Hi Kathy, so thrilled to hear my comments got you started thinking of the big picture, it has been a pleasure working with this. When you are starting totally from scratch like this it is easy to become too close to the issues and the brain becomes overloaded so you can't see the woods for the trees. I think this is also a classic example of why I always tell people to live in a house for a year before beginning to decorate, as hard as it is to be patient and wait, you do need to get the feel for a house and relate your lifestyle to it. I do like your idea of splitting the room into two areas, the room looks big enough to give you this option, and to me intimate spaces within a room create a more welcoming and homely feel. When you have a good idea of the furniture you would like, put what you have in the room and measure anything else before you buy it, use newspaper or cardboard boxes the size of the pieces and put them around the room to ensure you are going to get the desired result. It can be so easy to over or under estimate just how much space furniture will take up. Sorry the green lounge in the study didn't work out, but glad this has helped you see options. Just my personal opinion, one of my joeys had a lovely old grandfather clock in her lounge room and while it was a beautiful piece of furniture to look at, I just found it a little on the intrusive side - with its constant chiming it just didn't make the room feel relaxing, one was just so aware of the passing of time. Of course this can be advantageous when certain rellies visit. She ended up moving hers to her entrance foyer where it was a stand out feature and the lounge room became so much more relaxing. Love to see some photos of your landscaping.

Hi, How would you like to send them to your draftsman, if not by email? If you wanted to send an ideabook by SMS, grab the link in your browser and paste it into your text message.. https://www.houzz.com.au/ideabooks/53781763/thumbs/samantha-vaughan70s-ideas You can also add a professional as a 'collaborator' which was a feature added just for this kind of purpose. I hope this helps, Luke

Hi Jo, yeah there are two options for you – Option 1 1. In your desktop browser click on the ideabook you would like to share 2. Copy the URL and share it with your architect Option 2 You can collaborate your ideabook, which means you can add your architect to your ideabook, allowing them to add comments and add/remove photos in your ideabook 1. Click on the '+invite' button and type in the email address of your architect 2 Click send - this will send your an email to your architect inviting them to view and access your saved photos in your ideabook Hope this helps.

Thanks @User – what you've said makes sense. Here's another picture of our driveway at present: http://tiny.cc/4qjytz Whatever option we go with, we'll be improving the underlying base (excavating some of what's there, re-laying, grading and compacting). As part of this we will be improving the drainage (either having a crown in the driveway, or having a slope from the right to left). But drainage is one thing, material is another... The stabilised decomposed granite option is a bit more affordable than coloured bitumen, and the landscaper who offers it can upgrade our edging and stone retaining wall as part of the job. However, I've heard really mixed things about stabilised decomposed granite – some say it gets quite hard when stabilised well and can last 7+ years until more maintenance/resurfacing is required; others say that even when stabilised it goes muddy when wet and brings dust/fines into the house, especially the red granite variant. Coloured bitumen (using an emulsion, different to cutback bitumen) is more expensive but I'd be happy to go down this path if I knew that the surface aggregate/coloured rocks wouldn't erode in the first few years – some local (non-sloped) driveways I've seen with coloured bitumen seem to have some loose material. I am hoping for some insights into either of these options