I'm amazed that this discussion has carried forward for nearly two years! In that time I have moved to another coastal area (cooler climate and better proximity to children) and this time found most of the discussion still rings true. Finding another home here was an incredibly frustrating journey made all the worse by a mad investor rush in the area just when we arrived to start our home search. That search took the best part of six months and in the end there would only be three or four houses to choose from in any week. Result? A rushed purchase, a desperately inadequate building inspection and failure on my part to notice poor bathroom tiling, shortage of closet and storage pace, just how small the lounge room really was, and etc. I disappointed myself because I had let the pressures beat me and now we are trying to resolve all of these issues in a home designed and built by one of this states most respected project home builders 25 years ago. Having now studied the floor plan with more care I realise it was put together (designed) in modular fashion - most bedrooms have similar dimensions and the living areas are all approximately the same size as if the designer simply juggled three boxes of one size and four of another size and then worked out traffic flow. Then he must have thrown them all in the air to see how they would land and that was design number two! And etc and so on. This house aside, we looked at a great many during the six months because we had to broaden our search above and below budget trying to find something. There were massive termite problems, leaky roofs, asbestos galore, gazzumping at every turn, almost all but the most expensive properties suffered at least one substantial fail for the most basic of needs and to top it off the best home in our price range just happened to be built on flood prone land - approved by council who put the flood signs up less than five years earlier. We live and learn. Then there were the real estate agents, but that would take another two years and I doubt the internet has enough free page space available!!! OK, I hear you, they're not ALL bad...

My parents' old house had a wonderful oak front staircase that my six siblings and I used to race up and down, taking them two or three at a time, with only a casual hold on the railing. I don't know how we managed to never slip or fall. Now, the timber backstairs were steep, and had narrow treads and were poorly lit. We NEVER ran up or down them, but held tightly to the railing and hoped to heck we managed to stay upright. As an adult, my previous home had carpeted stairs, which I slipped on (wearing socks) and fell down twice, though thankfully I was closer to the bottom than the top. My current home has timber stairs with three narrow stainless steel runners stood on edge and inset horizontally across the front of each tread (this is supposed to help reduce risk of slips). I doubt I will get over the anxiety of taking another tumble, so I never go down them wearing socks, and if barefoot, I hold onto the railing for dear life and take it nice and slow. So far so good.

@ dorothyoliphant..wish you luck! I commiserate with your wanting the tangled cables out of sight. Cables are my nightmare, really! I am an amateur publishing buff with several printers, scanner, other devices. Needed a corner table for all the stuff...and all with cables tied together in a haphazard manner running down the back of the desk to a power board on the floor....all hidden behind a ply screen across the corner underneath the desk. Seems tidy, keeps the cat out of it, but difficulr to access and to keep clean. How do other people solve the office desk cable problem? I've seen busy publishing offices using many devices, all the cables hanging down the backs of desks...but nobody seems to be bothered, (suppose because its somebody else's problem, not in the employees own homes.) For the TV cables. an "out of sight" decorative solution works because the cables are accessible if needs be,, but the electrical cable tangle problem hidden under my desk collecting dust on the floor is an issue for me..... ..what if I spill a drink.... or something? The TV and the cat I bred siamese cats time ago. The magnificent stud was very posessive, jealouse of my attentions being anywhere else than on him. I'd purchased a really dinky little table top TV, company for the times spent tending to my prize felines in their courtyard/ outdoor enclosure. Suddenly the TV succumbed to vertical collapse. What had caused the problem? The technician grinned saying : " Its a wonder your fancy cat still has his equipment!" No jealous stud cat these days but one never knows what could happen to cables on the floor even if neatly hidden. @ wuff.. Re the 'adhesive cord tidy' with the click-on front from Bunnings that you mention... Will it stick to any surface? My walls are timber. Does it come in wider-deeper sizes...my cables are many. I'm in the country, Bunnings is 65k away. I'd need to phone them so need to know how to explain what I need. Would appreciate any further detail you could give. Thanks.. Does anyone else know of a safe, easily accessible solution for a multi cable problem? Something up off the floor, secured behind a fixture on the wall? I'm all out of original ideas on this. Thanks in advance for any solutions! Thanks dorothyoliphant for your original post about TV cables...led me toaddressing my own cable problem that I'd been trying to dismiss.

Hi everyone, thank you for your feedback. So we took some measurements and it appears that they really have only just left enough space to fit in the original design with no margin for error. Without being millimetre perfect, which I know is impossible to achieve, if I ask them to rip out the current stairs, I suspect I'll be left with a worse situation and a stair in the hallway. Really very upset with this, I expected a custom designed house to be as designed, otherwise we probably should have just gone with a project home which would have cost a lot less! I was very clear with them about the stairs, absolutely no winders, a flat platform and no where in any plans was there a step in the landing! This whole house was designed around the stairs, which is why I'm so annoyed that it's not correct! With respect to the weird wall in the middle, that will be plastered up and capped to rake up with the stairs. The photo's don't show the large window in the stairwell, and once painted white, it should still be very light and bright. I considered glass, very briefly, I'm not keen on cleaning that and thought I would end up with toy's being posted through a balustrade. The tread will remain oak and the riser will be painted white. Going for a modern Australian coastal, hamptons look, classic but not too traditional. I am going to ask them to address the stair frame and step it down in parallel with the step, as opposed to the angle that is currently there on the mid landing, it just looks really bad when looking up the stairs and the handrail as the kids will need something to hold on to now there is a step in the mid landing. I'll also be asking that the stair frame sit's flush with the nib wall as it rounds the corner in the junction of the two flights. It sticks out a bit too far for my liking at the moment. I really hope they don't get too many other things wrong!