Okay, here's an update. It seems that the only 'recommended' product is fibre cement sheets as they will not absorb humidity. All the other brands mentioned above didn't recommend their own product when they found out it was going in the bathroom. Scyon and Hardiegroove were the options they recommended. I found providers in Brissy but freight was in excess of $250... Bunning had them in theory, but only for full packs (20 sheets) which was more than I needed so that didn't work either, but... then they told me they also have another brand 'Duragroove' which they did stock. To summarise: I think I will be getting: - Duragroove (http://www.bunnings.com.au/search/products?q=hardigroove) - Some kind of nice pine railing Thank you everyone for your comments/help and I hope this info helps you too Denise.

floor to ceiling seems to be the fashion but we've decided to keep tiles for our new bathroom restricted to floor, shower to 2200 to match top of architraves and splashback...much more economical as you could save about 10m+ tiles plus cost of installation (around $2000?) and we plan to use plainer tiles and add paint and/or wallpaper as the feature

And to answer your question siriuskey. Yes the front room has been opened out into a verendah. This room got really hot in summer so wasn’t working as another living space. We’re restricted to what we can change at the front of the house as we are in a heritage area. We can make changes without a DA if we don’t change the front of the house. Agree we can change a lot with a wooden house, but I think we’ll be restricted on reusing windows. All our casement windows are original glass from the 1930s so won’t be to modern building code. If we move them, they’re gone. However replacing with modern glass would bring more light into the home. We’ve put fans in all rooms and always have the French doors open in bed 2 so light and ventilation haven’t been an issue. Might become so if we put a moody teenager in there though!

then i'm wondering what you will be able to see through the window...if it's only a view of neighbours walls then i would not have a window but if there's a view of treetops or sky then you need to also consider the frame around the window as well as the size of the glass so i would aim for a fixed single pane in the bigger size ie at least 350 for the glass