Hi sc42355 - that is great info, thank you. We bought a Queen Anne in Eaglemont that had plenty of room but the house needed TLC, updating, and repurposing of rooms (so for example there was a very large formal dining, separate sitting, and then another separate large billiards room - but a back-of-the-house not-very-functional kitchen...). What started as a small reno has become pretty significant - our own money pit! - but not an extension. We are replacing the heating, going back to floorboards, redoing all the paint and paper, shifting the kitchen and doing a full new kitchen, new bathroom, two ensuites and powder room, creating a pantry and a linen room, and redoing the upstairs into a master suite. We also have an original French tile roof which isn't yet on the agenda but that tip for tradies there will definitely be useful. We wanted to update the house also - so the style is more transitional than restoration, so we are removing the heavy curtains which should give us better access to the beautiful windows. I will dig out some photos. 1 - In terms of the coordination of building work, we are using Dale from Genjusho Building Design, who has been great, particularly as we have been pretty organic in terms of having a locked down plan on the work required (it evolves...). 2 - The heating that has gone in is hydronic (we had to go all the way down into the floors to sort the floorboards, so were able to take advantage of that process to get the piping in for the heating). 3 - Lighting as you know is the current challenge but early on we identified a pendant manufacturer called WEP who we wanted to get one (possibly two - Lora and Renata styles) from - http://www.weplight.com/ although these are more modern lights they sit well in the space. Lighting continues and with the high ceilings we are also putting in LEDs just about everywhere and relying on pendants more for the aesthetics. Generally BrightGreen have been the uniformly recommended LED to provide the truest light quality. 4 - depending on the age of your property you might eventually find like us that the gas line (ie the one that links out to the mains on the street) needs to be upgraded. Not a big deal but as always extra cost and good to integrate with any significant garden redesign work if you are digging up a fair bit (or jackhammering up concrete as we are) to get the new pipe in. 5 - We didn't have enough of the original baltic floorboards throughout the downstairs to use - they'd been cut through over the years unfortunately - so we ended up getting replacement wide boards for the floor. We ended up going for a hardwood rather than the soft baltic, and are using spotted gum which means we won't need to stain it, just seal it. We found Urban Salvage in Spotswood good for the wood searching, also had Shiver Me Timbers recommended. 6 - The kitchen and cabinetry we are using Peter Gill who has been very good and spans the traditional-transitional spectrum well. http://www.kitchensbypetergill.com.au/ 7 - The paint and paper work has been a challenge for us also - the walls are fragile and a lot (A LOT) of prep work required to get either paint or paper (or both) to come out looking high quality given the age of the building, and the tendency of the walls to keep shifting. We are using JN painting & decorating. We also had to put in a picture rail to avoid banging hooks into these walls - both because patching isn't easy and because the walls wouldn't necessarily hold a hook in the same way modern plaster does. The labour on this takes a while. The rails are from classicarchitraves.com.au. 8 - We are putting back in fireplace mantles to match the era, sourcing these from Agnews. 9 - We had to source a lot of tiles given the refit of bathrooms/kitchen/laundry and these comes from a variety of sources - Lifestile in Camberwell, Tierno Tiles in Prahran, Urban Edge Ceramics in Richmond (where we found a particularly great pale green handmade subway tile), Artedomus in Richmond and Schots in Clifton Hill. We are also getting a garden plan done - this will be a much longer exercise than this reno but the plot is 1500 sqm so we wanted to have an overall plan to guide us. cheers C

Having lived for years with a front loader in the kitchen under counter and now with a good sized laundry I am resenting the laundry for the space it wastes! I would rather have a "european solution" and a good en-suit and walk in :) really it is a matter of how you want to live, in reality if you spend your life considering resale you won't enjoy your home, prospective purchasers will love or hate whatever you do, those that don't want a space solution will be the ones who want the big ensuite and robe anyway! Do it with love then others will love it too, good luck

Have you measured the bedroom? I could not comfortably fit a king bed in my master bedroom. As a child an oversize bed would have been an awesome trampoline but I would have resented the floorspace it took up. Have you thought about getting sheets for it too?

You could consider custom joinery that actually looks freestanding - purposefully creating a gap from the edge of the fireplace surround to the wardrobe & on the wall side also. This would also mean that it really does not matter if the front of the cupboards do not align with the front of the fireplace. Adding a nicely detailed leg, and a feature handle (you can get some really unique Australian made ones these days) to give some visual interest to the otherwise minimal finishes. Keep it simple & classic so it ages with your child's taste and preferences. As an example, The Design Files recent article has an image of a cupboard in a lounge area, that could be adapted to two double door units on either side of the fireplace https://thedesignfiles.net/2019/10/interiors-house-p-cjh-studio/. Seems perfect for a child of any age, or even if you want to convert the room to a more 'grown up purpose' once they leave home ;-)