@Karen Hodge, I hear you!! Sometimes I think the estate agent should carry quite a bit of the blame actually. If they do their job correctly like you see in the adds on TV, they should bring these discrepancies to the attention of the sellers, stand on their morals and say if you can't get it better than this, then you'll have to find someone else to sell your home!! I know you can't make everybody "house proud" but the saying "do unto others" springs to mind. I bet if these same people bought a house not up to scratch, "a current affair" would hear about it but they don't think it wrong to simply walk out on a house that isn't being left nicely for the next family!! I have some friends that recently sold a house in Essendon, Melb and whilst the buyers were back and forth selling their own home, my friends kept watering the plants and even did things like painted out the wardrobes because of the scuff marks made over time!! They cleaned the entire two storey house from top to bottom and finished by mopping the floors as they were exiting. The buyers were so taken by the entire home, they bought it with almost all the furniture that my friends had in it!!

Have had high gloss and semi gloss Jarrah floors in previous houses and definitely didn't want them in the extension of current house. Went with satin finish on Jarrah. They did 1st coat with high gloss, as apparently this provides a more durable/harder finish, lightly sanded then final coat in satin finish. Very happy with result, doesn't show every spec of dust, smear or footprint like a high gloss, but fair warning if you have dog(s), unless they are very sedentary, the floors will still scratch over time.

Thankyou so much for all the feedback and ideas. I really appreciate you taking the time to look at it. Annb1997 here’s a photo looking around to the other side of the wall. We have a big sliding door which will provide a good view out to the pool. There is currently a tall bookcase on the other side of the wall but I will move that elsewhere (not in the dining room). I may buy a low cabinet to go on the other side of the wall for storage down the track. My main reason for wanting to see the pool is to be able to see my kids in the pool whilst I’m in the kitchen (washing up, cooking etc). Plus I like the idea of being able to see through to the dining room instead of it being a more ‘closed off’ room. To the right of the dining room is a lounge room. The dining room is about 3mx3m. Down the track we’d like to do further renovations (ie. new kitchen, new flooring which would need to be done at the same time) but that may be years away till we have the money. So I was trying to be practical I suppose, and achieve what I want for a smaller price. However, I don’t want it to look stupid . Juliahocking - interesting idea about the 30cm slots.... you’ve got me thinking... I think that might look good, but I think I want a better view outside. Oklouise - I hadn’t thought of a window. Do you think that would be a more modern way of achieving what I want?

Ooh lovely Bluesea sea, I think you could arrange them all together similar to these pic’s , add a few extra kitchen things like grinders etc, lovely love the glass dome