@ chookchook2 Very funny play on words! What about some of those lizards with suction caps on their feet...or frogs...although not mammals, still animals, they walk up vertical surfaces...and...just to make this light...in Charleville, Far Nth Qld. big green frogs live under the rims of toilets and.....yep, I screamed my lungs out when a couple attached themselves to my bare behind! I was the brunt of jokes at the pub for weeks! @ Luke Buckle....still copies of animal skins...what is it with people who need to have what I regard as a "trophy of the kill" on their wall or wear the skin...even if its imitation? Crocodile skin shoes? UGH. Fake Lepoard skin trim on boots...double UGH...Graphics of animal skins to stick on things? Still don't like the idea. Have a friend here at present...she likes the patterns and has a leopard skin patterned dress and a pair of boots.....I asked her what the attraction was....just the pattern, she loves animals, especially cats...but still there's this hunter thing....don't get it but each to his/her own. Glad I'm not married to a man who loves animal kill trophies..couldn't stand it. But then...I buy only leather shoes and I eat meat and love leather upholstered furniture...where do I think that comes from? MMMM Tis a puzzlement! Could never come at a real animal skin on the floor...but I like my lambswool underlay and my wooly sheepskin mat????? Double standard hypocrit? Pot calling the kettle?

@Karen Hodge, I hear you!! Sometimes I think the estate agent should carry quite a bit of the blame actually. If they do their job correctly like you see in the adds on TV, they should bring these discrepancies to the attention of the sellers, stand on their morals and say if you can't get it better than this, then you'll have to find someone else to sell your home!! I know you can't make everybody "house proud" but the saying "do unto others" springs to mind. I bet if these same people bought a house not up to scratch, "a current affair" would hear about it but they don't think it wrong to simply walk out on a house that isn't being left nicely for the next family!! I have some friends that recently sold a house in Essendon, Melb and whilst the buyers were back and forth selling their own home, my friends kept watering the plants and even did things like painted out the wardrobes because of the scuff marks made over time!! They cleaned the entire two storey house from top to bottom and finished by mopping the floors as they were exiting. The buyers were so taken by the entire home, they bought it with almost all the furniture that my friends had in it!!

Old post but thought I'd update. We have finally moved into our forever home and on occasions, obviously in winter, we still have crying window (sob). We have the wet windows on the south side of the home which is the shady side so not unexpected but also on the north side where we still get lovely warm winter sunlight streaming in and I still do have all my windows slightly cracked open and it does help. Incidentally I have glass bricks in our bathroom on the south side and there is no condensation on this window at all. Our home has insulation in both the exterior and interior walls and we have double insulation in our roof, so factor 7 unlike the usual factor 3.5 not that it probably has any bearing on the moisture issue. We have a 1.8mtr wide veranda surrounding the entire home so the windows are some what protected from the elements but when the temperature gets fairly low and can be almost zero in winter, it seems impossible to prevent this crying window sindrome but I can live with the fact it is fairly easy and quick to remove with a Karcher window vac now, brilliant little machine at $99 and it only takes a few minutes. We have an exhaust fan in both bathrooms that is vented outside so the moist air does not go into the roof space and in fact even my rangehood ducting is vented outside too!! We even had condensation in the roof cavity as well to the point of having a rainforest up there but since fitting another whirlie into the roof making it three in total now, it appears to have almost entirely eradicated that problem. I can say catagorically now that crying windows are a very difficult problem to eradicate in very cold climates where obviously the inside of the home being heated at night is going to create the perfect conditions for the condensation to settle with the inside being far wamer than the outside and there in lies the problem which canot be changed. I have blinds and curtains that I close ever day before dark but it makes no difference. As I have aluminium windows and doors throughout, so no timber anywhere, it isn't such an issue for damage but annoying none the less but life goes on and I do so love my beautiful new home!!

Your kitchen is small and already quite busy. I would make it as simple and clean as possible. You can't beat ceramic tiles for cost, durability and ease of installation. Have a look at Johnson's Spectrum range to see if you can match the green. https://www.johnsontiles.com.au/product/spectrum/?utm_campaign=1602072422&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=304640004469&utm_term=&adgroupid=61761480198&gclid=CjwKCAjw_YPnBRBREiwAIP6TJ0idAicM8vfEevC-WrwRVNmbtUPHfDAjvNpkaOIo0hzN0dwMw9u1rxoC0VkQAvD_BwE You will get a neater finish with ceramic tiles than you will with trying to work with DIY stainless steel, particularly around the edges. There are lots of online resources to show how easy it is to lay smaller ceramic tiles. Leave the large format porcelain tiles to the professionals. Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls