Hi Kathy, so thrilled to hear my comments got you started thinking of the big picture, it has been a pleasure working with this. When you are starting totally from scratch like this it is easy to become too close to the issues and the brain becomes overloaded so you can't see the woods for the trees. I think this is also a classic example of why I always tell people to live in a house for a year before beginning to decorate, as hard as it is to be patient and wait, you do need to get the feel for a house and relate your lifestyle to it. I do like your idea of splitting the room into two areas, the room looks big enough to give you this option, and to me intimate spaces within a room create a more welcoming and homely feel. When you have a good idea of the furniture you would like, put what you have in the room and measure anything else before you buy it, use newspaper or cardboard boxes the size of the pieces and put them around the room to ensure you are going to get the desired result. It can be so easy to over or under estimate just how much space furniture will take up. Sorry the green lounge in the study didn't work out, but glad this has helped you see options. Just my personal opinion, one of my joeys had a lovely old grandfather clock in her lounge room and while it was a beautiful piece of furniture to look at, I just found it a little on the intrusive side - with its constant chiming it just didn't make the room feel relaxing, one was just so aware of the passing of time. Of course this can be advantageous when certain rellies visit. She ended up moving hers to her entrance foyer where it was a stand out feature and the lounge room became so much more relaxing. Love to see some photos of your landscaping.

Hi Kezzle This is a bit intricate but it should make sense... The flooring industry has tried to move across from lineal metres (lm) to square metres. Normally carpet is 3.66m wide (12ft). It sounds horrendous to buy a 4m wide (15ft) carpet at $390 lm, but if you express it as $97 sqm it's not so bad. Nevertheless, the flooring industry buys it from the suppliers in lineal metres and calculates the quantities in lm also. The trick is to balance the number of joins vs the wastage when deciding the layout. There is also a little trick in the trade where they crimp the quantity but that is for another day... There are two ways of laying the carpet upstairs. The first way is front to back of the house ie 'down' the room in eg bed 1 as shown below. This way will mean you will have a join in bedroom 3 and two in the passage, 1 being in the line of the wir doorway and the other in the line of the bed 3 cupboard. Here is a rough mud map... I can't quite make out the measurements very well, so I have written down the assumed numbers in lineal (length) metres. You can change these if incorrect. In the games room, you will have 1 join which you can't avoid due to the size of the room. This will require around 22.9 lineal metres of carpet.... and at $97.5sqm it should be costing you about $8930. Alternatively if you were paying $9,600 then the real cost of the carpet is $105 sqm.... just like Dr Retro (and there is the trick) If you turn it around the other way, you will have more joins and could do it for around 21.5-22.5lm depending on how many pieces are used in joins... I would go into the shop and ask them to show you how they are installing it.... then crunch the numbers yourself... There are about 3 or 4 ways this can be done so the above is just one... Cheers

Actually, your style isn't really very scandi in my opinion. It's industrial and rustic. I'd match recycled and chunky timbers with the concrete, a timber with rich reds. There is a company near me that makes plywood panels with recycled wood veneer attached. They're too far for you but might give you some ideas for a feature wall. I'd start with a few tins of paint and some colour actually. you'd be surprised what that can do! I'm fixing, well technically my second home but with our first we figured fairly quick it wasn't a forever home and didn't do anything personal with it. So this is our first "home" if not our first house. i getya! I know everyone seems to love white walls, but after years of bland rentals the first thing I wanted to do was paint colours all over the walls! Anything but white! Paint is cheap and a safe place to start testing your design flair. Go and paint a bunch of sample tins onto the walls and don't stress too much about the perfect look. start with what you like and find what suits that. A colour that makes you smile when you see it. I've paid about $10 a sample tin. like others said, don't do anything with the carpets yet, you can throw a rug over it if its too boring and it will look fine. There are so many things that I first thought I needed to completely change, then as I painted and freshened and tidied up I realised were not needed a huge reno. Our house was a bit of a wreck though, not a nice new apartment so things just literally needed cleaning and fixing. Put up some pictures, art, photos you like too. Honestly, I know everyone's being funny about getting a girlfriend and getting her to decorate, but actually I think it's great you've got your own taste and want to decorate. I think anyone you bring home would love seeing more of your personality around the place. Check out some garage sales and buyswap sell and auctions for rustic timber pieces for your home. Maybe a nice pipe and timber bookshelf in the lounge instead of an entertainment unit? https://www.northernriverstimber.com.au/

Your concretor is never going to fix the problem he has created to your satisfaction and to an appropriate and professional standard of his own free will to remedy his laziness. I am assuming that he has been fully paid for his shoddy work. I wouldn't allow him (or his plumbing mate) anywhere near my property again. I would be paying my own plumber the $4500 to fix it, or get a few more quotes from some other plumbers - sometimes a clever plumber can work out a cost-effective workaround. Then speak to your lawyers to write some aggressive letters demanding compensation, but there is no guarantee that you will get what you are owed. Without knowing how big the slab is $2200 seems very cheap for the amount of work, bobcat hire and materials needed, and perhaps should have rung alarm bells about you get what you pay for. I would also be keeping the QBBC informed as this scam artist is giving registered tradesmen a bad name. Best of luck, and sorry for your bad experience Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls and Dr Retro Virtual Visits via Zoom.