Hello Please make sure you design a floor plan that suits the orientation of your site, works in connection and flow, and creates spaciousness with decent storage, light and volume, and great indoor/outdoor connection. To be perfectly honest, it won't matter very much what you clad it in or what the roof is doing if you don't achieve this. I am so saddened to read on this thread that homeowners are having to do certain work to 'take back the reigns' from their designers. Architects and other professionals can forget that it's your home, your budget, your life. A professional should expand your ideas and add value to your plans and dreams for your home with their expertise. Unfortunately this doesn't always occur. Perhaps find a designer who can work collaboratively with you in this way. Even if you're building a small budget home, chances are you're still spending a big investment for you. It doesn't cost anymore to build a wall in the right place or the wrong place, and in my experience, the money you spend on the right professional saves you money in the long run. Invest in some advice upfront so you make a difference in the outcome you achieve. That's what helps you create a home that works and makes your life better, Regards Amelia Lee www.undercoverarchitect.com.au

Also love the buffet....it could be the "hero" of the room. It is beautiful and they are so hard to come by at a reasonable price. I have a much cheaper style mid century buffet and initially had the TV on top of it, but now the TV is wall mounted above it. The distance between the wall and the couch wall is about 4m and we have no issues with the TV being too high...you definitely need to factor that in if you wall mount it though...luckily I had a handyman friend helping me, otherwise I would have put the TV too high. With the TV being mounted, it actually makes the buffet more of a feature and anything that is put on the buffet is now "displayed" instead of being part of clutter with the TV. It looks great and I know yours will too if you wall mount the TV. That is the great thing about the mid century buffets...they seem to fit in just as well as modern furniture as they do with the classic furniture....and because your is "classic", it will never date...a great investment.

If you have the time I would fix it. Tiling, etc. (& bathrooms in general) are expensive and its almost impossible to fix down the track when you get sick of looking at it.... you will look at it every time you have a shower and say to yourself, why did I not just fix the bloody thing!

Hi oklouise The sad part is the existing bathroom is beautifully finished! This whole house was well finished and really well built. It was sad to have to demolish things that were so well done, but the design problems made changes necessary. The bathroom has porcelain wall tiles floor to ceiling on all walls and a white polished porcelain floor (slippery as all hell, and a mongrel to keep the grout lines clean!) is laid over a full 300mm+ of solid concrete, under which are all the drains. Outer walls are 200mm of reinforced solid concrete. Tiles on internal walls are over cypress timber frame with generally two layers of lining glued, screwed and nailed on - and there is way more timber in the frame than necessary. I think the builder (who built it for himself) thought the house would last forever and would never need to be changed in any way. Exact distance from external door to wall is 1.1m on both vanity and shower side. The door combination is 1200 wide and placed dead center. It's worth noting that 300m on the vanity side of the door is full-length frosted glass panel and it's possible to infringe a bit on that area if absolutely necessary, provided there's enough room for the door to swing safely (as it swings toward the vanity. I will take some photos now and share.