Thank you so much, Julie. I thought you would be interested in the end result, given how much encouragement and advice you so generously gave me. :-) I do love it. It has made such a difference and I think (fingers crossed) the landscaping will give it the finishing touch. We are reroofing the pergola, so will post photos when that is completed. The gazebo looks great after its facelift, too.

hi MB - I live in Sydney .. I designed my house in 1988 to be 'passive solar' - I looked at Louvres back then but chose Awnings bcoz the Louvres in 1988 did not have screens or Locks… I think if you lived somewhere really cold you get more benefit from 'double glazing'- but, these days the really cold Northern countries use 'triple glaze' and thermal energy... for you, opting for a few on your Northern side with deep eaves would be sensible A couple of years ago, I finally replaced my Block-Out Verticals with Plantation Shutters - the Plantations look great and when shut keep heat and cold out... the verticals did the same thing but the look was outdated and got ratty ….

A practical advantage of the long-side only design is that it removes the pesky corners/shelf produced by the bottom rail that collects dust. Big bonus with a white kitchen

I dont have exact measurements except for the kitchen it's around 3940mm long x 4870mm wide. The WIP and Laundry are behind the kitchen and that is the same length at 4870mm x 1510mm. The door in the WIP/Laundry is to the garage. The oven is either under the cooktop across across from the sink of could be a wall oven where the fridge is or on another wall. I'm trying to figure out layout of everything still kind of torn on whether to have an L-shaped or Broken L-shaped kitchen.