Painting the front door a personal fave funky colour would be a simple start and would a more substantial letter box. A few landscape comments- because Landscape is invariably cheaper than building works. The white gum is magnificent but does not look good with the palm. Palms have a relatively compact root ball and are much easier to move. If you have a more tropical part of the garden maybe move it there or advertise it on gum tree (tee hee). It looks like you might be in Perth from the plants. You just need more plants in the front garden and to extend the beds a little. the existing style actually looks good from the photos but is not extensive enough. Decide on a simple theme with the planting that goes with the white gum and the xanthorea because it is a bit of a mixed bag with the palm, little conifer and the flax? If you get out to a native nursery e.g. Zanthorea or Lulfitz you can get some inspiration. Plants like kangaroo paws and scaevolas are fun in Perth to get a bit of colour in a native garden although both are short lived (2-3years)

If you are at all fussy about what you eat, you must cook. It's as simple as that. But if your kitchen isn't well designed, and far too many aren't, cooking becomes more difficult or dangerous. I see a lot of stories on sites like Houzz about kitchen design that are all over how a kitchen looks, but not so hot on how they work. A kitchen isn't a room, it's a tool. Yes, the individual components should work, but they should work together, too. Cupboards should be structured so that you never have to kneel to get something, you never have to push jars aside to get the one you want, and you never have to lift heavy things from above your head. You should never bang your head on a cupboard door handle reaching to the back of the bench, either. And of course they should make it easy, almost inevitable, to put your floury or greasy hand on exactly what you need within two seconds - the time it takes a sauce to curdle - of you deciding that you need it. Designers pay lip service to ergonomics, but as a rule haven't a clue what it means. A kitchen sink, for instance, should be sited so that the person who does most of the washing up, even if that is only rinsing stuff on its way to the dishwasher, doesn't have to stoop (bad for the back) or reach (carrying your arms ahead of your body is tiring) to use it. Surfaces. Every kitchen where anybody at all is ever likely to make pastry NEEDS a stone slab. It stops the butter layers from melting into the paste layers because it's cool. This, people, is why granite benches are a thing. You just can't do the same job on wood. Or stainless steel, for that matter. The stone slab needn't be any bigger than 600mm square, but it really should be there. Speaking of wood, any kitchen surface you can't put a cake fresh out of the oven or a pan straight off the hotplate on is a bit useless. It looks nice? Sweet. You've got frilly curtains in your machine shop, right? My core expertise is in garden design rather than kitchen design, but I've been cooking in good and bad kitchens for fifty years, and in any case, bad design is bad design, wherever it rears its ugly head!

Hi Lorza101, You're kitchen looks lovely! The white cabinets will really brighten the space and when combined with an oak floor, will not be stark. Timber is always a good way to add warmth - though this can be done using large chopping boards (particularly round ones leaning against the splash back) and other accessories. I'm only reluctant with timber bench tops around sink areas. If you go with a dark stone top, try to tie it in with your splash back, possibly through tiles. If you like patterned tiles, this is an opportunity, though avoid encaustic tiles, as these are too porous for a kitchen splash back. Is your overhang 400mm on the long side for seating? If it is 40mm, I would think a 20mm stone top will be fine, though at 400mm I would take the advice of the stone guys and go with a 30mm top, particularly as it won't be supported with waterfall ends. Good luck with the rest of your renovation. Cathy

I am with you Zara - I think it could definitely be a contender for ugliest fibro ever. I think I prefer the neighbour's house. Why would someone choose to place the bathroom at the front like that? And the front door opening off a gloomy single carport - definitely a mid-century modern touch. My suggestion would be to build a modest addition that would draw the eye away from the boxy elevation - possibly convert that carport to a decked outdoor entertaining area and open the wall next to the front door into the living room (guessing that is the floor plan). Or push something up through the roof, maybe a clerestory window to capture light and air - this would give the building a bit of vertical energy. Then paint the original fibro monument, as fulton & salomon suggested. Or matt black. Very dark colours will make the building look more substantial and work well with the texture of the fibro panels. I saw a very impressive building in North Fremantle once - three storeys + roof garden with a big concrete curved panel falling over the front like a waterfall. It wasn't until the owner/builder pointed it out that I realised that the ground floor was actually a single storey salmon-brick 70's house. The roof had been removed and the upper floors cantilevered over the original walls which had been painted black. The original building just disappeared. Lately I have been fantasising about doing something similar with a fibro beach shack like yours - flying a lightweight, open-plan structure with strong geometric form over the top but keeping the core of the shack for bedrooms, laundry etc.