@midesign0401, Hi Megan, yes it is heaven, I take a look at it all and sigh in happiness!!! As for the house, there's a bit of money to go ahead but this is now our busy time of the year, as we are hay contractors spending many many hours in tractors. However, I intend to get onto the next job ASAP which is laying the sill tiles around the veranda. It's a bit of an old fashioned look but these tiles will protect our limestone bricks from water stain when it's raining constantly in winter. The water will run off the sill tile and drop just a little shy of the bricks. Limestone is not only rough in our case but very porous and we also plan to have these tiles on all the window sills too, like the old tan brick houses from the 50's and the chocolate brown sill they had on their windows,only ours are cream not chocolate. It will be easy to wipe the sills from time to time and keep the house neat and clean. Once these tiles ar in place, 80mtrs of tiles, then we can concrete the veranda and then the roof iron can go on hopefully before Christmas. We have all the bricks for the home but need to find another $16,000 for all the rest of the windows. We are only using our own income, not borrowing at all so we have to do a budget and see if we can allow the money for the windows as the income we earn from Sept to Dec, is about 90% of our income for the entire year. It's taken 7 years now to get to this point having spent more that $80,000 already as I'm keeping a diary of spending. Goodness knows how much a 30+ square home with pool would cost if we had to pay a builder!!! We are owner builders and we've done everything ourselves including digging all the foundation and laying over 5000 standard bricks and digging the hole for the pool and fitting the pool including all the plumbing. We put in all the concrete stumps, layed the floor and fitted all the underfloor plumbing with a plumber friend guiding us along. We also put up all the framing and roof trusses, so we are absolutely chuffed with our abilities and progress.

The next time I decorate by a colour of the year will be the first time. Don't hold your breath. I have nothing against this particular colour but it doesn't work with all the things I've collected over the years, and I am not about to discard carpets bought after hard bargaining with dubious merchants in Istanbul or Islamabad because they don't "go" with a paint colour that someone voted "colour of the year." In its place, I think the colour would be quite nice (better than this years choices, certainly). It's just that my place isn't the right place for it.

If the brick is a functioning chimney I would leave it other wise a rough render could work. One of the issues is that the nearby features such as the light and painting clash. As in the dining room, try a large mirror and a big photo e.g. to link it all. Also good rugs with strong reds, browns, oranges would help co-ordinate the rooms at low expense. I would try a colourful Moroccon style rug near the brick feature before attempting a major fix.

I love the drama of the brick wall and it is a major design feature of the house... however, there is a LOT of exposed brick with the fireplace surround also being exposed and you have mentioned you dont like the colour. Have you thought about covering up the other walls rather than this one, to tone down the brick work? I just wonder if you hate the amount of brick and you are taking it out on this wall because that's where it is concentrated while overlooking the rest of the house? Just food for thought... more food for thought. BTW I love the idea of hanging plants (though watering them might be a pain), I love the idea of a dramatic feature pendant and I also love the idea of the rug, all will soften or harmonise the drama. www.billyhoostudio.com