Didn't know anyone still did the free making on curtains anymore, but Spotlight do have a lot of sales on ready mades - it is just getting the size. Most of Spotlight's ready mades are thermal backed too, which could be practical for you, they do make a difference keeping the cold out, but I like to have a sheer behind as they do block out light. I liked the idea of a nice rich cream brocade and there is usually quite a bit of choice in that sort of thing. Loved your outlook too, looks lovely and peaceful. I do like colour through my home but not that much and I weave 3 or 4 colours through the house to tie it all together. Maybe Bunnings had a sale of wrongly mixed colours :)) I think you have done a great job downstairs, you have created a simple backdrop to let your furniture and furnishings shine and set the mood. No, I was talking ceramic tiles for the bathroom, I just had my bathrooms done and had the option of laying tiles over the existing tiles to save costs. I would only do it as a temporary solution, if you think you might redo the bathroom totally down the track, but I know others who have done it to save costs and the step hasn't been a bother, I guess it would depend on the tile you chose. I ended up with a bit of a step anyway because the tiles I chose were quite thick. Just trying to think of options for you. There are also outdoor carpets that might work, they used to be quite patterned, but if you like Persian, you might find something along those lines. Trying to think now where I have seen them. I'm wondering if Bunnings might have something.

Thanks guys, @Andy, I will be more than happy to keep everyone in the loop. Especially after everyone has contributed so generously. However, the reality is that we are in the very early stages of planning. Also, considering we are wanting to basically gut the house and renovate from top to bottom raising the funds will likely take time. Though I'm sure we will continue to return to this page and seek additional advise/suggestions moving forward. Oklouise, thanks for the floor plan. This will be very useful when showing a professional our/your ideas. A loft? That sounds expensive! Regarding changing from my beloved Hampton's style, we were thinking of keeping some elements from the original home. I.e the raked ceilings but white washing them. do you have an example of a modern mid century home? Siriuskey, ok you are making life way to hard for us now. You keep coming up with some fantastic ideas for the kitchen and my wife loves all of them! I agree with you about keeping those two front rooms. I think they are quite unique in the house BUT we really like Oklouise's floor plan which carves up that room into a WIP/study. Currently we are torn as we want to retain the room but love her floorpan. Life is just to hard! I do indeed like my barn doors! I think they are very cool indeed (not sure how quickly they will date), we were wanting to use one as the entrance to the WIP. I have attached another picture of an example kitchen style that I like.

Gas is for dinosaurs ;) I'd go an all electric house, electric oven, induction cooktop, RC A/C for heating/cooling (they are very energy efficient heaters), electric (or heat pump) hot water, bottle gas for the BBQ. Couple this with a large solar PV system (5kW inverter, 5-6kW panels) & you'll greatly reduce energy bills. Design your roof to accommodate this PV system (not a roof with a million little triangles). If you're around the Central Coast, a well designed house should require little to no active heating/cooling. It's all about getting the orientation right, & letting the sun do it's work, heating your house in winter, & shading it in summer. My parents apartment in Sydney is designed this way. They never turn the heater on, & they use the AC a couple of times a year, for an hour or two in hot summer nights. Designing with orientation in mind is called "passive solar design". More can be found here, http://yourhome.gov.au/passive-design Simply put, it's about locating your living areas to the north, where they will be heated by the sun in winter, & minimising western windows, which overheat a house on summer afternoons. Unfortunately you have a northern frontage, which limits your scope to locate living areas facing north, but I'd still consider locating an additional living space to the north, in lieu of the master bed. I'd at least remove the northern portion of the verandah, as it will eliminate any winter sunshine from entering your home. An appropriate length eave, which admits winter sunshine, while shading summer sun, is a much better idea. With an interesting roofline you could have north facing clerestory windows, which would allow northern sunshine deeper into your house. Your other major concern would be west facing windows. West facing bedroom windows are a particularly bad idea, making bedrooms unbearably hot on summer evenings. So I'd consider flipping the back section of the house, locating the bedrooms on the eastern side. The bathroom would take the brunt of the western sun in summer. As would the rumpus, which is not ideal, but it's better than western bedrooms. Shade any western windows with vertical awnings, trees or use low-e glass. I'd actually consider flipping the whole plan, also locating your living area & verandah in the west. This verandah will then shade your house from harsh afternoon sun. Of course other things must be considered. Views, privacy, access to cooling breezes, whether your outdoor living area will be comfortable to be used on hot summer evenings, just to name a few.

DB.....A LOT of ideas and advice flying around here.......skimming through I see you are endeavouring to establish a basic concept for a designer/architect to consolidate for you, which is great.......whilst you may think this is a logical approach to achieve the best outcome, you are arguably just throwing around random ideas rather than properly resolving/focusing on the critical aspects ........my advice is do this: firstly clearly ascertain two things on paper, not in plan or building format but in writing...that is 1. List all your requirements/needs/goals and 2. Nominate a budget. Next, identify/research a logical local designer/architect option and approach them with this information....A designer's job is to come up with an appropriate concept/solution that best balances your requirements, aligned with a budget and of course make it viable within context/site. Sure, you want a cost effective/modest result, that's fine, and that will influence the solution, but as a general comment it feels like there is massive potential being missed considering the site..it dens;t necessarily have to be that big or fancy, but you have to put the EXPERIENCE of the home front and centre of the process, and not just think of it as a kitchen or whatever laid out this way or that ....This is about an amazing site and the living experience of that and the design should be based on this and bring together your specific requirements elegantly balanced in context......The issue I have scrolling through all this is that you have all these almost disconnected ideas of building form, but you have this incredible site....... the process of resolving the spaces ideally needs to develop from cues of the immediate environment/site in order to make the most of it since you are pursuing a customised solution.....agree with MB, every project has a budget and ultimately from experience this is in general the ultimate/overriding constraint. This project could be anything upwards from $500K and it will come down to the working out how far you want to take it, and what your priorities are over various levels.......this one has seriously significant potential -make sure you make the most of it as you're truly fortunately to have this opportunity to build a home for you and your family to enjoy there.......best of luck :) PD