White-tail spider in my track suit pants WHICH I WAS WEARING! I thought it was a lump of lint from the laundry, drew it out, and promptly flung it across the room once I realised... never to be seen again! How it didn't bite me and sat still to be picked up, I don't know - it must have known I wouldn't do it any harm. We lived in lots of country places, too... We were invaded by small black crickets one year, and lady bugs, another year, in your drawers, in your hair, in your pantry, in your undies... everywhere! And then the blue tongue lizard that would go in and out with our dogs via doggie door, and made itself a nest in our laundry... I gave up and left some old towels for it. Had an echidna get up into the wheel well of our car... wild brumbies in our patio... the list goes on. My husband still says that the most unwelcome visitor was his mother... I like her better than he does!

@Karen Hodge, I hear you!! Sometimes I think the estate agent should carry quite a bit of the blame actually. If they do their job correctly like you see in the adds on TV, they should bring these discrepancies to the attention of the sellers, stand on their morals and say if you can't get it better than this, then you'll have to find someone else to sell your home!! I know you can't make everybody "house proud" but the saying "do unto others" springs to mind. I bet if these same people bought a house not up to scratch, "a current affair" would hear about it but they don't think it wrong to simply walk out on a house that isn't being left nicely for the next family!! I have some friends that recently sold a house in Essendon, Melb and whilst the buyers were back and forth selling their own home, my friends kept watering the plants and even did things like painted out the wardrobes because of the scuff marks made over time!! They cleaned the entire two storey house from top to bottom and finished by mopping the floors as they were exiting. The buyers were so taken by the entire home, they bought it with almost all the furniture that my friends had in it!!

emerald..don't know how you full time mum does it..I wouldn't be able to cope lol I only work part time and yet on the days I work I don't even look after myself properly lol. took the kids to Yum Cha today so I bought groceries at Melb Central before hopping on the train back .. just making a stir fry tonight..was going to have stir fried noodles..turned out my Hokkien noodles are expired..this is the reason why I don't buy stuff beforehand lol so will wing it and have with rice..one wok wonder with some scallops from the freezer.. my kids are easy they don't ever whinge about what I cook they know better..as sometimes I don't cook at all lol

Thanks for your congrats and comments guys! I would appreciate any advice about the rooms! I'll pop a pic of original kitchen so you can see. The things that stand out are probably the Ceiling Roses- those suggested lights are amazing. I would looove to get those for above the dining table. Budget might stop me though. Any suggestions for something less pricey? I have an industrial type cage cluster light I was thinking about (photo below) There is two sets of columns, maybe I could make the most of them buy painting them grey