We are still building and just had the power cable put in and I insisted on a landline cable to go in at the same time. Living in the country means bad reception or blackspots for mobiles as mentioned earlier and it isn't being fixed none too fast either!! We also have allot of older clients who still prefer to contact us on a landline because they dont all have mobile phones or if they do, they have the isues just mentioned, blackspots etc... and mobiles are still considered by some to be a financially extravagant way to make contact versus a landline!! I guess the young ones don't remember a time when there were local and STD or long distance calls which used to cost an arm or a leg and these STD calls didn't mean you were calling interstate, it could be as simple as being 40km away. I have a fixed landline monthly plan at very little cost which covers all local and STD calls and I could if I chose to, talk for several hours, still at no extra cost compared to a mobile. Mobile plans are at a fixed rate like say getting $300 worth of free calls for $35 but you go over that plan and you can get a fair shock when the bill arrives. Landlines as mentioned earlier are safer to use, always have clearer reception and really are still the cheapest way to keep in touch from home.

Tweeza, I should have made it clearer on the plan, but that is a window between the lounge room and the verandah. Thank you for the suggestions and the photos too! Debluc, that is exactly what we would like to do down the track. The walls in between the kitchen and the lounge/dining are structural though, so changing that is going to have to wait until the budget allows unfortunately. Bigreader, I agree with a preference to stay away from corners. I will talk to the installers about this being an option, though that position for a flue for the fire place could be problematic because of solar panels on the roof. Allanaspree, I like this idea! We talked about switching out the two seater for single chairs, so this idea might work. I'll play around with the exact measurements to see how we go.

is the room extra hot or cold as well as wet? start with asking the Council about building approval for the original sun room then a building inspection to identify the source of the leaks..there are Building Inspectors (check local services) who can give you a basic condition report for a fee..if the building was never a legal living room and has major problems with the structure it may be better to KDR but if the concrete floor and the roof structure are legal and in good fixable order then you might rethink all the windows, have the roof and guttering checked and repaired, lose some of the windows, reclad outside walls, insulate and line the inside walls to cover over the brick columns and make a more traditional looking lounge but, if you're not happy with the floor height, size shape or location of the room it may be time to consider a whole house rethink....to repair and redecorate the existing room and raise the floor (an extra slab or a timber framed higher floor to match the original house as long as the ceiling height will still be legal) but, without any major structural problems and very good luck with trades and materials) i'd start with at least $30,000 but to replace the whole building around $100,000 probably more but if you plan to spend that amount it might be time to rethink the whole house to make sure that you get the best value from a big renovation... there's a lot of different skills and tradespeople needed so the easiest (not cheapest) would be to employ a builder who takes control of the whole project, organises all the materials and different workers in the correct order and then you pay the builder for their services and they pay for everything but usually better to ask a builder for a fixed price contract so you know what to expect

At one stage , this almost morphed into a car thread -- I just thought I'd put up some pics of quite a nice car With the sloping grille , that windscreen , etc , you'd wonder if it is a custom , but believe it or not , it is a 1925 Rolls Royce Phantom 1 coupe ! I just googled , and between 1925 and 1931 , 3512 sedans were sold , and 18 -- yes 18 -- of the coupes ! I'd say that 97 years ago , this would have been extremely radical . The sedan wasn't too bad and I'd be interested in the prices of the 2 at the time ( I can only assume the coupe was SOOOO expensive that not many people could afford them ? ) . Or maybe the coupe was considered ugly ? Who knows . As far as current values go , with only 18 coupes they are worth what someone will pay , but the last publicly reported sale was The Peterson Musuem in the US paid $1.5million for one . In 1991 . 31 years ago . No idea of its condition at the time , and it is on display now . At a guess though , I'd be surprised if you could get one now for under $40 million , and if someone sold one for $100 million it wouldn't even surprise me . Certainly one of my dream cars .