Hello Fianou, Congratulations on your charming home. I think it has so much potential. I love the idea of teal, it is fresh and welcoming. I was thinking to give the home some street appeal and to also make it extremely functional. I would see if you could afford to put a wonderful wooden deck out the front, and then I would have window shutters painted teal placed on either side of the windows to give it street appeal, if you could afford to paint the brick I would paint it in a happier white tone with the blue accessory trim on the shutters on each window and also on the roof trim to tie it all in. On the deck I would have flower boxes painted in the same teal colour or whatever colour you choose to link in the whole story. I can see it can be so sweet and charming and a real place to call home. The timber fence at the side would also link in with the decking at the front. Good luck and congratulations on buying your own home ! Woo hoo !

Not sure where you are. Assuming you are building in the Southern Hemisphere then the first thing to do is move your garage to the south side of the block and let more rooms of the house enjoy the northerly sun in Winter. Make sure your corridor is wider than standard( imagine two people passing each other comfortably)- maybe an extra 30 cams- you won't regret this. A skylight here that opens to let hot air out in Summer is great. To further save cost, have all wet areas as close together as possible, and if possible,on the south side. A kitchen bench and whatever is on it can suffer enormously with the angles of the sun during the Winter months. Better to put this on the south side and have the family area bask in the warmth when it is cold. Large windows on the north side will ensure plenty of light through to the kitchen. Personally I love the idea of an internal access from the garage directly or as near as possible to the kitchen because I do not want to traipse through other rooms with heavy shopping bags or dirty shoes. Sliding doors to linen cupboards and bedroom wardrobes to save space. Back of house faces West so consider a wider eave to give some relief from the hot Summer sun, which could be shining into your family/dining areas till quite late each day.

We too are about to build though picked a project home builder because of the 'volume build' cost savings. But we are making modifications to better meet our needs. Our initial plan was heavily customised and came in around $150k over what we wanted, but that was highly spec'ed insulation with double glazed windows, cathedral ceiling, very large rooms, 2 bedrooms with ensuites plus another bathroom and toilet, plus another 2 bedrooms, large undercover alfresco, very complicated roof line (apparently that really adds to the cost)... so we learnt a lot of lessons from that. We have scaled back the size of rooms, gone for a simple shape/roofline and will add character through textures (timber panelled walls, etc), some of which can be added later. We have maintained top notch double glazed windows and high R factor insulation (Southern Highlands location, so you pay either way if you get that wrong.. up front or in excessive heating and cooling bills), but cut back to only 1 bifold door and embraced good old double and triple panel sliders - a huge cost saving in itself. Would also love a cathedral ceiling but may need to lower our expectations there. I have to agree that a price starting with a 3 at the front - or even a 4 - does not seem at all realistic for that house. If $360K is breaking the bank, you really need to think about how you can meet your needs in a different way. I'd start with design... would a 2 storey home offer cost savings? Less roof for the same floor price? What about attic bedrooms and/or an attic activity room? I don't think attic rooms are actually that cheap, because of the need to strengthen the floor/ceiling, but it would be good to ask. Do all the children need a separate bedroom? If there's a significant age difference between eldest and youngest, you may find you can get away with younger siblings sharing for a while longer; perhaps even till an older child heads off to Uni?? Think of all the materials you will be chosing and the impact those will have on your home. Number and type of windows, floor coverings, tiling etc. I don't feel your rooms are overly large, but agree the large Media and Activity rooms are expensive choices. Personally I'd keep one dual purpose room, mainly with the kids in mind and smaller than either of those. You really only need kids tv and computer games out of the family room/lounge, don't you? The scullery and parts of the Master suite are large and the bathroom between Bed 4 and Bed 5 is a waste. I'd put Bathroom 1 - with the only bath in the house - and the loo side by side and accessible from near the kitchen area. I've seen some homes with a 3rd toilet in a large laundry, which can be handy with a horde of kids around. On a different note, that laundry seems way too small for a family of 6. You want those teens doing their own washing and ironing ASAP... they'll need room to do that. And you don't want to skimp on windows, insulation and eaves that suit your climate - they can really help to reduce your home's running costs. Re the vergola suggestion, I'd steer clear of that. They are costly, not really water proof and don't age well in my experience. A few friends have installed them and all have shown 'buyers remorse' quite quickly. An under-roof alfresco is pretty nice to have, but even a solidly built pergola with a simple sun/rainproof roof is nice too. As for the cathedral ceiling, I LOVE it. Opens a house up beautifully. A half cathedral (that's not the right term but i hope you know what I mean) may reduce costs a little. Otherwise, use your windows to maximise light (but not heat), raise the ceiling heights throughout the house to 2.7 (it's usually fairly cost effective to do that) and ditch the cathedral ceiling. Good luck with it. It's an exciting project.

Hi and thanks for your feedback. The rear building might now move further around to the north of the !7 acre rural block (2+ hours from Melbourne), where there is a flatter patch. We are now hoping to make it 2 story, with the storage shed below and living above. That way the huge views to the south and east can be seen over the top of the house. The idea is to build the shed (with studio accom) hopefully at the end of 2020, as a place to stay while the house building starts towards the end of 2021, when we will have the funds, fingers crossed. The width of the building area is only about 30 metres before it dips away a bit steeply to the east and west. We hope to avoid too much excavating for a slab (for thermal mass) but may need to consider stumps if the slab is far more costly. Looking at Carbonlite floor system as a reluctant alternative... A local architect has done the initial design to maximise the views and northern sun. We think the slight kink in the middle will add complexity to the roof so the kink can go. It is a big 'entry' which might need to go to cut costs but we do want an 'air lock' entry... The hallway along the bedrooms is intended to warm up in winter, ideally trombe wall style. We hope to keep the house to about 150 sq meters- we don't need bigger. The council has indicated where the dispersal field for the septic tank needs to go... We love the reverse brick veneer principle. The architect has been fairly open to our ideas but says the budget will be tight at approx $3,500 per sq meter. How does an internal masonry spine work? We figured a continuous skillion roof would be simpler and cheaper- going for a rural shed look...