Whatever you do never plant a gum! They have no place in suburban areas! The sooner the council realises that these trees kill people the better! We have had two gum trees fall on the back of our house now, one in 2012 and one in 2014. We are so lucky that myself, my husband, three children, three dogs, five Guinea pigs, two parrots and one bearded dragon were not injured. It's just a miracle not once but twice! I still don't know how we escaped unharmed. The gums do not have a stable root system and they grow very shallow, they get to the point where they just fall over. And the scary thing is they fall silently. They are not called 'Widow Makers' in the bush for no reason. I like the Tuckeroo tree, not sure of scientific name. They grow with a straight trunk and keep their foliage in a straight and symmetrical line along the bottom and grow hiding their branches. Essentially they look like a large mushroom. They are green all year too. I think they get to about 6 metre or ten if they have to reach for the sun.

hmmm not a fan and definitely not in a bedroom. Experts say for a restful nights sleep no computers, phone chargers, led lights from a clock, in the bedroom. So i reckon they would say neon lights a no no for cellular health.

I love all this feed back - thank you ladies & gents :) I do think the light and flow would probably work better like oklouise's first post - I concede you are both right. My concern was the depth of the shower - we have a very pokey one at the moment but think I see how to rectify that - tell me what you think? Also I want LOTS of storage and think keeping the storage in the activity with the entrance now up the other end would limit the furniture layouts so I would probably keep that in the entrance hall and still use the nook as is - no doubt they will sit there to do their makeup as the light will be amazing BUT i can imagine the mess will not - haha! I LOVE those doors siriuskey- so grand and impressive but my husband is a lay in bed TV watcher so that would possibly take up too much wall space for his liking - again I giggle ( you have to right?)

this house is such a great example of it's era it would be a shame to change it too much and the dark framed original windows and doors (with horizontal divisions not colonial panes) stained or painted a similar dark colour (including black) would be excellent but only over the original dark trim and others will make better suggestions for colour schemes but if you decide to add the entertaining areas, carport and covered walkways, dark posts, fascias, decking and pathways could make a a nice contrast with the blond bricks..DIY can be a great cost saver but having recently almost completed a similar renovation and about to start on another (we're also a retired couple) i would strongly recommend that you invest in a builder to take care of the overall construction and save money with careful planning (to avoid last minute changes) demolition (NB there's probably asbestos to consider) we saved by sourcing all our own taps, tiles, sinks, doorknobs, light fittings and happily recycled many of the existing fixtures and fittings (including sections of plaster cornices and etc and you could try painting, DIY flatpac kitchen and wardrobes, and consider prioritising the work based on your personal daily comfort eg although i suggested the old sunroom is worth renovating as long as it's safe and weatherproof the upstairs doesn't really need major changes and you could concentrate on the biggest project first OR start small and work up but it's always preferable to plan the whole property to avoid duplication and have a builder quote for the whole renovation and then you can stagger costs (and stagger out of bed each day) doing work in stages...In the meantime i'm assuming that your plans are from a real estate add so your very first project would be to make a very accurate plan of what you already own so measure every wall, thickness of walls, position of windows and doors, width of stairs etc ..even a few cms can make a huge difference in your options (eg the floor of the "study nancave" is probably lower than the living room and not waterproofed so do you want/need it enough to raise the floor, step down, enter under the stairs through a secret tunnel, come in through the old garage or leave it for the the boys??) obviously i can write ad nauseum but you will need proper plans for the external structures so it would be worth investing in professional drawings for the internal work as well your pre-planning will save time for the professionals (and your money) if you're reasonably confident about what will fit the spaces and i would be happy to revise the plans if you want to message me directly with the accurate measurements