs of different heights and tones , if there isn't a pathway there .