Although, I love soft, pale, barely there yellow, the canary (egg yolk as I call it) yellow is just too garish. I do like the mint green and I'm finding lots of sites that are showing myriad options in décor for it now. I imagine it's one of those "get it while it's hot" colors but it's a beautiful one to me. I've used the hot pink in much smaller doses for my daughter's room when she was little but I doubt I would use it in large quantities. I also deal with blue best in small doses.

For a rental, I would look at creating a car park where the front lawn is. off street parking is a bonus in most area, it might also be used as a turn in so you don't have to reverse out of that driveway. And maybe set it up as somewhere to store the wheelie bins too. Also I would take a good hard look at that massive tree in the front corner, and any other trees near the house. The roots may have caused the existing structural problems, and if so would create issues with a new build. Finding a decent property manager and excellent tenant would be my priority though. If you are in a popular location and asking fair money then you may not need to do much. While a buyer cares about cracking brickwork, a tenant won't care as long as it doesn't leak. Maybe defer spending on the home until you have a tenant, in case you can claim the expenditure on your tax- seek professional advice on this one.

I've been playing around with a pantry location. Originally, I was going to move the pantry into the laundry with some custom shelving and cut the laundry space in half. Now, Im thinking of cutting into the study area and building a wall there, and converting the new space into a long and narrow walk in pantry. Either that or build half a wall and put built in shelving in the study. Building the extra wall will reduce the need to cover in the door way that is currently in place and instead utilising it. Thoughts? p.s. this isnt too scale.

Hi again Kate, Thanks. The 'white' in the kitchen tiles is actually a cream colour. Photos don't always reveal the true colour. But I like your idea. I think I'll keep the same colours in the kitchen as they work well; they just need a refresh. I do love white, and I'm still inclined to go with white in the other rooms, with perhaps a cool or warm undertone on the walls and a lighter white for ceilings. On the elements at home site, http://elementsathome.com.au/2013/02/12/how-to-choose-your-white-paint/site it talks about and shows the difference between cool whites (slight blue/grey undertone) and warm whites (red, yellow undertones). I think I'm leaning towards cool whites as the lounge, dining and bedrooms have good size windows so a fair amount of natural light. I have a lot of bright art and pottery on display in all rooms so I think this would add colour in the rooms against the whiteness. Thoughts?