Do you have the list now from the builder of ALL the things they want to approve at the meeting? If not, get it - take a week off work, delay your meeting and research like mad! You need to see everything in real life, not a picture, if possible - so go to the company's stockists - and see what other options are available. (Your builder won't accept too many ideas from stockists that aren't his own. I held out for a bath with an armrests and a headrest - but pick your own battles!) Look at every room on Houzz - laundries, lounges, mudrooms (especially since you're in the country), kitchens, bedrooms, study/home office - and check it against your list. You will be asked to decide on things you never knew existed - bullnose (rounded) or flat edges on your kitchen benches, for example? Cornices, architraves, doorstops for goodness stake (for some reason, our builder went with silver doorstops - we went with gold). My experience is that just about every default option a builder puts in for you is wrong . . . go armed with your own pictures, brand names and numbers. (Yes, I want the IZ450, not IJ320.) If the builder has some display homes, make sure you look at all of them (top of the range to bottom of the range) for ideas. For a country house, maybe consider half-panelling on the walls in the kitchen and maybe dining and lounge rooms, or some ceiling roses (yes, you can still get them) to give an old-style feel to the room (and you'll need rounded cornices if you go for the ceiling rose). Honestly, this is the most exhausting, draining and stressful part (well, apart from signing the cheques). But the effort you put in now will be well rewarded. And I think Hamptons and French Provincial style are mostly white or white-ish? So Barbara's colour recommendations are spot on. PS Have you asked for hidden drawers behind the kickbacks in the kitchen?

@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!!

yes Wuff it was extremely upsetting. I used to go to my car after every visit & cry & cry! My little guy is the apple of my eye & just the most fun lovable thing that even people who don't like dogs warm to. He's so used to being with people & having people fuss over him.Not the girls at quarantine though! You could see in his eyes he couldn't understand what he'd done wrong to be locked up & shunned & he used to howl & cry whenenver I got up to leave. The last week he was there he stopped eating. My 2 cats were rescues. My Maine Coon, Mr Bubba Coon was dumped at San Diego County Animal Shelter because he was the runt of the litter & deemed to be not big enough to be saleable. It was the height of the GFC. I brought him back to Sydney with me. My other guy, Spooky Cat is black & he & his sister were dumped at a vet in Five Dock here in Sydney aged 4 weeks. He stayed locked up in a cage at the shelter until he was 16 weeks old as black cats & tortys are the hardest cats to find a home for. When i took him home he just sat on the couch for a week because the concept of being free to walk about wherever he wanted was so foreign to him. He is the sweetest, loveliest little guy with beautiful yellow green eyes.

We have two cats that are indoor pets. Sadly the male took a jaunt outside and got a few sctratches and tears from a large neighbour cat. He began territorial peeing on any cushion, stray coat, laundry basket, no matter it was on top of a piano or speaker or even a bed. Our piano varnish ruined, so very much washing.. (Thank God for Nature's Miracle). Now we have to keep him incarcerated in the laundry area which has an enclosed porch and cat tree and so forth. He comes in for supervised visits and we take him outside every other day to run and play. When we move we will be planning an area specifically for him. It's so sad as we never would treat him like this if he could break the habit, but we've tried everything and he's hooked like an addict. He isn't as happy as he used to be.