@hummerd, Yes I believe you about the skylight but we have a truss roof design, which puts the room ceilings some 3m away from the actual roof and so a skylight that actually opens can't be installed in this bedroom or anwhere else in the home unles we had a cathedral ceiling, otherwise it would have been a simple procedure. Disapointed that we can't use this method but it's not to be!! A tube skylight is our only other option but we were wanting one that allows you to open and close an internal vent situated on the ceiling, as well as on the roof, our daughter has one like this but they aren't made anymore. It seems they are now only vented on the roof either permanantly or with a motor that allows you to manipulate the amount the vent is open. Price has now jumped from a standard $200 to at least $600+ and rising but none of these tube skylights have an ajustable vent in the ceiling which we would prefer. We will have to keep looking and thanks for your thoughts. Cheers, Barbara

Cloudyhaze....I think all of the options look good, but it just depends on the look you personally wish to have for your house, because painting the ceiling white will COMPLETELY change the look. My sister has just bought a place that had brick walls and exposed ceilings that had the beams painted mission brown and the ceiling was in some form of raw chipboard type material. She wanted to brighten the place up before she moved in and got it all painted white. It looks beautiful, but I personally would have thought of other options before painting the brick etc. She got a quote for plastering (sheeting) the sections in between the exposed ceiling beams and it was a lot more expensive than painting. If you are keen to paint just the panelling in the ceiling, then I would get additional quotes. I am no painter but I would suspect if it has shellac on it, it will just need an initial sealer on it, before putting on the 2 coats of flat ceiling paint. I think all of the options will look beautiful, because the high ceilings are the feature.........it just depends on whether you are going for a more rustic look, mid-century look , more modern look...I am not sure of what all the designs are called. Good Luck. Your house is gorgeous. My sister lives on Gold Coast BTW.

We are in the same situation as yourself. We ended up doing 2.5m basement, 3m ground floor and 2.7m top floor with .3m in between the floors as we also had height restrictions on what we could build. We are also building with slope to our land. Our basement has garages, games room and a bedroom in it and we felt that 2.5 worked. Hope this helps.

I would prefer to see both ceilings matched with shiplap, to help tie the space, we all tend to look up. This would also mean that the wall between both rooms can be removed and therefore make the room appear bigger, as the height of the ceilings in each room will make them appear smaller if the wall isn't removed