Miranda You appear to be making all the right choices in life. I will be a little bit presumptuous by offering some advice on helping you to raise your child in touch with nature in this age full of all the electronic lures that keep the kids indoors. or, when outdoors, glued to a small screen, rather than the glory that surrounds them. I am writing a book about landscape architecture and have a section regarding the importance of embracing nature in the preschool years. - which I would like to forward that section to you. However, my computer skills are limited to email and US Mail. I don't even know how to attach a picture to the text. If you would like to receive this draft from my future book, send me your email or postal address, and I'll get it right off to you. My email is cascio.offsite@gmail.com Good luck with your new challenges and opportunities. Joe Cascio

Hi Linda, Sorry to hear you are at your witts end. So dissapointing when you have such a negative experience of what should be a wounderful and positive experience building or renovating. Don't let it get you down too much, it shouldn't be too hard to get the rail changed if you explain to your builder that you are very dissatisfied with the rail and that you want it changed to a shape that's more appealing. Don't get yourself flustered but be firm, male builders at times think that woman are dumb and anything will do and that is sooo wrong on sooo many levels!!! My builder is hubby and althought he doesn't consider me dumb, he wouldn't want to ha-ha....but he does have that "it will be fine mentality" that I have to constantly keep in check but we work together real well and laught about pretty much everything and how he's not having anything to do with building my kitchen that he jokingly says he can do with a chainsaw just to stir me up ha-ha. Keep in touch. Cheers, Barbara

Thanks for all the ideas siriuskey - I like being challenged with some left field ideas I hadn't thought of before. For colour schemes we're thinking of a white marble Caesar top with warm white laminate cabinets on the island, then charcoal laminate cabinets against the wall. For splashback we're thinking a high gloss white caesar. This is all just our initial thoughts and we'll probably get the colour consultant back to help us refine those plans and tell us where we've gone wrong :) With regards to getting the rangehood in over the island, I don't think I could swing the industrial look first idea, but the roof-mounted box to bring it down closer to the island top could work. Mounting some downlights into it as well should make lighting more effective too! I'm also warming to your idea of wrapping the cabinetry around onto the return wall and housing the ovens there. It does mean they're a fair hike away from the fridge, but it gives us a LOT more cooktop space which more than likely outweighs spreading the "triangle" out so far. So much to think about! I'm loving all of the ideas though :) I've been thinking of building some seating into the bay window (we've had a couch JAMMED into our bay in the lounge room and its a messy look) so maybe a banquette seat (never knew thats what they're called haha) would work. I just need it to sit relatively low-profile against the wall so that it doesn't make the gap between the seat and island too tight to get through.

Hi Linda As Oklouise has said above, there are standards for the height range (riser) and the depth (going) along with a maximum pitch of the overall staircase (2R+G). It is a concern that you have fallen twice and we only ask as the photos aren't clear as to the proportions. It's no issue if you don't want to provide them. That said, if the going dimension is short then you are always coming down the stairs with the back half of your foot only. Regarding slippage, most flooring companies are not supplying nosings as the slip ratings can usually be achieved with high build coatings eg the Duragrip PLUS. This could probably be applied straight to your stairs as they are with a bit of a buff up first. Regarding the handrail, we have done curved handrails up and around these sort of staircases. I would suggest it would be money well spent in having the existing rail extended up and around the corner for safety so that the place where the steps are most tricky has a firm support. As it sits now you only have an end to hold onto. Cheers