Gosh what a funny turn around - this discussion started right after I had finished my last kitchen and now it is revived just as I'm going through all this madness again trying to replace a kitchen in my new home .............. when I can find someone interested in doing some work. Jennifer, I'm leaning to Bosch appliances if they meet my requirements. One of my joeys lives in Germany where Bosch and Siemens (made by the same company apparently) are made and are very highly esteemed. Because I have so much renovation work to do on this house, I'm watching my pennies a bit so I will probably stick with a Dishlex Dishwasher that has always served me well and these days they are extremely quiet too, but I am looking at Bosch for the oven and cooktops. In earlier posts I praised the Fisher and Paykel oven and cooktops, but then discovered a BIG flaw in the design of the oven - it had a double glass door with a gap between the two sheets of glass and guess where every crumb and spill went, so they will not be on my radar again. I'm also hearing good reports about Electrolux but very bad ones about Miele and their service which is really letting the brand down. For those getting on in years too - beware of push button settings and slide controls, arthritic fingers just cannot manage these. As well, I'm told the slide controls on cook tops are not as accurate as knobs.

I emailed strata and was advised to notify my nearby neighbors about the resurfacing coz there’s a bit of sound. No approval required. Btw you do need to conduct an asbetos test before the team can commence work. The company recommended a lab in Brisbane that you send the samples in double zip lock bags, express post. Took 24-48hrs for lab to send me the report in pdf. I then forwarded that to Ceiling Resurfacing so they know which technique they’ll gonna do.

I definitely agree that once you live in a home for a few months you will have a good idea of what works and what doesn't. Assuming that the large room with the floorboards is the living space and the room with the slate is the family room, would it work if you knocked out the wall between the kitchen and the family room, rather than just having a pass-through? You could then leave the fireplace wall alone and put a bank of fridge, pantry and wall oven(s) on the kitchen side. You can have a large return (peninsular) between the side walls. This way you have a very open view into the family room where your children will probably spend a lot of time and you get to keep the fireplace or some version of it. If the rooms will not be used in this way, you would be better to remove the fireplace and the wall - but only if you can find another wall in the kitchen to relocate the fridge, etc. From a design perspective, while the kitchen is dated the timber can be painted and new knobs or handles added. You can have the benchtop resurfaced and a new splashback possibly installed over the existing one. However new kitchens would have more drawers than doors. If there was detailing on these it is more commonly a very simple Shaker profile that suits the very popular Hamptons style. Otherwise they are plain with shadowline or push to open. My advice would be to live with it for a while and then as soon as your budget allows get a new kitchen as part of the bigger renovation.

is there anything in the house worth saving? it would be such a waste to do major renovations only to be torn down in a few years..please post distances to all fences and direction of north on the new post as well as a discription of other new and renovated houses in the area to give a rough idea of maximum investment