Hi guys... Thanks for the help... Yeah I thought of changing my bed side lamps to something bigger and maybe a custom made headboard but not too sure what fabric I should go with....

Hi Laura, I think a cedar timber batten fence would look great here. If the existing timber frame of the gate and fence is in good condition, you could remove the wire fencing and pant the frame. Then screw timber battens to the frame.

Audrey In Brisbane we can legally create a house with semi-self-contained units/flattettes. This can be done without a Develpment Approval. It does need a Building Approval, but for the changes you might need, you woudl need a Buidlign Approval anyway. These houses in Brisbane can consist of up to five bedrooms (assuming 1 person per bedroom) which can be ensuited and have a tea bench (small hotel like kitchen). You then provide a share kitchen and laundry. Ideally, you could also incorporate a common room. This house appears to have good bones to achieve this. With Airbnb I am currently doing similar to what you are looking at (although in Spring Hill). They take only 3%. My house needs renovation, but in there $180/week gives them a room and share bathrooms and kitchens and all bills paid. This property you are looking at has this opportunity immediately. With not much work you could provide a mix of products with several ensuited rooms as well as just rooms. If it was me, I'd be claiming the rear as mine and renting the house's front bits. I think you could bring up to $600/week depending on the condition of the property and location (again assuming you kept the two rear rooms and rumpus as your retreat with garden facing rooms (so you can keep an eye on the dogs, tend a garden and have an escape from the rest of the house. This is not to say you have to totally exclude tenants from access to it. If you want to chat more please feel free to contact me. The house appears to have great potential. Cheers David ( an Architect who believes in living small and economically without missing out on the luxuries home can provide)

okay so obviously the lousy drawing was unclear! it's more like this, I don't know why I labelled the homeschool room dining except i plan to use our current dining table. No, that dinky scribble wasn't another separate loo it was meant to be the washing machine. I thought I could reuse the plumbing and the raised up tiled floor would fit the washer and dryer. I could put some doors over it. @kiwimills I don't have room for a walk in pantry and actually I'm not a fan of them... I love to cook, but I love my kitchen pretty simple. I'd prefer an upright cupboard pantry, which should fit next to the fridge, there's more space between the 2 french doors than it seems, I measured it out today and it'd fit. or I could even fit another cupboard where I drew the dishwasher and shove it over a bit. We are only a family of 5 not 7! I only have 3 kids. @siriuskey I'd really love the arch but I'll see what my builder can do. Our walls have picture rails and a dado on one side but not the other so we'll have to think how to make it look balanced. I would always have just opened it up but not completely remove the wall, it's a pretty cheap alteration. leaving a little bit of wall gives us places for pictures and shelving and stuff and I prefer to keep the original layout of the walls visible. I'll see how much of a curve we can do, we might need it more straight at the side and then curved. I was also thinking of how to close up the old kitchen/dining into the kids rooms. rather than try to restore a smooth i could leave all the trims etc and make an insert to enclose it. I want to make a massive shadowbox for my natural history collector son and fill the space that way. I'd make the other side a big pinboard for the other kids, with wadding and fabric. The other opening could be filled with a wardrobe. the north and west side gets oppressively hot, and till we can afford the remove the asbestos cladding and hire a scissor lift and re-clad all in one go, the back view will have to wait. we'll catch the view when we swap the bathroom and dining area, it's cooler on the south west side. I really like south facing houses in this climate. It's probably not what is conventional 'for the market' reno, but honestly anything in this area sells well no matter what condition so I'm going to balance those thoughts with our actual needs. I've been trying to get more bedrooms but also more living space and I think this is the closest I've got. I also want a simpler layout. I've redesigned this so many times, and I'll probably change things more as it unfolds... but every time the design gets more tight and the renovation less complex so I think it's worth it. Thanks so much for all your feedback and advice, it's been so interesting and helpful to see all your suggestions!