Well now after reading all these posts, I have a dilemma. We would like to maximize the practicality of the deep and soft closing drawers. Corner drawers, the under sink u-shaped drawers etc. Thirty five years ago (yep that's right 35 yrs) when our budget did not allow us to buy new, we bought a dismantled u-shaped show-room demonstration timber kitchen. For years it was blonde pine. Solid pine benchtops, re-sanded and stained a couple of times. Then my husband painted all the solid timber doors with antique white USA marine paint which has worn well. New satin knobs (that have not worn as well) Now it's becoming a little 'shabby chic'. We thought of a complete reno. But we have no space to enlarge on the 3x3 metres. and new 'plastic' kitchens somehow seem less durable than our existing old one. Sink, stove and fridge in the recommended triangle floorplan. So what to do? Our pantry is in the corner with shelves that items at the back of are inaccessible. The microwave is the perfect shoulder level. The cabinets allow me to display favourite tins, crockery and vintage scales. Being a split level house I need the broom cupboard and ironing board stored close at hand.

Excellent. i will do a google, and see what the SA version is. Thank you. it's a great starting point. I see what you're saying re: defects VS standard. but my god they did a terrible job of a BRAND NEW HOUSE. the two townhouses next to us aren't selling because the workmanship is so bad. We stupidly bough off Market and Off plan. So didn't see the end result till we moved in. The PM has come through and agreed to fix majority, but both bathrooms are floor to ceiling tiles, and probably half of the tiles have a black mark on them down the side. But it looks like mould. We obviously want that fixed and in my mind, that means re-tiling both bathrooms. We just aren't prepared to move out of our house and have trades working on both bathrooms... The other part is both downstairs and up, the roof has so many sections where you can see bumps and patching and bad paint. His advice was to repaint and change the lights from regular light to down light (so we wont notice it as much) But thats just sweeping under the rug, something is still wrong. All of these things, im worried will affect the re-sale of our house. There is a huge dent in the metal part of the window seal. He said he can buffer it our, but it wont be perfect. And they wouldn't be able to fix it.. To me, we should be compensated for that. Literally compensated for everything that isn't right, Is that fair? Have you heard of people getting compensated after they bought brand new?

Difficult block to get a good design onto. Privacy being a corner block, driveway entry point, etc. Even solar passive would be pretty average here (costs to achieve to retain privacy, etc) but you would get northern light. Garage location is the issue but this was touched on previously. I would remove the stacker door facing west and replace with window. Probably have both the windows at say 1500 mm high x 2170 mm wide?? I'd be looking into these sizes further but just a starting suggestion. I would remove the door facing north (near garage) and replace with a window at say 1500 mm high x 1570 mm wide. If you can't do that use a glazed door instead of a solid. East facing veranda is good. South lounge is good for TV - would need to close curtains to watch TV if it was to the north. The changes shouldn't cost much ($2k for amending plans, submitting to certifier, etc is at the upper end but minor in comparison to construction costs, you may save money/cost neutral as you're swapping door for window, etc.) Surprised you got away without double glazing the west facing windows.

Stop worrying, it is a bit pointless. What will be, will be and you can’t change it. Take comfort that the eaves are not asbestos. I would have expected them to be.if there was any used in house.