Hi Louise, hope you are settled in your house now, it looks lovely. Having lived in a house with a west facing living area I'm sorry to say your rooms will get very hot over summer and even if you install air conditioning you will still need to minimise the sun and heat coming into the house to save on electricity. Stopping the sun reaching your rooms is the ideal but outdoor blinds can look ugly so ultimately it comes down to looks -v- comfort. Thermal blinds or curtains will help keep the sun and heat out considerably but they do darken a room as well. Fans will help with air circulation but you do need cross ventilation to help the house cool itself especially if you get breezes off the water. I think your bedroom would be enhanced by a covered deck to add some character to the house too and this would certainly help with the sun in that room. Another tip is the colours you use in these rooms will help improve the look and feel of the room, I found soft blues or aquas made a huge difference with a lot of white for freshness. Neutral colours for some reason just did nothing and made the rooms look and feel hotter.

If you make the garage roof appear horizontal/flat from the front without any eave or visible roof, you will notice a huge difference... This could be a flat roof and box gutter to the garage, which would retain the look around the corner. It could also just be a simple parapet in front of the roof as designed, which would be less of an additional cost for you. I also agree with others, if you can get the lower verandah roof to also appear flat from the front it will benefit. The reason for this is that it will allow the two roof pitches on the first (upper) floor to become the dominant roof forms. Right now you have 4 dominant roof forms competing. Flattening out the bottom two will allow them to look a little heavier and become the anchor for your building

Jessica Craig, I thought you might like to know this. When my daughter was a baby and I took her for swimming lessons, I met another wonderful Mum Wendy and her daughter, Sophie. Sophie's father had recently passed away and so Wendy was trying to adjust to the hand that fate had dealt her. They had not long purchased their house too. We have remained very close all these years and I can report that both Soph and Wendy are a force to be reckoned with. Sophie (now 15) is a talented singer, is doing well at school and has oodles of personality. Wendy is studying online and working towards fulfilling her dream of one day writing a children's book. The house has been renovated and is a very warm and welcoming home. It has not always been an easy road as single mum for Wendy, but it continues to get richer as the years move by. I hope that in some of your harder moments, this may bring some small level of comfort to you.

It has taken me a couple of reads , but like OkLouise , I think the driveway comes down and takes a 90* turn into the carport ? The next question I would ask is what are you trying to achieve ? Do you need a 5th bedroom ? It would be expensive doing an upstairs one , especially with the existing roofline , but also doing one as part of a new 'building' would also be expensive . While I like OkLouises idea , my worry would be cutting out light to the lounge and living area . A couple of suggestions then -- Suggestion number 1 , assuming you are happy with 4 bedrooms , but want an enclosed garage and a second bathroom , would be to either move the carport forward ( it looks like it is steel framed ? ) OR get a couple more frames done , then close some or all of it in , having had water and waste added to the 'extended' ( what I call the rear ) part of the floor . This gives you a garage or a workshop or lockable storage , PLUS a washhouse ( as a room , or as part of the larger area ) . THEN you can turn the existing WC 90* , and convert the 'entrance way' to the existing bathroom into a shower -- both incorporated as an ensuite to the master bedroom . The existing bathroom and ex-washhouse can be reconfigured ( it looks like non-load-bearing walls , so relatively easy to move doors ) into a new bathroom and toilet area -- most water and services are already installed -- you may need to get a concrete cutter to add a second WC , maybe to move the shower waste ? Suggestion No 2 is if you do want a 5th bedroom and enclosed garage would be similar , but add it all at ground level , using the existing carport as a basis . That way you can add a bathroom , possibly a laundry too , and as per suggestion 1 you could end up with 2 or 3 bathrooms ( your choice ) and essentially a 'granny flat' -- that probably makes the resale better too . To try and reconfigure the existing interior , try and add doors through existing exterior walls , demolish existing walls , try and add a longer hallway , try and extend bedrooms , even to add to that existing roofline , etc , etc would be quite expensive for what it would achieve IMO . Of course , if it is going to be a long term house , then go for it , remodel to your hearts desire , but if you want to try and recoup the maximum in a few years , you need to think what would a purchaser be looking for , and what will they pay ?