Hi Suzanne The key is to do all your design, building permit drawings, an excellent specifications, ordering of some appliances (not necessarily delivered) and "timing in" a Builder well before you start any physical building work. By the way if you are removing walls downstairs and upstairs you are doing structural work - depending on how the roof and the walls are supported. You can take various process in your approach but a good design is always the key - this means that before you begin your Building Permit drawings you are holding in your hand a design that you can feel in you "gut" that you are very happy with - "you" means all stakeholders in the project. To achieve this it takes time - it is difficult to do one concept of a design and built your first draft, I have found from past experience that it takes about three goes at concept designs to eventually distill a good Sketch Plan - or final idea. If you allow some time to measure up and do the initial existing conditions and then some discussion and eventually produce the first concept, then meetings and discussion to revise and change things, then also allow for daily events three to six months will easily pass. Then you may need planning permit - depending on local planning laws - (Council may tell you six to eight weeks but six to eight months may be more realistic especially if you are in any sensitive council) and hoping you get no objections - considering that yours appears to be internal work it may not apply - unless you change or put in a new window or do any external work - again depending on local town planning regulations. Then Building permits Drawings and consultants (if any), a good eight to ten weeks and then instructing and employment of a Builder - Builders are not necessarily ready to build on your timing - so you may have to wait before he/she can start on your job. So when you allow for family commitments which always take priority, and work commitments that must come first, eighteen months to three years (if planning with objections) from start to build may be a good estimate. Then the building process which may take six to nine months and you will get to eighteen months to over three years. Any competent Building Designer, Drafts-person, Architect can and do produce the required documents and administer the contract if required. - it just depends how much you are willing to invest in the process. An Architect may charge 10% to 15% or more of the FINAL building cost - so if you are going to spend $3000,000.00 he would get $30,000.00 to $45,000.00 or more, not including payments to consultants and authorities which are generally excluded from design fees. If you stage the process - get a good design done by a Building Designer that works on a fixed fee, and then you may get a drafts-person that specializes only in working drawings to do you Building Permit documents - (or the same Building designer if you are happy with the process) and get a good Builder and do your own contract administration - you can do this if you worked with your Building Designer thorough the design and working drawing, your cost for the whole design process may be quite different. You will be confident enough to administer your own contract if you have good drawings which are well detailed and have followed the design process throughout - Good complete, competent, well detailed, well specified and with accurate finishing schedules documents is the key. This is what the Builder uses to build - if he has to wait six weeks because you did not make up your mind on and appliance or tile selection, the process would fall over and you cost will dramatically increase. To a Builder the more the omission and changes = More waste of time and more cost to the client. The longest and most difficult stage is to get a good concept and sketch design before moving on to the other stages, give yourself time - if you go fast and don't follow the process and give it to "some expert" to do the whole process and you become a bystander paying the "money" the result could be painful. As you can see there are a lot of factors - ring somebody up (use skype if there is as distance issue) , find a Building Designer you can work with and have a chat. Like all things it will take a few revisions to get it right , but if you are willing to work at it, it will payoff in the end. The first thing is to draw up the existing conditions to scale so that an initial proposal showing possibilities can be worked on. I would be willing to work on this project with you online, I hope this is of some help. Regards Michael Manias mm407p@gmail.com

Yes, all the Houzzers have been extraordinarily helpful. I am sure in the end, it will be a beautiful room. With regards to the change of sofa style, I was unsure of my ability to keep the white leather clean - particularly the stitching. By finally going with the "Julio" it is slightly more comfy sofa than the "Ariel". It has a higher back and I feel the "granite" colour will give me less hassles. In reality, the "granite" colour has slight yellow/creme undertones which tie back better with the curtains but this doesn't really show up in pictures. Golly, I hope I am on the right track. Thanks everyone for your help and suggestions. Keep them coming please

The tile floor will always be the elephant in the room so consider if it is realistic to change. If you must keep the tiles here are some other fixes that will improve the space. 1. Look through Houzz and make a scrapbook of what you like - You need to determine the style of the kitchen -if you are to keep the doors you could head towards a hamptons style. Consider how the adjoining spaces are decorated as any changes may need adjustments elsewhere. I would cost out each element of the job and decide if you can do it all - possibly over time, as when you do one thing it makes others look shabby and the decisions you make for one aspect would have been different with an overall plan. 1. Remove the pelmet in the kitchen. 2. Paint the cupboards - possible going to a darker colour on the bottom and a lighter on the top. A dark charcoal could work and a grey toned white for the top cupboards. There are some nice Caesarstone options that could pick up these tones with a marble look. 3. The handles need to be heavier as they are trying to be contemporary when the cupboard profile is more traditional 4. You need to replace the bench top- this is your biggest problem as it is totally dated. 5. Your pantry doors ? are different and need to have the same handles. 6. Could go with white glass subways with a soft grey toned grout. If you change the cupboard profile - a squared off shaker style would work- remember that many of the gloss white kitchen s being built these days will soon be dated - so depending on the age of the house - stay traditional. good luck.

yes. stallion looks like it is in a sample hanger with all or most of the various colours available. your other photo with the 6 or so swatches looks like all warwick samples. The Bleecker pleat does look interesting. I haven't seen it in Australia. Just remember any 'different' headings will substantially increase your making cost. Making cost is usually not unreasonable in Australia in my opinion as we have regulated wages etc. so making will change depending on how much labour will be involved. the most 'flexible' cost with curtains is your fabric as fabric cost can have a very wide range as you have no doubt discovered. but the making cost is the same whether the fabric cost $25 per metre or $250. the labour is the same.