The sanding and polishing of the floors should be done after painting. Except the skirting boards, as the sanding machines will need to run along the skirting to get as close to the wall as possible. Paint the skirting boards after floor sanding. Or even better still, if they have been removed or are going to be replaced during the renovation , reinstall them after floor polishing the timber floors.

Good on you abstar9511 for choosing to Renovate! I've personally gone through a renovation in the last 18 months and it is worth it. From the pictures the house looks to be in fairly decent nick for a Perth original, especially one by the beach with our salt and winds. If you choose to update the gardens at a later date, Planted Passion is happy to quote on a resilient garden design and installation for your properties' weather/soil/aspect conditions. Personally, I can see a Cottage Garden vibe which would like stunning, especially with the inclusion of some Hedges for beach wind protection. Good luck with the reno!

The good kind of mad! (Most) old houses ooze character, warmth and heart as much as new ones do chemicals and cheap fittings. I am a housebody, and love being in my house - I spend my money on it, instead of out clubbing and yes, there are always unexpected costs (new hot water service, leaking toilet...), but if you were renting you would have nothing of your own at the end anyway. Three years ago I bought my first house, a fairly original sandstone 98 year old lady in need of some TLC. No builder's reports in this little town, but then she cost me less than a landcruiser... Things I planned to do, but took forever because of rusting nails, old sizing, old quality workmanship include painting the whole thing, top to bottom, pulling up axminster carpet and getting the floors polished, putting fans and air conditioning in. Things I was hoping to avoid for a few more years but can't, include replacing the original roof, swapping the three-cupboard sleepout kitchen with a bedroom, redoing the bathroom, complete with new plumbing and actual drainage to the septic pit (which I had to have fixed a bit), and then I think the best option for the back room and laundry is just to rebuild them....But I don't regret this house, or the journey it's taken me on. Even if it has turned out to be a much more expensive journey than I thought! With time and google, you can do a lot yourself. Before I moved back three years ago I had always been n provided accommodation, so had never used a drill and only changed a couple of light globes, but now... I took a chimney and fireplace down on my own, then re-pointed the stone and put in a ceiling panel to close it up. I have painted, put up shelves, taken down cupboards that were built into walls, patched cracks, filled gaps, pried off skirting boards, and generally turned it into a home. For the more major stuff, like putting a doorway through a foot thick stone wall and rewiring an original bedroom to house a modern kitchen, I am getting the professionals in. good luck!

Just focussing on the outside , I love what you've done with the front part . Were the dark bricks already there , or were they added ? Here's what I dislike though . Firstly , the tiles all match , except the black caps -- that grates with me . The gable on the original cottage is great , but 2 things irk me . Firstly , why not do a gable on the new addition too , instead of the sloping tiles on the front part of the new addition ? Pretty easy to do , it would reference the 2 parts IMO . And then there is the paint -- an offwhite on the gable , a greyer tone on the upper half of the new build . I realise it is not meant to be a reproduction , but surely you would reference the 2 parts -- I know I would . Which brings me to the lower part of the new build , done in a darker taupe colour -- I would have gone darker still , again to reference the bricks . Maybe just me , but I can't see the point in doing something that sort of refences , but doesn't . And then there are the windows too -- it would be so easy to add a wider frame to reference the existing cottage windows . You and the clients may disagree , but I like details like that to be obviously new , but referencing the old . And 1 final little niggle -- I would have done a crisp white feature rail attached to the wall , between the 2 colours 'upstairs' -- the 2 colours which I would have matched to the existing 'downstairs' .