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.

I have one of those Monika and I would venture to say that you wouldn't be able to cut it flat because with everything around everywhere having the waved top it would look really odd I think, and I doubt whether you would be able to paint it at least until the development is well over or you could find the developers all over you, along with residents who like yourselves have signed to agree to the covenants. A lot of people enter into these developments because there is a better chance of people looking after their properties however I will say that I am the only owner occupied in my part of the street, and I am forever weeding everyone else's garden, picking up the rubbish blown from the sea breeze on new builders not looking after their rubbish and the renters chucking empty beer bottles where they have sat on the steps drinking and throw the bottles into the garden and I actually water the rental alongside me as our gardens join, as yours probably does, and they refuse to water it. I want my place to look nice and if left to these renters it would look like homeless shelters. I think the tall pots and something like the black bamboo could look really good :)

I'm sorry to say that I have only negative input also. This floor plan does not look as though the house would flow at all. Have studied Interior Design & have been involved in a lot of house plans, but sorry to say I don't think you will be happy in the long run. You have a Laundry right at your front door. This is where all your visitors will be entering. You have no external door from your laundry , so will you be carrying clothes outside through the house or will be there be a door in the garage to the outside? Bedrooms 3 & 4 need to go through the rumpus room to get to the toilet and bathroom. You dont want bathrooms & toilets to be seen from your front door, its not a good look. Your bedroom quarters should all be grouped together with access to bathroom & toilet, so you dont need to go through other rooms to get to them. Your area of your kitchen and breakfast bar seems to be too narrow if you are intending to have bar stools across there with doors opening out to a deck. If your most beautiful views are along the south & west I would consider flipping the design. Try to get your designer to put all 4 bedrooms, bathroom & toilet on the East side and make that the bedroom wing. Make the rumpus room from the internal garage wall towards the west. Move your balcony from that same point and wrap it around your rumpus room with big bifold doors that open to one side. This will give you the views and entertaining space in & out. Move the laundry door from the front entry to where the cupboard is at the moment. Leave the garage/Laundry door where it is and seen if you could get cupboards for storage along that garage/laundry wall. In your kitchen area I would extend the doors on that balcony out which will give you more room for stools along the breakfast bench. Move your toilet to the back wall of your living room near the stairs. I know that wall is long but your designer should be able to fit in a toilet and basin comfortably and what ever area remains you could either make it into a wet bar for entertaining or inbuilt shelving and cupboards below? or maybe even the piano, which will not be in a walk way now but in nook overlooking the living area; where it can be used on special occasions. I would also do the same with the balcony as below and wrap it around the living room with big bifolds opening to one side which will give you that indoor/outdoor living space especially if you have the wonderful views you say towards the south/west. Get rid of you french doors leading into the living room and open up all the space so it feel airy and roomy. With the toilet gone from where it is, the piano moved and the balcony moved out a little, your walk way is opened up, there will be a better flow into your dining and library areas without walls and obstacles. You will get a much better view out from your kitchen area, (which lets face it is where you will spend a lot of time) as you will be able to see the views to the south and west whilst standing at the sink. Where as it stands now you have a toilet and french doors blocking the view from your kitchen.

we recently completed renovations on our home built in 1952 with kitchen, laundry and bathroom added in 1981...replacing all the windows cost about $30,000 plus labour, new architraves and painting, we did almost all the demolition ourselves although the legal removal of asbestos wall linings cost about $4000 and we also spent about $1000 taking other rubbish to the tip!.even in a carefully planned renovation there will will always be surprises..one unexpected structural beam cost $900 plus another $1000 to install.....i again suggest that you divide the house into sections and concentrate on completing the kitchen and living areas (with new windows etc) and then move on to the new bathrooms and bedrooms when funds allow