If the front of the house is west facing in Queensland and you have glass on that side of the house, in summer in the afternoon the sun beats down on this side for hours, heating up the whole house. There is some speculation on double glazing as some think that they do heat up, better than nothing. Once the sun hits the wall you are lost. These image are for north this is worst for west. A more passive means of cooling the house is to install tall enough thick leaves to the base trees on the western side so that they shade that elevation. Problem with that is that in winter, that sun would be nice. So you need trees that drop their leaves early winter and have them back on say September when the sun starts to heat up. Some trees hold onto their leaves till a few weeks before spring, so make sure you do your research and think root barrier up front to protect your footings. Photo below horizontal external shade screens, Another method is to shade the house with screens, i said house not windows. With western sun, it is low when it starts to clear the roof overhangs, so no amount of horizontal shade devices will make any real difference. The screens for western sun in Queensland must be of a vertical nature. So screens that hang OUTSIDE the house to around say 900 mm off the ground would be fantastic. Since the sun travels around the west from more south west in peak summer to west in winter, vertical blades tend to be ideal solution and should pivot, to deal with this moving sun. In the past, Queenslanders used to have these vertical screens on castors and they moved them around to suit the conditions, for some reason we did not learn from the past. This house the screens are not shading the walls at the bottom so they would still heat up. From the plans i see you are building in brick, so western sun and bricks in summer make an ideal oven. Takes bricks 12 hours to cool down depending on the colour. All material heats up in the sun, but bricks take longer to cool, light weight material which is properly insulated is a better choice and against popular opinion, glass is also a good choice, all better if vertically screened. Double brick tends to keep a house cooler and you might as well use the double brick for structure instead of the decorative nature of cavity brick house, but after a while that heats up and takes forever to cool. Studs hold up the roof, not the face bricks. Ever wonder why the house stands up during construction with stud wall and roof? Photo is vertical blades which pivot. A good landscape architect would be worth a look and they will know how to blend your style of house with the garden. North windows in Queensland even with no overhangs, (which is stupid in Queensland) do not get sun into the rooms, but in winter it might crawl in say 2 M which is nice. What are you doing with the roof and concrete tiles heat up nicely and the darker you make them the hotter they get, Colorbond is a good choice with all the hail we tend to get, or keep a stockpile of tiles for when they break. Colour also makes a difference to heat. Make sure you vent the roof space, whirly birds, and vented eaves or gable ends, make sure you fully insulate the roof and also ceiling, and choose a light colour. choose a style of external screens or trees to fit the house. See if that makes a difference to the report which is there to make your life better and we are talking the cost of air con for the life of the house, the reports are there to help save you money, maybe a bit more up front but worth it in the long running cost of a house. Ros

Hi. Good question from Gallifrey re ceiling height. I'm also wondering if you plan to install new fixture in same spot as the current ceiling oyster? And if you have your piano lid open most of the time? So height of light you are looking for is what? I like the idea of a Venetian chandelier, similar to the red one posted above. What about in black?

Clau2000 our manufacturer was in Melbourne, supplier in Canberra. Despite being happy with the product we really struggled with the level of service from the supplier. Quite frankly the business owner was rude, uncommunicative and very difficult to deal with and I would hesitate to recommend her business to anyone. At one point we contacted the manufacturer but he insisted we had to go through his ACT supplier and could not order directly from him (either us or our builder). Our first set of windows were installed on a westerly facing wall & get direct sunlight for the hottest part of the summer afternoon, they have been installed for 4 years and are showing no sign of deterioration. We went with E10 glass, double glazed and they do an amazing job of blocking the summer heat.

Thanks, it’s not so much mould as it is a bad smell. I have mould allergies but I haven’t been getting any respiratory symptoms. I agree though I don’t know what I’m doing so that’s why I come on here for advice. Now I regret the cabinets & will have to figure something out. The Kaboodle kitchens cost a lot more than the Ikea ones. Now I think the Ikea one was a waste of time. The $2000 did include the $500 hood range. I’ve found the cabinet maker rude and I’m disappointed now as I was so excited to get this done. It’s just hard for me to organise anything as I work a rotating night shift / day shift roster which is always changing along & I have insomnia. Going forward what recommendations would you have? Just pay the extra and buy a Kaboodle? I’m going to ask the cabinet installer if he can change the panels to matte (might be easy) he was a very rude made though and I’m not going to hire people off Gumtree any more. He demanded all the money up front when he hasn’t even put in the range hood which js not available in Ikea yet. He messed me around saying the cabinets would be delivered on two days when they weren’t without so much as letting me know, don’t wait around they won’t be there today. He ended up dropping the cabinets over the day before install. I will pay the extra and get it done properly next time to save the stress and so I won’t feel bad communicating my concerns to him.