I don't want any of those options, I would like beautiful sitting room with plush furniture, classical French inspired (not baroque), I would like a climate controlled glass house to match with orchids and all other exotic plants. A beautiful garden with flowers and fruit trees and a cleaner and a handyman to help me with it.

Unexpectedly to me, due to it's location on the crest of the Great Dividing Range at an elevation of around 700m above sea level, Toowoomba has a climate more similar to Sydney than Brisbane. With average summer highs of only 28°C, & average winter highs of 17°C (lows of 7°C & cold wind, as has been mentioned). It's located in Climate Zone 2: Warm Temperature, the same climate zone as Sydney, not Brisbane. Though this climate zone is very varied, so care must be taken to cater for local conditions. As has been advised a few times, have a good read of the Your Home site. Read this section, Designing for Climate, for zone 5: warm temperate. http://www.yourhome.gov.au/passive-design/design-climate Along with having cooler temperatures than Brisbane, the fact that Toowoomba is inland means it has greater variation between daytime highs & nighttime lows (diurnal temperature range). This means that unlike Queensland coastal climates, some thermal mass in the home will be appropriate, so a lightweight structure isn't needed. Although a lightweight structure, on a ground-coupled slab (with polished concrete or tiles in North facing living areas) would be a good idea. As the temperature is so much cooler than tropical Queensland climates I'd advise against going too overboard with a pavilion style house. As I think it would be too cold in winter. Maybe something like two off-set rectangles, joined in the centre. Kinda like dreamer's inspirational picture, without the middle section, the two rectangular sections joined. Or just go for a more traditional rectangular house. In any case, like just about all Australian climates, you should try to build a house that is generally rectangular, the long sides facing north & south. This will give an opportunity for northern sunshine to enter home in winter, while the shorter eastern & western sides will limit the effect of hot summer western afternoon sunshine. Though I guess this house shape won't look great from the western road, as it will look very narrow from here. You could fatten it's street frontage a little bit, by having the garage to the south of the rectangular house. With such a large block you'll be able to build something that works for you. But as OKLouise said, don't just pick a plan for an average narrow block. The plan you picked is not really suitable for your block. I'd also recommend you do a lot of research yourself. As has been shown with the plan you've received, you can't rely on the builder to design a plan that will work best for you, that is appropriate for your location. So read up on the Your Home website. It's an invaluable resource when it comes to building a comfortable, energy efficient home.

Daryl, I for one, have been following this thread with great interest since your comment and am very sorry to hear the problems you have had. I had never heard of any of this, but with the dramatically increasing incidences of asthma, mental illness and depression, attention deficit and behavioural problems with children especially, autism - the list goes on - I often stop to wonder why, I know when I was young half of these issues didn't seemed to exist, yet did they and and no one knew about them, or is this because there are more people in the world now or is it all a part of modern living and why? Pollution has been blamed for many things but it seems as fast as we clean up one form of pollution we start another such as this. Technology is advancing at a crazy pace and the younger generation are eager for more and more but is anyone really stopping to investigate health issues or are we just becoming obsessed not just with the profits to be had from it, but also to free ourselves from everyday drudgery and live a Jetsons life style. We all want more free time, but what are we doing with it? In many cases working longer hours to pay for it !! It seems we are too obsessed with "improving" our lives to stop and question any consequences. For we seniors, this is not doing us any favours, we were not raised with this, it is a whole new way of life for us and the faster technology advances, the faster we are being left behind floundering in the mess. No one stops to think that women especially in my age group were forced to resign from work when we married or had children, there was no place for us in the workforce, our place was at home, cleaning and maintaining it, ensuring our menfolk were well fed and dressed and our children were properly raised. For many women, they lost workplace skills, but the male ego was also dinted if wives went back to work, men were expected to be the providers. Unless you have lived through this period you really would have no comprehension of just how much attitudes and opportunities have changed particularly in the second half of last century, I think we have lived through some of the greatest changes ever but sadly not everyone is given the opportunity to embrace them. There are many, many people in society today, in their 60s, 70s and 80s who just don't have a clue about technology, they never had the opportunity to use it or learn about it in their younger years, but now it is just an assumption that "everyone" knows, so many seniors are really falling through the cracks, they are missing out on many benefits and are totally vulnerable to scammers. The point I make here now is that trying to follow this discussion, I realise even more what a whole new language technology seems to have introduced and how much further seniors are being left behind. I had to look up what a "dect" phone was - never heard that word used before, so many other words and terms have me floundering too, half of Ian's learned comments might as well have been written in Swahili, just where do you go to learn all this? As a senior though, (and I have many friends agree) I have a lifetime of learning stored in my grey matter, it is full and it is tired, how much more does it have to learn, how much do I really want to learn - quite frankly as little as possible, I'm over it all now. I very much agree with Pottsy's comment of putting a tin foil cap on my head, if that makes everything go away I'm more than happy. However these health issues now are definitely a great cause for concern, not just for me but I think of my grandchildren, how reliant they are on technology now, they were raised and are being raised with nothing else, what is in the future for them? I had to have my modem changed to a Smart modem recently because the original one kept failing and unfortunately I have to rely in the internet now to stay in touch with family. I also rely on regular Nanna Naps to get through the day, is this just an age thing or is it the wifi?? How will we ever know these things - obviously Daryl, your symptoms were severe enough to identify this but for someone only mildly affected ??? It is like back in the early days of mobile phones and people developing brain cancer, there were thoughts this could happen, but it wasn't like suddenly millions of people developed brain cancer and it could never be proven that people who did would not have developed it anyway. We still don't know why people get many forms of cancer, but I can understand the skepticism and cynicism - how much slower would technology advance if we really took time out to more thoroughly investigage health risks. It is great that you have identified this issue for us Daryl, but realistically where do we go from here? It is a bit like closing the gate after the horse has bolted and trying to fight telco's .............yeah!! .

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