Plants or shelving are both great however an idea not mentioned yet very suitable could be a coat hanging area with a small table for house keys etc if you do not currently have that sort of area? This creates a foyer and is a good place for a quick chat with people you do not want to invite further into the house. Shelving would almost close the space and make the area smaller (visually) and plants may not be something you like. Good luck

Concrete could go over but it needs to be thick enough and reinforced so it won't crack. Check levels and thickness required. Existing concrete may even need removing to allow new concrete. Depends what you mean by resurfacing? I'd price up all options first. It can be surprising what is expensive and what ends up cheap. Hardiedeck needs to go over a floor structure of bearers/joists/etc so not a cheap option for example. Have any pictures of the area?

I would suggest keeping the brick fire place with a clean up to keep the character. Agree paint the ceiling panels white however keep the beams as the are (if in good condition) to keep the character of the home. Paint the remaining walls white or light grey. The 1/2 brick white wall and timber paneling on the right side does need to come out to help you create the open plan space you are craving. The kitchen area - I'm not sure of size judging by the photo - I would suggest storage/cabinets the full length of the back wall to the windows where the dinning table is and cabinets/draws under the window also. Giving you plenty of storage for the home. I would suggest an island bench with a lower section to use as a dinning table. All your storage is in one place and allowing you to remove the storage you have across the bottom window in the lounge room. giving you more space and more light in the room. Or paint them white also. If you can remove the window coverings and replace with lighter roller blinds that disappear in the white walls or even white block out curtains. Good luck with the project from the Team at North.

Hi Lyn, Thank you for your curiosity.... Yes the original house had some nice features, however it really was not distinguished enough to provide the farmhouse appeal that our client wanted. The client was after a style that was common in the late 1800's. We initially tried to use much of the brickwork by maintaining the original plan, with a view to raising the ceiling height from 2400 to 3200mm and roof height etc. In the end altering the walls proved expensive because almost every opening required work. Labour in construction is a significant cost in Australia, essentially because construction workers are paid well. All of the flooring was kept along with all the footings and floor structure. Many councils have a requirement that all building materials are sorted before leaving the site and then recycled at recycling facilities at what we once called tips. Some councils are ahead of others in this regard. See the Shellharbour recycling depot in the attached link. http://www.shellharbourwaste.com.au/Dunmore-Recycling-and-Waste-Disposal-Depot Retaining materials on site is generally not viable, here are some examples: Aluminium windows are best dismantled in a factory environment where the glass plastics and aluminium can be set aside for remanufacture. Bricks with cement mortar are almost impossible to clean on site and machinery exists now where the bricks and mortar are crushed and turned into new building materials. Recycling timber is a labour intensive process on site, now that framing for walls and roofs are manufactured in factories and delivered to site. So all timber, metals and masonry on site can be sent to commercial recycling facilities such as the one in the link below. https://wanless.com.au/ The new house has better air movement and access to passive heating and cooling than the original and is therefore more efficient and uses less energy to run. The new plan includes a range of features we know country houses need, such as guest rooms, mud rooms, wood fireplaces and a large pantry. The new house also has a distinctive architectural language that carries throughout the building which will make it less in need of change aesthetically. Our view of sustainability is therefore to retain all we can viably and then design and build a building that is intended to last well into the foreseeable future. All the best Michael