@Tribble - the situation is the same in Em Bee's part of the world as in ours. Aging demographic, lots of immigration and also internal migration, and of course offshore buying. But where I live, the issue isn't so much competition, as the inability of builders/developers to read the market. Our own builder (small builder, one project at a time, some of them industrial, not housing) told us that the two-story houses in our town were simply not selling that quickly, whereas the one-story houses were listed and gone. (He sold us our house before he tore down the old one, and sold the other house on the block about 3/4 of the way through the build and before it was ever listed. The two story house around the corner from us was on the market for 8 months). I'm not a huge fan of government intervention in housing (I saw public housing in the UK and that was not a good thing) but I do think strong regulation on foreign property buyers is appropriate. That said, I also think the builders need to get their heads together and recognize that there's a boomer population that has a bit of money and wants something different than the bog-standard two-storey box house. Time for the developers to catch up. Okay, sorry, second rant for the day.

Another question I have is should I paint the brickwork? And if so, what colour?

Thanks for everyone's input and advice! I was planning on going for a rug, but I was surprised at how well the woods went without it. I was thinking along the lines of a jute rug, and I'm still curious to see what one would look like. I agree that there needs to be some texture, but now I'll start by adding a table runner, a colourful centrepiece or flowers and some greenery around it and go from there. Are there any places where you can buy rugs that lets you return it if it doesn't match your furniture? I actually have white tie-up shades on the windows that the pictures don't show. @girlguides, that's actually the closed bay window in the living room!

Sadly there aren't any digital, online tools to get super-accurate colour rendition. Most of the online tools give approximate and indicitive looks. There are many reasons for this, including your perception of the colour depending on the quality of light and time of day, and the accuracy of your computer's graphic card and your computer monitor. If you want to see what I mean then do a google image search for a popular Colorbond colour, such as "Surfmist", and you will be amazed at the huge variety of Surfmists show up in images ranging from blinding white to dirty beige! I used to be the national design manager with a large national builder and only by employing skilled graphics artists using top-of-the-line graphic workstations could we get close enough to the real thing, but they were never perfect. The best (and cheapest) option is to get samples of the materials and colours you are looking at, and assemble them together outside (in natural light), and see how they look different at different times of day under different light conditions. Don't waste your time with online colour applications if you want colour accuracy. Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls