Hi Brett, first off - well done for reaching out (without ego) and asking those that know and those that have tried and found results. If you are going with the brick veneer, the cavity is key to your moisture and thermal capabilities, after years within the house. Gyproc is not designed for anything but a 'skin'. If you increase thermal layer on the walls by asking he outer layer of the stud work with good quality silver sarking or Tyvek. Tape joints to eliminate vapour transfer to internal gyproc. Use 12.5mm gyproc on all external walls. OR Use 12.5 silver backed gyproc board on walls instead of previous. If coast effective -I would use this on the ceilings also. Principle being - isolate the internal breathing environment both thermally and other from the externals. Then deal with any ventilation or thermal issue by themselves internally. Look at why a house is designed, then go 100% better. The problem with roof voids is cold at night and heat in day, focus on high air barrier and high 'R' values here. Internally, consider + and -, as in, where it is cold-draw heat to it (South+ low) where it is hot, draw coolth to it (North & high). The result will be both continuos balance or equilibrium in comfort, thermally, energy and ventilation wise... Hope this helps : )

Hi Seren, You appear to have a very good grasp on the way forward for your new house, very exciting. As per normal the agents plans leave a lot to be guessed and with limited other info, like who's going to be living there, are you working from home, Aspect etc etc. You will and have already received a lot of interesting helpful ideas for your consideration, this will be helpful when you proceed with your chosen local Pro after having lived in the house for 6-12 mths to get a better understanding of the flow and use etc I would also like you to add to this. Butlers Pantries are a Fad and were originally built in house holds that had a Butler or employed some one to clean/cleanup for them. This space is much better to be included in the actual carefully planned kitchen, Laundry, I don't agree with it being combined with the current kitchen in that very small space, where do you put dirty laundry and baskets full of either clean or dirty, there's not enough floor space, so will make a very small kitchen even smaller Ensuite and WIR I don't think that they are a must, another fad, when your 3 bedroom 1 bath home was built they did the right thing with making the toilet separate to the bathroom to allow for better function. I love spaces that can be multi functional and I'am not talking about Media rooms. Bedrooms can be so much more and yours appear to be of good size but we won't know until correct measurements are taken. Bedrooms are great spaces to get away to with a comfortable chair or two to read and yep watch TV, these days they take up so little space and as I'am not the football loving kind it works for me. Home office Study, Don't put in your bedroom, horrible, that's why in my plan even though the space is small, I have suggested a separate Landry, a Pantry/Study/computer looking out into the rear garden. A pantry only needs a wall of narrow shelves to store appliances and food stuff in Containers, I don't want to stand in a Pantry doing dishes!. That's why we have open plan kitchen family rooms to spend time together, formal dining rooms aren't necessary. Yes, to remove walls is a bit more complicated than not having to, I have experience with this having helped remove a large brick wall in our Federation house to allow for a combined kitchen and family room which was the best thing we did. Hubby and a builder neighbour fitted the two steel RXJ's, I was on brick removal duty with a wheel barrow. ( We had a family engineer approve this work). There wasn't enough space to build out and have a pool, so we chose to go with a pool instead. Your house as far as can be seen appears to have a reasonable amount of land, so a connected Pavillion might be the best solution going forward to give you more space. Can't just allow the Pro's to make long Posts Take your time and keep us posted cheers

Definitely an attached garage is always a big plus, particularly in terms of value and resale "tick boxes".........which is one of the benefits of the concept I threw out there a few weeks back that involved developing the more logically oriented extension that connects the garage across where the pool is currently.............which obviously involves moving the pool or removing it for a period of time before it can then be potentially reinstated............ My professional opinion remains firm that for the long term investment that is the superior outcome, better spend and highest value-adding option for the property, even if it takes longer and costs more to achieve......budget limit is one thing, but equally you can spend a certain "budget" limit to simultaneously achieve a "more expensive" & lesser value adding result...........let's say you have a limit of $500K but budget aside the arguably best value concept is more like a $650K exercise. A compromised spend of $500K can be actually the "more expensive" option long term in comparison to a higher cost but higher value spend, that perhaps could be achieved in stages or over a longer period of time, say building first and then eventually finishing off landscaping. Rome wasn't built in a day and I've written before about the time/cost/quality relationship and how managing those one way or the other will influence the long term outcomes for a project, for better or worse....... We'll never tell people what they should or shouldn't want in their homes, but when it comes to resolving/identifying the most logical and profitable and balanced options/solutions for a certain outcome, well that's kind of the business that we're specialised in.............. I am also suspecting that there could be some misalignments/tension on the "client" camp/side (ie his wants vs her wants) of the process that is making it difficult to properly prioritise and robustly shuffle the various project variables........the "in limbo"/"going round in circles" is a classic symptom and ultimately requires resolution somehow.........

It's many years since we've had an eat-in kitchen, but my current renovation incorporates an eating area in the kitchen because, frankly, I'm tired of the extra work to carry things to and from the dining room and the extra cleaning created by always using the dining room even for casual meals for just two of us. We have had bar stools at the kitchen island, and the grandkids use them, but my husband hates them and refuses to eat at bar height or even at a lowered 'ledge'; on the side of the island. So my kitchen reno will include a table on one end of the island, at regular table height and large enough to seat 5 if necessary. There is a large sliding door to the veranda close to where that table will be positioned, so it should be a pleasant place for casual meals and I expect we'll eat most meals there. I'm so confident of that, I'm converting the dining room to more living space and putting our big timber dining table in the alfresco area, which will be semi-enclosed, with open parts security fly-screened. The dining area we use when we have guests will be super-casual, with a BBQ in one corner and swim spa in the other. I just don't see a purpose for formal dining anymore, especially living in a sub-tropical climate.