I'd suggest framing it out and using it as a window seat. A carpenter could get that done in half a day. Anchor the frame to the wall, get a custom cushion made and fill it with some cushions and you have a beautiful space to read. Bonus is the minimal cost.

The conifer (blue-green) isn't doing too well but the star jasmine looks as though it just wants a bit of liquid fertiliser for extra nitrogen. It should then flourish and fill the boxes and you could then keep it clipped in a formal shape. It's pretty forgiving and you could prune it back if you don't like it sprawling, and give it a feed after. You could try cliveas, dark strap leaved plants that look rather like agapanthus, except they have fantastic orange flowers about now, and tolerate dry shade. Their dark green leaves look good all year round.

Hi Louise, hope you are settled in your house now, it looks lovely. Having lived in a house with a west facing living area I'm sorry to say your rooms will get very hot over summer and even if you install air conditioning you will still need to minimise the sun and heat coming into the house to save on electricity. Stopping the sun reaching your rooms is the ideal but outdoor blinds can look ugly so ultimately it comes down to looks -v- comfort. Thermal blinds or curtains will help keep the sun and heat out considerably but they do darken a room as well. Fans will help with air circulation but you do need cross ventilation to help the house cool itself especially if you get breezes off the water. I think your bedroom would be enhanced by a covered deck to add some character to the house too and this would certainly help with the sun in that room. Another tip is the colours you use in these rooms will help improve the look and feel of the room, I found soft blues or aquas made a huge difference with a lot of white for freshness. Neutral colours for some reason just did nothing and made the rooms look and feel hotter.

So we've decided to break up the front steps and have them going to a landing level with a planter box and then continuing downin front of planter box (hopefully you can work that out from plan). Given straight lines not going for curved crazy paving but more traditional paving although broken up with plants. It's Canberra climate and East facing but because of large pin oak in street its not very sunny so looking for shade tolerant (so thinking maples rather than crab apple and crepe myrtles). She has a feature pot with a cycad and I'm not so sure that's my cup of tea for a feature plant so would be interested in alternative and I also don't really want a water feature as I find them a bit naff (and husband convinced the maintenance not worth it).