Hi Lainie, if you're after a timber look on a budget, then I would go with floating laminate floor boards for the main floor, as this would be one of your cheapest option, and they're also easy to maintain, they didn't use to look great but have come a long way in recent years and if you shop around you can find some nicer looking styles/finishes... I would personally tile all the wet areas, and your cheapest options would be the standard ceramic floor tiles, which come in a variety of colours, again shop around for bargains e.g. National Tiles always have some sale on... note tile prices can vary by a lot with the most expensive ones being porcelain and natural stone, and polished concrete can also be very expensive... good luck!

It really wouldn't be cost effective to do anything to the bathroom as their is no real cheap option. To extend the step, you would need someone qualified as you could potentially damage the property and your friend's investment. It's an odd bathroom but I have seen weirder. A shower with a sink and toilet inside it. At least your toilet is outside the shower. Its hard to say what is under the shower, but it would be a better option to level the shower with the toilet area rather than fiddle around with making an extended step. And it maybe cheaper for you in the long run. You could ask your friend or the real estate to knock the rent down if you fix the problematic bathroom as your investment will boost up the future rental potential. That definitely looks like a safety hazard which they could potentially be liable for if you hurt yourself. Is this a house? or an apartment?

Gorgeous brick pavers, I love that look for the floor! It has a rustic appearance yet you're right- sophisticated, even an elegance. I think this would suit the feeling I'm wanting for the room, the pine boards have a rustic appearance, this would go well with them. We have a 1m square oak table with cross back chairs for the dining section and a La Spezia 3 light pendant (Beacon), farmhouse sink, timber hood cover to give you an idea of the look we're going for. Thanks very much for your thoughts on this. I like the idea you're going with, but yes, we have the window and door in already. Door could be trimmed if necessary. It wasn't until the window was already made and the wall sheets and cladding was removed that we realised the original kitchen layout had the back door next to the window, and the door into the laundry section was a modification. I most likely would have put it back where it was originally or had double doors. It made no logical sense for the back door to be a thoroughfare through the laundry, eliminating valuable storage space. I may have just left the kitchen in the original layout and made an entry into the laundry from the kitchen side for a laundry/butler's pantry with fridge in there. Removed the side window for more wall space for storage and changed the existing door to a window. But it's too late now, the outside of the house has all been newly clad so doors and windows are as is. There's no other possible place in the house for a laundry. It is a very tight space. Plan to build an external laundry studio in the future. The one in the house would be temporary, yet need it to accommodate a washer dryer combo for now, and be suitable for prospective buyers/renters in future if the external laundry doesn't eventuate. This is the original 1960's floor plan. A previous owner made internal access into the laundry and made bench space where the original back door was, the next owners opened up the living to dining room and blocked up the hallway doorway which became the fridge space. The cornice didn't match up in the hallway though where the old doorway was. They had made a shelf from the cut out on the hallway side, and the protruding section in the kitchen side became a kind of bulkhead for the fridge. Old hallway We've rebuilt this so that it could have an upper cabinet on the kitchen side/ hallway later if needed. But the lack of space in the hallway didn't allow us to build a linen cupboard, so that will also be needed to be included somewhere in the house. At this stage, thinking we will have to configure the laundry space to have a linen cupboard/ broom cupboard between the dining room and laundry section. Open to ideas too for storage in that limited laundry area space. I'll add more measurements to the floor plan for reference.

We wish to cover a tiled floor with a floating floor, don’t know whether the laminate or hybrid ?