Hi Sally, not sure where/how to message you other than here. LOVE your house! It is going to be beautiful! - Looks very much like you are going to have to do the same sorts of things that we have too. ( BTDT with the lifted floorboards and view to the ground!) Is your house on sandstone piers too? In our case we did not have to do anything with the internal piers but we did need to lift one side of the house by about 20 cm. We haven't had to remove all our wall cladding as you have done. And we were lucky - the only remnant of lathe and plaster was a small part of the hall. And we are lucky with the ceilings too We haven't had to take them our as you have. And as they are so high we can plaster over where we need to repair - even in the hall where the fist sized crack in the ceiling has closed as we hoped it would. Your boards look magnificent - will you be able to relay them once the restumping is done? I would imagine that they would be hard to replace. Your place is the total opposite of ours though for all that they areboth old country homes. Ours is a cool climate house - located in the Huon Valley (Tasmania) - and big - 24 squares (with an additional 6 squares in deck). Not sure off-hand how big our block is, - but certainly not 1.25 acres! Large block by today's standards though. Tucked into the back of the block since it was originally part of the larger church grounds. So, as is unusual for a house of it's type, the front yard is much larger than the back. There are other similarities between us it seems. (It is just us at home too ...though in our case the pet is a rather senile feline! ...and as to how we came to be restoring the largest house that either of us have ever lived in at a time in our lives when most are downsizing, - well that is another story!) Our latest project is the repair of the bay window in the lounge...(when I say 'we are doing this' - I actually mean that HE is doing it, and I am providing help in the form of lots of encouragement! Must get my act together and post some of our pics. Will you keep putting yours up? I would love to see what you do with your house.

Oh my husband can do this for me so its no issue, but I wouldn't be asking him for design advice (what would look better). while he's great with his hands he's The first to say he has no idea about design. It's more from a design perspective.... Should I go black horizontal panels, a pattern, vertical etc

Well, yes, my first instinct is I would like a butlers pantry. But giving it some thought isn't that more bench space, sinks, and other kitchen paraphernalia to keep clean and organised? Surely a well designed kitchen is enough? Don't need a bar at all, so ugly, so seventies! My vote goes to the dressing room. Organised space for clothes, no overflow into the guest bedroom. Shoes sitting up like little soldiers, clothes divided into seasons, scarves ready to be plucked for wear, orderly pants on trouser hangers that don't catch on one another, colour coded tops, jackets all lined up, Floor length mirrors, sock drawers, underwear drawers, makeup storage and lighting. What's not to dream for? Sounds like the ultimate in luxury to me!

You said you loved the concept design but then the estimates came in too high. Find some more money so you can do it or do what the architect has suggested by going single storey. We all see some quite bland designs, standard fit out, cookie cutter as you noted; this is all due to budget being too low for the brief. Plenty of Projects all get watered down so they're affordable. Plenty of additions to dwellings can just be expensive to achieve. Do some quick calculations yourself - minimum $2500+ per square metre of new added space for bog standard fit out. Add in the bathroom at $20k, kitchen at $20k, laundry $8k, staircase at $15k, fire rated walls between existing and new, upgrading existing dwelling...... plenty of architect designed residential homes are pushing $5k per square metre. This is not really 100% accurate just ballpark figures to get started on so we don't end with a project we can't afford. It just adds up real quick. The designer should have known budget up front and worked to that or at least been within 10% at this early stage. Build costs between builders shouldn't be that far apart unless one is missing something so I wouldn't bother builder shopping with plans missing vital construction details just yet. If you're unhappy with current architect, move on to another. Why not consider a building designer or a local draftsman perhaps.