Timber all the way!!! The look and feel of real timber under your feet cannot be matched. Depending on the size of the deck, paying a professional every few years to refinish the deck is not that costly and worth it in my opinion. I recently had to refinish a hardwood deck for a client and it was a huge area. It only cost $1200 for labour and materials and took only one day to do. the benefit of timber is that if you like the idea of changing the colour at some point, you can! This is not possible with composites. Just make sure you do your research as to the best type of timber for your needs.

Hi Patricia, that sounds like one of those 'rules of thumb' that can't necessarily be relied upon. There are a lot of factors to consider when burying or partially burying a water tank including the hydrostatic pressure (if you have a high water table there is a change the tank could float right out of the hole when empty), soil pressure which could distort your tank etc. I guess the first question I would ask you is 'why a 30,000L tank?'. Are you diverting all of your downpipes? How much roof area to you have? There may be other space saving solutions that don't rely on you partially burying a tank. Happy to help if you want to send me an email or just reply here.

I've been playing around with a pantry location. Originally, I was going to move the pantry into the laundry with some custom shelving and cut the laundry space in half. Now, Im thinking of cutting into the study area and building a wall there, and converting the new space into a long and narrow walk in pantry. Either that or build half a wall and put built in shelving in the study. Building the extra wall will reduce the need to cover in the door way that is currently in place and instead utilising it. Thoughts? p.s. this isnt too scale.

Thanks all for the wonderful comments. Ive made some redesign, and taken lots of points from you all. Big Reader: agree to have some window/lights on southern wall of mud corridor to allow light through. clerestory is a great idea Nik Star: Your suggestion make practical sense about having a dropzone once when I walk through. Ive moved that, move the coat hook/bench with below seat drawers north of it, and added a small cabinet for hooks. Ive made a deep shoe cabinet on the east side where dropzone used to be. this keeps it in all one area. OkLouise: Thanks for big advice on laundry: I know now where to put laundry baskets, and have added in that extra linen cabinet. I might just access the whole understairs from the stairwell entrance instead. The southern bench space Ill keep now: can use to drop groceries and maybe could provision space for a future wide fridge, and great idea to make bench with open knee space underneath so can be a work area. Girlguides: Ive move the tough slight so can have elbow room on either side. I have a feeling the builder would want to keep plumbing/drainage of sink/WM close together. Ive attached the next iteration. Thank you. MB