White Knight also have a laminate paint but any semi gloss or gloss enamel paint works just as well. The key to a good finish is the preparation; clean thoroughly to remove any grease/oil, fill any dents & areas where laminate is chipped, reglue any loose edge strips, sand, wipe clean with methylated spirits, apply an oil based undercoat, leave to dry overnight, lightly sand with very fine (black) sandpaper, apply 1st top coat, leave to dry for at least 24 hours, if necessary very lightly sand, apply final top coat then leave to cure for a few days before rehanging. Recommend painting backs & fronts, the best finish will be achieved by removing the doors, catches & handles. Use a low nap small roller. Alternatively, if you're quite experienced with a spray gun, you can paint more doors in one session as long as you have a clean dust free space to set them out. Below, 2 examples of painted laminate.

Hi Deanne, When you say you are doing the kitchen, does that mean you have to do the planning (design) and specifying of it also? I would have thought Storybook supplied a home with the (kitchen) plans included? If not, your builder will be able to guide you, however here are a couple of tips... 1. Choose your appliances early AND STICK WITH THEM. Often individual appliances have specific needs outside of standard eg power requirement (over 10amps), rangehood ducting direction and type, clearances to overhead cupboards, water to fridge etc. 2. Using the appliances, work out the layout (design) of the kitchen and where you want the cooking, cleaning, fridge etc. From there you need to work out power point locations for all appliances (many people forget the microwave) plus the everyday items like phone chargers, toaster, kettle etc. 3. Go to kitchen display showrooms such as Laminex. They have completed kitchens on display where you can understand the difference between a waterfall end (benchtop style), a shaker profile door (Hampton's style cabinet front) and play around with colours and finishes. 4. Put it all together in detail and you have created a specification! Re finding a builder, I agree with the above. Get a couple of names from Storybook as you don't need beginner mistakes, and go with the builder you guys are COMFORTABLE with. Price is only part of the journey. Good luck with the build.

Just to confirm I have taken the great ideas presented here as advice only and have no intention to do some dodgy diy reno's. With the exception of a couple of quirky exposed timbers as you can see in my pictures there are no other exposed beams. As you can also see from the pictures there is a large roof space on the right (east) side of the house but the ceilings themselves are flat with a slight dip on the north wall. Based on my own personal experiences I would have to agree with Two's Company that there is a tendency towards rendered brick in WA (although there are still many exposed brick houses in my suburb) while double enclosed double garages are also highly desirable. I would also agree that toilets within the main bathroom and non traditional laundries may be considered unusual by many (but not all). Ensuites with toilets however are still very common. Also due to the nature of our work we would prefer the laundry separated from food/kitchen area. For a 4x2 house it is only around 155m2 excluding carport/alfresco which makes the rooms feel quite cramped, hence the desire to open up the family room. However, as Two's Company suggests we will need to first get a builder/eng in to check load bearing walls etc as this will undoubtedly affect what we can achieve within our budget. Having said that I still excited by many of your ideas and with luck hopefully can work some of them into the budget. Cheers all :)

We installed a skylight over shower (velux fixed) in a tiny ensuite and I would highly recommend. It looked absolutely amazing and was heavenly to shower under the sky. We only had the house for a year and sold it (about to install another skylight over shower in our new house), so I can't comment on the long term, but no mould problems or condensation drips. I think if anything the sunlight was actually helpful to dry up moisture. We live in Tasmania so I'd doubt condensation dripping would be a problem elsewhere. We had a fan installed not in the cavity with the skylight but just on the ceiling next to it. In the second bathroom we put in a skylight over bath and put an extractor in the skylight cavity as the ceiling was higher. Could not feel a draught- so I think the question of where to put fan really depends on ceiling height. Do the skylight over shower!! You will not regret it. It really takes your bathroom to another level and there are really no maintenance problems if installed properly with custom flashings. I found velux quite repellent of dirt etc, we did not need to clean after a year (one flat roof skylight, one very large sloped) and I have seen velux skylights looking great with no cleaning for 7 years plus.