@juliede, I recently commented on another forum about timber versus tiles saying that hubby and I originally agreed on timber floors, as we both love real wood, and we have a local mill and the tongue and groove floor boards were, a few years ago about $36sqmtr and tiles were about the same again a few years ago. Recently I started thinking that tiles would be easier to lay than traditional floor boards given we're doing all the work on our build ourselves and we're not young but hubby isn't interested, as he feels the tiled floor would be too cold in winter, which would of course be true but how nice would it be in summer!!! Anyway, just a few weeks ago I looked at bamboo flooring available in a click style, so very easy to lay, whilst being 100% solid bamboo and I'm quite impressed to the point that I could really go for this flooring, problem is, well for me it is, it's over $70+ mtr. At over 100 sq mtrs in the home, that's over $7000 I can see now why allot of people decide to go wtih either tiles or real floorboards as these engineered floors are very expensive. Good luck with your choice. Cheers, Barbara

Last month I installed glass pool fencing, which actually transforms my ordinary pool into a unique and gorgeous paradise and on the recommendation of my brother, I got in contact with the Sloane Accessories, the professional contractor for glass pool fencing, they installed a glass fence around my pool which adds style and elegance to my pool. As Glass fencing is the most elegant and preferred choice among people. This gives an attractive look to pools along with maintaining cleanliness around it. Although a bit expensive as they maintain the beauty of surroundings, with safe and higher durability.

In my last house, after adding a living room (the area you see this side of the arch) and also updating bathroom etc I couldn't afford to reline the ancient walls in my little lounge (when I removed the purple wallpaper I found a mixmax of boards, gib, pinex, plywood and holes!) so I plastered walls all over with layers and layers of newspaper and wallpaper paste (papier mache), then after applying primer/undercoat I painted with 2 similar colours (rich reds in this case), and stippled the surface with a plastic bag. This made it look just very slightly textured like leather and successfully disguised the uneven surfaces. Gallons of gap filler filled the gaps between the old T&G ceiling boards and evened out the mismatched skirting and scotia. Again white paint on all the trims. Amazing what can be done when you have to make do! This was a great cosy little room! (Before photo is the 3rd one)

Thank you everyone for your tips. I am feeling more confident now, I can start to picture what has been recommended by everyone. I am curious to learn more about some of your comments: GDP Interior Design - you mentioned a repeating pattern on the balcony, could you please further explain what you meant by this? The floor tiles or railing or wall? I am intrigued as we really want to add a little something there. Also, great tip with the eave colours, to be honest, I would have just gone plain flat white but I guess this would be too contrasting with the other colours if we did right? Sammy Elder - I LOVE your idea of the cantilevered/suspended roof. Thank you so much! That gives us something extra to work on! LesleyH - Plantation shutters is/was right up there on the to do list. They are very expensive for what they are but they certainly are popular. Could you please help further describe what you mean with your comment about cladding? I was looking at cladding options and initially was thinking I could clad the top half but there were many comments about how it often looks like you're trying to cover/hide something (bad walls, cracks etc). Thanks so much everyone, what a great community this is! Dan.