I disagree re the ugliest house comment - I think it's got fantastic potential! Great 'bones', as they say. :) It's a very similar colour scheme and brick to our house (coastal Vic), and we had a similar dilemma when we moved in - young kids (one income!), little money to spend on the house, but a loathing for the terracotta tiled roof and the charming pale yellow of all the trim and weatherboard in fills. First of all, don't consider rendering or bagging the bricks - it's bloody expensive and they're really not that offensive - instead, try to work with them to make the colour scheme more modern - in our case, our bricks have flecks of darker charcoal in them, so we used that and simply tried to make the new colour palate a bit more 'natural' and less 1990s cream/yellow. We ended up painting our window frames and roof (which was terracotta - and it's a very prominent feature of our house, so really had to be dealt with) Colourbond Stone - a much more natural colour that still toned well with our bricks, the guttering, downpipes and front fence Woodland Grey (the darker colour helped to kind of ground the whole look without being too dominant) and our weatherboards Paperbark (a paler neutral complimentary to the Stone). We've been really happy with the change - the bricks now seem like more of a rustic feature and everything sits better in the landscape. In terms of other changes to your place, this is what I think you should consider: It looks at the moment as though the entry path to the house is via the driveway? This kid of makes the house feel a bit lopsided. I think it could be more balanced if you consider building out a small enclosed entry and orient the front door to the side (towards where the garden is now) - I think a side facing entry provides more privacy to the house. (in saying this I'm kind of assuming that you've got internal access from the garage into the house? Otherwise it would kind of make the trip from the garage into the house a bit of a drag... If you don't, perhaps you could make the new entry dual access - one door from the garage side and the main entry from the garden side) Build a small deck from the new entry - you could wrap it around the corner a bit, make a nice feature of it (I'm all for curves and more interesting things than straight square lines - helps to soften a big rectangular house like this one) Keep a small garden where the existing one is (perhaps just update your plants - if you're coastal NSW, perhaps consider a nice feature tree like a frangipani with some lower complimentary planting) - and also plant a new garden along the front of the new enclosed entry - so the entry and the edges of the deck are softened by garden. New entry path to front door through the large lawn expanse - separate the pedestrian access from the drive. Keep the surface to natural textures / materials - anything too hard will take you back to that 1990s feel. Border with some nice plantings. Relocate letterbox to front of new path. I'd perhaps make the path a bit of diagonal - not straight from the front fence - or curve it a bit - something to help balance the big frontage taken up by the garage door and align the house for the new entry. Play with the path shape/route before you cut it using that landscaping spray. The right hand brick expanse on the house is quite dominant at the moment - could you make a feature of this somehow - interesting lighting to break it up or we have put some wall art up on our similar spot (in our case two wrought iron geckos as we have lots of resident blue tongues, but you could pick something that speaks to your locality or other preferences). I'm happy to share some photos of our place and the changes we've made if that helps you - just not on the right computer to access the pics today. I must admit one of our biggest frustrations in looking for inspiration on what we could do is that there seem to be limited examples of houses from this era in Australia and how they have been updated sympathetically. Everything is always - render, render, render and slap on a colourbond roof - it all gets rather boring and the same. I say try and be a little more creative and work with what you're got. :) Good luck and have fun!! :)

think about fencing some hard floored area with a simple baby gate (available on kmart, target, bigW and on line) ...if he has his favourite bed and toys in the temporary goal, combined with strict regular training and walks he will eventually get the message but you must always respond positively when he does and make a restricted space so accidents only happen in a restricted area...i know our dogs are special but they're quite happy in a small space all day as long as they know they can expect your attention and a walk when you arrive home or, weather permitting, a morning walk is even better and they can sleep all day...I was never happy to allow my dog to be left outside alone as they can have injuries (especially if you have tempting rodents to chase) and a special dog like Mace might be tempting to a thief..keep him inside unless you're outside with him

Hi Sarah, I completely sympathise with your situation and very sorry to hear about it for you. You're in a complete mess with this. As a Pro it's super frustrating to look on and hear of these stories because 100% this is so easily avoided with the right approach and astute investment in using a competent design professional. I've lost count of the number of times I've had people eventually come to find us, but in a bit of state/heads done in/in a shemozzle of a situation, after spending time/(sometimes years) and money getting nowhere, being disappointed with higher than expected quotes etc yet still pretty much back exactly where they begun with no logical plan forward.........sound familiar? The common thread is lack of alignment or management of expectations of Project budget to Project brief relationship. And that's why we have a job as professional designers - we develop solutions for specific needs, balanced within context and balanced within constraints, the biggest one always being budget. You just can't bypass this process and expect to get good results. And you won't achieve it effectively on a Houzz forum. Hopefully though a few of our Pro responses will help steer you in the right direction. Unfortunately people think it's a good way to save money on their projects to not pay for design - it's actually quite the opposite. There's no easy answer here of say "move the kitchen there, flip that over, change this or that" etc unfortunately you're back to the drawing board....and you're best to accept the time and money put in so far is actually part of the process and your particular journey. This reminds me of a project years back where clients came in asking me to tweak and draw up a design that someone else had done - they already spent $40K and had a planning permit for it but there were big budget problems - it was clearly/unfortunately a poor & inefficiently resolved design beyond budget (similar to yours) & I could visualise a much better alternative solution. So I convinced them to move on, toss it all away and we go back to the drawing board - I'd redesign it from scratch much better and better value/cost effective overall - they reluctantly agreed and that's exactly what I did. Fortunately they did themselves a favour knowing deep down that they had to go backwards to go forwards. I designed and delivered a far better, less expensive and more impressive home. that they are eternally grateful for, and for my honesty and advice at the time that was ultimately in their best interests. Like always, with all projects, it ALWAYS comes down to money.........so their success relies predominantly in the design solution..... I'll try and keep it simple: 1. Design is a process of balancing requirements within context within constraint/limits 2. Good design decisions involve having understanding of cost/budget consequences 3. the above points are primarily what distinguishes design professionals from amateurs 4. It's therefore false economy trying to DIY design and/or pursue projects of this scale as Owner Builder unless you (a) have a passive income (b) significant construction experience (c) a flexible budget and are just in it for a hit & a giggle So our Advice: Seek Professional Design assistance How we manage these types of projects is by starting with clarifying the project brief in writing - forget about the floor plan - define and specify your brief requirements and goals and define the budget. The next step is to look at broad form options that we develop in a "Feasibility' stage of service in which we analyse the context, identify some logical options/variations of format for a nominated project scope relative to context and apply accurate construction cost projects to each to compare. So in your case we'd be looking at answering the critical questions of in what particular format can we best meet the requirements? Is it with an extension, or hybrid alterations&additions, do we go up, down or out, what are the cost differences and pro's and cons to the different configuration options, how much should we renovate, how does the investment one way or the other stack up in regards to property value? Is it actually better value to do more than less (more often yes!) Is staging/breaking up a project into parts beneficial or proven to be less cost effective? So many questions that need professional assistance and experience to answer to get the best outcome for you and your family. It's not easy business........Labour cost these days is the killer on renos - if you don't know what you're doing (ie understanding how certain design decisions translate to X cost) then you've got no hope in balancing the numbers to success................ Apologies for the long winded response! Hope this helps Sarah. Trust us, we know what we're talking about. Happy to provide further advice/assistance if you'd like to contact us directly Kind regards, Paul Di Stefano Paul Di Stefano Design www.pauldistefanodesign.com

My house is also built at the top of a hill, the summit and is cut into a cliff. We bought it, it was built in the 90s and the orientation is entirely wrong. The living areas face west and all bedrooms are in the east. The master is exposed to the western and the northern sunshine. It’s nice in the winter and entirely unbearable in the summer. The same goes for my living room. We take extra long holidays in the summer to avoid being at home. The home had no insulation in ceilings, and raked ceilings. So the first thing we did was remove the roof sheeting install battens to create a cavity and installed R3.5 insulation. We are also upgrading installing new windows to upgrade the glazing on the western windows and looking to put insulation in all the walls It also gets really windy, so windy. So I understand your concerns. When it gets windy the entire house shakes. So the next thing will be to improve the bracing. There is a 3-4metre clearance under our home for storage. We could do a build in under. Even with the positioning of our shed and close proximity to the home it does little to shelter from the wind. We are considered the building an “outdoor room” which would act as an alfresco with skylights, lounge, pool and kitchenette that could act as an outdoor entertainment area when weather permits. I just did a sustainable design for a client nearby. I am so jealous of her amazing home. Her land is smaller then my land and her land cost the same price as my house and land. So I am grateful for what I have.