Hi Tina, thanks for posting, it is all looking great. Shame about the panelling, but sometimes these things happen for a reason. It is great the armoire matches the doors so well when they are all on one wall, but I don't think you need to have the bed and side tables matching, especially when they are on another wall. My issue with painting furniture, while I love it, is the maintenance. It does chip over time and becomes one more thing to paint. I don't know what the timber is in your furniture but another possible option, especially to give you the coastal vibe is to lime it. To do this successfully, you will need to sand all the existing stain off it and go back to the raw timber. The darker the original timber, the less limed look you will get so bear that in mind too. I did an old bunk bed up that had seen better days, for my grands bedroom. It was a dark red wood, but with 4 coats of stain I got the look I was after which was that driftwood/coastal look. The whole thing looks totally new again. Sorry I can't post a photo as this function no longer works for me. Have a look at the Feast Watson range of liming stains, they have some gorgeous soft colours as well, but they let the timber show through rather than having the solid painted look. It is a very easy product to use, it dries quickly - I did the 4 coats over 2 days effortlessly. The hard work is in the sanding.

Hi again, thanks everyone for your input. I have been to a well known window/door manufacturer today which makes aluminium, timber and alu/timber composite to compare all options. It was a local company also so they were able to advise based on knowledge of our climate. The composite was higher in price but was also too contemporary in design, the aluminium was also too contemporary in design and not all options suitable for double-glazed glass, so we have returned to the idea of the solid timber but have taken all the advice on board and are opting for a pair of hinged french doors with sidelights in size to match and fanlights above so we can still retain the overall height and look but the actual doors will be closer to standard 2100mm height. Hopefully this will also eliminate any difficulty with opening them which we would probably have found had we had a bi-fold system or 2.7m door height. FYI the salesperson I spoke with also advised that there is a product available (sold in our local area from Inspirations Paint company) which when applied to the timber doors/windows gives 7 year protection from rot and fading due to rain and UV. He had used this himself on his own timber doors which were also exposed fully to the weather and highly recommended it - so I will post what this treatment is when I have more information on it. Thanks again everyone who helped out with their advice

HI again! I've spent the past few days visiting far flung industrial estates to look at where the CarbonLite product is manufactured and my friend's double/triple glazing factory. (I, too, am more comfortable with the panelised wall/floor/roof systems than modular, after visiting the Modscape factory...which was very impressive but ...not for me). On my travels I was a bit disappointed to find that the CarbonLite walls in the factory, ready to go out for construction, were not made with the 'recycled PET bottle' insulative layer but with glass wool batts. Also, some of my queries couldn't be addressed due to a lack of technical knowledge on behalf of the person I made a time to speak to at the factory. The fellow I spoke to the day before, who has a potentially rival business, was extremely knowledgeable and I'm hoping to work with him towards costing our house, which is still in the design phase. Our site has excellent views to the south east which is what got me thinking about triple glazed windows and now I have fallen down this rabbit hole of new ways of thinking... Nevertheless, I have become much more interested in the Passive House concept and intend exploring further to see if 1. we will be able to afford it 2. if we can find a skilled, Passive House certified builder for South Gippsland and, 3. if we can work out whether it is just a bit of a fad that may be overkill in Australia! Do you think Passive House is here to stay? I'm trying to reconcile the passive solar/passive house principles- I've been so bound to the idea of thermal mass it's a hard one to let go of! However, i do prefer not to live on a concrete floor! Having just read 'dreamer's' link I think I may have been bedazzled by the triple glazing fairy dust rather than our reality of not being millionaires! Habitech looks interesting but I think it comes with the external cladding and i don't love the versions I've seen so far... I am completely in agreement with you regarding designing a house with the space you need rather than building some voluminous thing with space to burn, just for the sake of it! Ridiculous and irresponsible on a planet that is already using up far more resources than is sustainable over the not-much-longer term.

Like macyjane , I'd be interested to see an external view . When I look at the interior pics , particularly the one that says 'Live' on the top corner , the front door and surround only works because of the ceiling IMO , and even then the door and surround stain is a bit dark to really get the tie in . My worry is what the mix in external styles looks like . To a certain degree , as owner and occupier you can simply think 'I like it and thats all that matters' , but to me it also needs to look okay on the outside too . And even with the interior shots , for a full comparison it would have been interesting to see the before shots with the blinds wound up ( or the after with the blinds lowered ) -- basically , comparing like with similar , rather than different with different .