Hi Tina, thanks for posting, it is all looking great. Shame about the panelling, but sometimes these things happen for a reason. It is great the armoire matches the doors so well when they are all on one wall, but I don't think you need to have the bed and side tables matching, especially when they are on another wall. My issue with painting furniture, while I love it, is the maintenance. It does chip over time and becomes one more thing to paint. I don't know what the timber is in your furniture but another possible option, especially to give you the coastal vibe is to lime it. To do this successfully, you will need to sand all the existing stain off it and go back to the raw timber. The darker the original timber, the less limed look you will get so bear that in mind too. I did an old bunk bed up that had seen better days, for my grands bedroom. It was a dark red wood, but with 4 coats of stain I got the look I was after which was that driftwood/coastal look. The whole thing looks totally new again. Sorry I can't post a photo as this function no longer works for me. Have a look at the Feast Watson range of liming stains, they have some gorgeous soft colours as well, but they let the timber show through rather than having the solid painted look. It is a very easy product to use, it dries quickly - I did the 4 coats over 2 days effortlessly. The hard work is in the sanding.

Generally, I find it commonplace that approximately 10% of your properties value is a maximum figure to not over capitalize, however above and beyond that doesnt factor in personal choices, like upgrading to a specific stone or appliance to suit your needs or wants. These things I would weigh up depending on how long you plan to live with the kitchen, and if it will be a long term ownership or short term with potential to sell with profit. You can easily send off a benchtop plan to any benchtop fabricator or even a st e mason and ask them to quote, just include walls, and indicate exposed edges of the bench so they include a polish cost, and any cut outs indicating your ski or hotplate etc. Where possible, note your stone colour choice for accurate costing, and then ask your cabinet maker to quote Benchtops separately, this way you have disclosed the biggest cost and decide to get it where it works for you.

thanks for your information which complies with our recent experience ..our mid range kitchen was just over $40,000 with custom designed cabinets to suit specific personel needs, mid range appliances and basic laminates...stone benches for my kitchen would have added an extra $7000 but i chose the custom sized cabinets and extra shelves in all cabinets...: so much detail to consider

part of the builders price includes insurance for the workers and the materials and we aarrnged for our builder to employ our electrician and plumber and then we paid the wages direct without the builders' percentage...your labour costs may be cheaper but will your workers be properly insured and what about the costs for the concrete and all the materials for the tiler that the builder may be able to source much more cheaply than you or your family and, for the size of the house that you've asked about in your other posts, you'll need a team of concretors to manage a slab that big...why not ask the builder what discount he'll give for you to supply the slab...the tiler isn't such an issue as it's decoration after the builder has finished most of the work but will your tiler do all the wall prep and arrange waterproofing and the plumber to work around your tiler? the only way to find out for sure is to ask the builder