Hi Ellie 20 years experience in lighting supplied to domestic and commercial jobs and fitting advice, costings not my thing though, if you still need help.

Start by spending a portion of your budget on the various dream feature items that are relocatable and can be used in your final design anyway. e.g. Buy the firepit you really want - it can become the focal point of your future garden. Test it outside in your backyard for a few months. Are heaps of mozzies annoying you while you're sitting outside around the firepit? If so, then you'll know that you're going to need a gazebo with flyscreens as well as privacy curtains so you can really enjoy lying outside in your hammock year round. The hammock is another relocatable part of your design. First, lie outside in your backyard on a swag or a rug for a few hours. Is it too windy? Is there road noise? Keep experimenting until you've found the perfect location for the hammock. Then buy an inexpensive hammock and suspend it from a couple of sturdy RL4 poles. If it's working, then this is the place where you should build your future patio, that's going to shelter your hammock. Keep testing inexpensive versions of your other ideas out. Trial tea candles or a string of inexpensive white Christmas lights as garden lighting. Do they create the feel you want or do lights just attract moths or unwanted insects? What about relocatable solar garden lights? Or a portable floodlight from Bunnings? Where's the ideal place for your garden table and chairs? Test it out with inexpensive camping chairs - or chairs you already own for a few months to be sure. Then invest in the perfect outdoor table and chairs. Same with the water feature. Start with a wine barrel with a waterlily or a second hand pond off Gumtree. Can you hear the trickling water in the garden or do other noises crowd it out? Keep in mind big goldfish need deep water and space to swim. To help you in your choice of plants,look around your immediate neighbourhood. What purple, blue and scented plants are thriving in your immediate area? Who has the best garden in your street in your opinion - and why do you think that? Do you always see a particular neighbour passionately working outside in their garden? That's the person you should strike up a conversation with to get advise about suitable plants for your immediate area. Chances are they will not only give you heaps of free advise but they will probably give you plants and cuttings as well. Markets are another source of perennial plants that grow well in the local area. Plant these smaller plants into large plastic pots and garden bags and allow them to grow for a year or so. Consider herbs as filler plants - many are highly scented, can be used in cooking and often have interesting foliage e.g. choc mint, fennel, rosemary etc. After you've been using your backyard for at least a year and you've experienced all of the seasons, then invest in your big ticket items like your gazebo. Buy or build a structure that's truly practical for your local microclimate - incorporate glass, windbreak fencing, shadecloth, mozzie mesh or whatever you need to make your hammock shelter ultra comfortable. Build this structure where you've tested it and know it will work - not where a stranger who designs gardens thinks it should go. Spend the remaining money on the things you know you need and want - the stones, plants, irrigation, a birdbath, etc

Townhouses, Multi Dwellings Design & Documentation & Approvals, Sydney-wide and also regional/country NSW. Hi I’m IBRAHIM CONLON Registered Architect (#10042) located in Sydney and heading ISC Design. We specialise in detailed design, documentation & approvals for townhouses, multi dwellings, apartments, units, low-rise, medium ride, high rise. Multi Dwelling Design, Townhouse Design, Apartment Design, Duplex Design. DA/CC Documentation for Council & private certifiers. Site research, site feasibility studies. Council Pre DA meetings attendance & negotiation. S34 LEC Court attendance As a registered Architect we can prepare SEPP65 design verification statements and competently design for buildings 3-100 stories. All Sydney Councils. Let us research your site and advise the development possibilities. Kind regards ----------------------------------------------------- Ibrahim Conlon M.Arch (UTS) B.A Arch (UTS) ADAD (CIT) AICOMOS Registered Architect ARB NSW 10042 Associate Member ICOMOS 1512 ISC DESIGN; Australian Contemporary & Heritage Architecture Documentation, Representation, Administration Office Address; Suite 1, Level 1 115 Auburn Road Auburn NSW 2144 0404459916 ibrahim@iscdesign.com.au www.iscdesign.com.au

In response Lauren: trying to be succinct and discreet… It’s late September, I’m in Tassie and the Premier announces interstate travel will not recommence until December 16th. Daughter is marrying in Victoria on Jan 8th. With work & Xmas, too few shopping days. Also there are several lead up events, so I need several outfits. I’m slight but well endowed, so shopping is tricky and, because of Covid, several intrastate boutiques have closed. I usually shop in Melbourne anyway. Tell the stylist my go to designer but make it clear I only want alternatives. Had lengthy conversation/email, including measurements and video, about what does and doesn’t work for my body type. I received 1. the name and website of one boutique which didn’t allow returns 2. one dress from a store that said, when I rang, that they told “professional” it wouldn’t fit. 3. the suggestion I try my go to designer. No follow up. Still cross, not so much that it was unsuccessful but that I got nothing from my spend and, importantly, no acknowledgement. I rarely give bad reviews, but I was tempted. Morale: under promise / over deliver because online services live and die by reviews 👆🏻Neither succinct nor discreet, but I like to see young businesses thrive so I’m over sharing. Good luck with it all. And don’t underestimate how important a good, not just interested in minimising tax, accountant will be 😉