Thanks Chookchook, but in fact the house is terribly designed and there isn't much choice. We have a single living area that is approximately 6 metres x 4.5 metres. The north wall (long side) has a bank of French doors placed centrally, with clear wall space of 1 m on the east and west ends. The east wall (short side) is a full wall of built in bookcases over cabinets, built around a doorway into our entry hall. The south wall is approx 3.1m long, and clear, currently holding artwork. The rest of it is a triple width doorway into the dining room. The west wall is the fireplace with wood heater insert. Mantle is 2.5m long and 1.1m high. There is about 1m clear either side of the mantle that currently holds wall sconce type lighting. The television, a rescued 50 cm old school CRT-style beast, with accompanying ugly digital set box top and DVD played sit in a pine corner wall cabinet in the north west corner. We have a horrid, old, modular lounge suite in the south east corner. It covers all the cabinets below the bookcase between the south wall corner and the doorway into the entry hall. As farmers only just starting to financially recover after 12 years of drought, and our kids finally finishing school and heading off into the real world, I'm just starting to find enough cash to paint rooms. Re-finishing the timber floors is next on my list. But in the mean time, the boys think they deserve a flat screen, and in reality, they do. But how?

I'm in the process of leveling off my backyard (1 in 8 slope roughly) using a mixture of heron blocks, pavers and turf. Had to deal with red heavy clay that was under the existing topsoil that came out of the cut excavation. As others have said, gypsum is your friend. I would also recommend a thick geofabric over disturbed areas that you might not be covering for a while but you still need to traffic. Just use tent pegs to pin it down. Works wonders especially over clays during rain, minimises dust and keeps a good moisture content of the clay. Get a heap of good topsoil delivered from a landscape yard. Be sure to go and check it out first tho - feel it in your hands and smell the organic matter to decide what you like. In term of trees frangipanis will look great in the warmer months as a screen - flowering and very leafy, in the winter they will drop leaves and won't screen much. I have a fairly large one at the front of mine and i really like it - I Would recommend planting elsewhere in the yard. I don't know much about trees but i hear lillypillies establish and grow fast and screen well. Good luck

Looking at both these pics (last post), I think the bottom selections are better. Ashland is a great option to go with, as it has warmth to it, then go with a light grey, maybe Godfrey Hirst carpet - Golden Bay Cockle (It's a 55oz, but this colour does come in lighter weights). Remember that furniture doesn't always stay around as long as flooring, so if something tends to clash with the furniture now, that may not be the case in 5 years. Go with your gut feel. I can guarantee you will absolutely love the Karndean product once installed. As Houzzers, it's not always easy for us to know the aspect or layout of your home in relation to sun etc etc.

Hello, thank you for your response. For some reason the site defaulted to the Australian discussion forum when I posted but I just went with it anyways and didn't think much of it. I understand your point about different perspectives in different countries though, thanks. I know this is all based on personal preference but I like either option of so I am looking for some other opinions. The developer has been very helpful with the different options and we plan to speak to some other local professionals as well. We have seen the materials in person (except for cabinets) in very small sample sizes and all of the colours seem to compliment eachother but for the purpose of this post a digital photo was the only option of course.