Cats indoors with the back verandah built in for them (snake mesh). I believe cats should be contained for their safety and that of wildlife. I am on acreage with nearest road/neighbour 1 km away - so for my cats it is really about the safety of wildlife. 2 small indoor dogs - mini dachshund and chihuahua. Indoors for their safety and they are a part of the family. 1 outdoor dog protecting livestock. I have always had dogs inside. I used to have larger dogs and they would be wherever I was, and outdoors when I wasn't home. I have had a lot of dogs... chosen and rescues/highway pickups. I have always heard the argument that it is not hygienic having them indoors.... and now I have had kids I can confidently say kids are far worse than dogs. My house used to always be clean and clutter free. Now I am constantly cleaning and tidying and telling kids to pick up stuff - and I might get 5 minutes a day where it looks like what it always looked like when I just had dogs!

I like the look of the outside of the house , and initially I wouldn't change the yellowy beige colour . What I would do is get the concrete block retaining wall either rendered in the same colour as the house , or if the budget ran to it -- get a genuine stone facade . As far as gardens to soften the look , I'd stick to the meditarreanian theme , and do a couple of 2 metre tall green leafy plants in wooden round planters ( half wine barrels or similar ) , and maybe a long , slim garden ( 4 or 5 metres long by 40cm wide ) with marigolds or similar .

Hi Julie - thanks so much for your suggestions. The water features look gorgeous and trust my luck to fancy the more bespoke labour intensive options! That said, I think your last post about the screens are a winner! I actually think this is what i will go for against the fence. I had originally considered this about two years ago and was keen to get a fabulous custom screen done (with foliage of Western australian flowers), however it just got all too hard and I didn't know how to source the right custom supplier. I'm going to investigate this option in the first instance. I can also probably back light it as well as I have some outside lights in the garden that i haven't positioned very well previously that I can probably run behind this to give a different effect at night. Thank you for reminding me and sourcing these gorgeous pictures. They look perfect. The rusted look gives colour and texture that I think will look great against green foliage, and if I can back light it - I hope it will look awesome. Have a great weekend.

m_walker5, just from the 2 photos so far it seems to me the main first improvement to that space would be to remove the wall to the kitchen, so you need to find out if this is loadbearing or not. Stick your head up through the ceiling manhole to see how the structure is framed. If it is fully framed (rafters, ceiling joists, struts bearing down on internal walls) chances are that that wall is loadbearing. On the other hand if it is gangnail trusses (triangular frames with W braces held together with metal nail-plates) you are in luck. These typically span between outside walls and internal walls can usually be changed or removed easily. This is your staring point for deciding how far you want to go with this depending on budget, and is the point where you should involve an architect/designer to work out a comprehensive renovation plan. I have just completed a very similar project where the renovation was urgent (kitchen cabinets were falling off the walls!) but the budget was greatly reduced as the owner unexpectedly lost one source of income. We managed to do a full kitchen renovation, remove walls to create larger open-plan spaces, full re-sand and polish of floors, full internal repaint, all for about $80,000.