Thanks Jayme, I get what you mean, it's just not really practical for our house & will make the renovation a lot more difficult & expensive if we start moving walls like the to gain an extra couple of feet. It's possibly a load bearing wall too. But that area which is currently our kitchen where we are thinking of putting the fire place isn't the main living area, it's basically the centre of our living area which is a long room from one end of the house to the other, so we were thinking having the fire there will warm the house better being that it will have the kitchen & dining table one side of it & the lounge the other side. I think we could it a couple of cozy arm chairs & a small coffee table or we could just put a love seat up against the section of wall opposite the fire?

I see this is a very old thread , with lots of comments . I've just skim read them , but I haven't seen anyone suggest anything like my 'top-of-my-head' idea -- I love the wood , and the white contrast , but pretty boring . Whats your favourite colour , or what ties in with the other rooms ? It might be blue or red or yellow or orange or green , as examples . So paint the skirting board and around the door a pastel shade of your choice , and add a small 30cm x 30cm abstract painting featuring that colour as the primary dominant one , above ( or possibly below , or maybe even get 2 matching/complementary ones ) the control panel . One lighting crowd suggested glass shades -- I'd actually go for someothing large but wooden , in much the same shade as your floors and steps , with LED bulbs -- you can get some stunning ones around 80-100 cm in diameter ( sort of a star ball shape ) for $300-400 . Total budget then $500 plus a painter and maybe electrician , unless you DIY .

Barbara pretty spot on. Sand on base is best for temporary situation and you can leave it when the pool gets put away for winter. Another way to level is setup up a string line in a square ie. 4 stakes to hold it up and level the string line. Use the string line as a visual guide and you can also measure down from it as you go. As you dig the higher ground, you effectively move it the lower end. Saves having to get rid of dirt and you can restore it to its former natural slope when you returf. Compact the fresh pile at the lower end and use the rubble to help hold it together. Your other problem of turf not growing in that area has little to do with the rubble in my opinion. Does it get plenty of winter sun? Do you feed it/water it regularly? I grew over 20 sq. metres of turf on a cement slab in my yard with only 100mm (10cm) of dirt which also had concrete rubble mixed in. It had no direct sun in winter but still stayed green throughout, beautifully in summer. Good luck.

The Your Home may say that a northern frontage block, like yours, is a good orientation for energy efficiency. But this comes with one major caveat, the living areas MUST face north & be unshaded in winter time. This means building a home with the garage or back (if there's a rear lane), or pushing the home back a bit & building a carport or garage at the front, which is separated from the home ( & won't shade it). But this is not what usually happens. Usually a large double garage is located at the front, taking up a large portion of the northern aspect. Robbing the home of northern light. Your block is reasonably narrow, at around 11m. Take out the side setbacks (if you're not allowed a zero lot boundary for the garage) & you have 9m for the home's maximum width. 6m width for the garage, more for the entrance, add the thickness of the walls. What you're left with is very little, & you wouldn't even have enough room for a single north facing room. In this scenario your block orientation is a very poor choice in terms of energy efficiency & comfort. The home will be dark, & cold in winter. With increase bills for heating, lighting & maybe even cooling (if you have a lot of eastern & western windows). So I'd you are planning on building a pretty normal home with a big double garage at the front, & have the option to choose another block, is highly recommend you do so. The blocks on the opposite side of the street are the idea candidates. A southern frontage, where a large garage could be located, without shading the home. Importantly, north facing living rooms located out the back. These will be light, warm in winter, cool in summer (shaded by eaves). If you are unable to change blocks & don't have access to a rear lane for a garage, there's a few things you can do. But you'll have to be a bit adventurous to get good results, or forego a double garage if that's what's in the plans. As you don't have a very large block, there's not much room to push the home back, & separate it from the garage. A different option is to build an 'upside-down home'. With living areas upstairs, bedrooms below. Locating the living areas towards the front of the home will mean they will be light, & warmed by the sun in winter, with access to cooling breezes. Bedrooms will be cooler & darker. Ideal. I'm actually living in an upside down house right now, with north facing living areas 😁 If this type of design is too much of a stretch, & you'd like a more familiar design, there's options to limit the dominance of the garage in the northern aspect. Reducing its width by building a single garage or a tandem garage. If you must have a double garage, & don't have a zero lot boundary, the only way to fit a north facing room would be to have a side entrance to the home. Shortening up the hallway length, leaving part of the northern aspect to one northern room. As you can see, your choice of block, with a northern frontage is a poor choice from an energy efficiency perspective. But you can overcome some of these limitations with good, inventive design. You won't get this from an average volume builder.