This looks great! We are looking to add a garage the same design as this on our home. Do these forward/outward style garages with the house at the back have a particular name? I have been trying to google garage pics like this for inspiration but not sure what to search for

I'm doing the same thing! You actually don't have too much to do. What I'd do is: -paint: in lounge paint under chair rail white and above a deeper colour like grey. White ceiling and features. You could do the wooden details above hallway in any colour really -renovate kitchen - there's too much wood and the peninsula bench thing is a bit out dated. Even just painting the cabinets would update it heaps if you only have a small budget -fix that fireplace (it looks a bit 80's - go for 1920's/30's/Art Deco/Victorian era styled fireplaces. Will make a much more character filled fire place) -the curtains need removing or updating. They look to cheap for such a grand looking place. Shutters would be perfect, but if you don't like them, get some grand looking curtains that are hung from or close to the ceiling. -Landscaping: use "Singapore white" evergreen frangipanis (look high end resort with glossy foliage and don't drop leaves as soon), *pandanus trees, and under plant with gardenias, Ixoras (prince or orange, prince of gold etc) corylines, xanadus, and dwarf frangipanis like "petite pink" which are the size of a small shrub. Do NOT put bird of paradise, yukkas or any other palm tree by your pool as their roots will destroy your pool. ******Golden canes attract fruit bats (and their super stinky, paint stripping poop!) , so unless you plan on regularly trimming out the seed pods or enjoy cleaning up Hendra virus infected bat poop, rip them out and replace them with the above plants :-)

Thank you all for the advice so far. It's been really helpful. I'll try answer some questions the best I can, as I don't have all the measurements etc. The structure on the northern side of the house is an old shed. Hubby wants to remove this eventually to allow access for his pool. The we were thinking about putting a single car garage in its place. Given the money restraints, we won't be looking at that for probably a couple of years. Not sure of distances from living and master bedroom to the front boundary, but yes, there would be plenty of space to build out into the front yard. We hadn't really considered that, as I thought it might look funny as the roofing will be different from the rest of the house. siriuskey, thanks so much for the diagram. It's a massive help to get my head around things. You've managed to tick off most of my wish list! I love the long pantry right behind the kitchen. I hadn't thought of structuring it that way. We figured there would be some asbestos that needs to be taken care of. I have a couple people coming by next week to take a look and get some quotes. Has anyone had experience with it and could give me a rough idea on what the costs are like? I've been told you can pay $3000 - $4000 just for them to drop it at the tip. Thanks again. I'm starting to get excited about renovating now I have some ideas from you all.

Just focussing on the outside , I love what you've done with the front part . Were the dark bricks already there , or were they added ? Here's what I dislike though . Firstly , the tiles all match , except the black caps -- that grates with me . The gable on the original cottage is great , but 2 things irk me . Firstly , why not do a gable on the new addition too , instead of the sloping tiles on the front part of the new addition ? Pretty easy to do , it would reference the 2 parts IMO . And then there is the paint -- an offwhite on the gable , a greyer tone on the upper half of the new build . I realise it is not meant to be a reproduction , but surely you would reference the 2 parts -- I know I would . Which brings me to the lower part of the new build , done in a darker taupe colour -- I would have gone darker still , again to reference the bricks . Maybe just me , but I can't see the point in doing something that sort of refences , but doesn't . And then there are the windows too -- it would be so easy to add a wider frame to reference the existing cottage windows . You and the clients may disagree , but I like details like that to be obviously new , but referencing the old . And 1 final little niggle -- I would have done a crisp white feature rail attached to the wall , between the 2 colours 'upstairs' -- the 2 colours which I would have matched to the existing 'downstairs' .