Hi everyone, I know you have laid your turf now, but for others in a similar situation, I have found that 'Paspalum vaginatum' is a fantastic alternative to the buffalo and Couch varieties. Its non invasive, very shallow root systems and takes shade and full sun. As its is highly salt tolerant, its a great cost effective alternative around swimming pools and helps keep the temperature down around the pool, so kids can run around with bare fee. It looks fantastic in summer, doesnt get woody and looks pretty good throughout the winter months. Although I have no experience with fake turf I have heard that it can get very hot and smelly, making it difficult to enjoy for little feet during the hot summer months. Hope this helps :-)

I think if you replace front door and glass panels as well as the old fashioned lights with something more contemporary it will make a huge improvement. I'd also remove the ironwork and as you cannot re-glaze place some pots and plants on the sides of the large windows to draw the eye away from all the green cross pieces on the windows. Eventually paint the gutters fascia in a light grey/green.

We had one with the two little doors and pretend coal inside. After a few months the bulb blew, so we bought another, but seems the flame thing actually stopped working, not the bulb...the bulb although new, didn't get the flames working again unfortunately, as it was really really good! This was a portable one, 10 yrs ago, and we still have it, and use it for the heater. A wall one would look great! I think they are perfect for what you need...not naff at all. And cheap if you just run the flame and not the heat.

Daphnemaria, the cost was $12,000.00. That was for the veneering of the benchtops and splashback. I have a large kitchen and I had been given an estimate of an entire kitchen replacement, with polyurethane cupboards and engineered stone benchtops, of $38,000.00, not including stove and sink. As it was, I kept my existing stove and sink, but had I opted for an entirely new kitchen, I would have had to replace them, which would have added another $5,000-10,000 I suspect. So for my purposes, I think it was a reasonable cost, only took three days, with virtually no mess or disruption.