@Karen Hodge, I hear you!! Sometimes I think the estate agent should carry quite a bit of the blame actually. If they do their job correctly like you see in the adds on TV, they should bring these discrepancies to the attention of the sellers, stand on their morals and say if you can't get it better than this, then you'll have to find someone else to sell your home!! I know you can't make everybody "house proud" but the saying "do unto others" springs to mind. I bet if these same people bought a house not up to scratch, "a current affair" would hear about it but they don't think it wrong to simply walk out on a house that isn't being left nicely for the next family!! I have some friends that recently sold a house in Essendon, Melb and whilst the buyers were back and forth selling their own home, my friends kept watering the plants and even did things like painted out the wardrobes because of the scuff marks made over time!! They cleaned the entire two storey house from top to bottom and finished by mopping the floors as they were exiting. The buyers were so taken by the entire home, they bought it with almost all the furniture that my friends had in it!!

Different strokes for different folks, as they say. We have a butlers pantry, smallish, with a sink in it. The pantry has become effectively a walk-in pantry, with storage, a wine fridge and the toaster and microwave. It's very useful, but we almost never use the sink because there isn't enough practical counterspace and because, well, who wants to do dishes in a closet? We also have an island, with a single basin sink in it, and of course the dishwasher. That's where we do prep, and it works just fine for us. We can watch TV while pealing spuds or washing those dishes that don't go into the dishwasher. Even with the sink, there's still plenty of prep space, and we have a good work triangle between sink, oven on the wall directly behind it, and fridge, oven and pantry on the end wall. In practical terms, the arrangement works for us. When we entertain, we clean up and load the dishwasher as we go, dump the pots and pans in the butler's pantry, wipe off the bench, and we're good to go. And since it's only a single basin undermount sink, the look is clean enough for us.

Our bedrooms are so tiny that I fitted mirrors on the wardrobe doors to give the illusion of space. It has made a huge difference, especially as the usual method, of putting the mirror inside the doors, was unworkable because of lack of space. In the guest room too it improves the light. The doors are not sliding, though I did consider it. But they can only slide in twos in the guest room, while hinged doors give you the full width to get at. I agree that somehow sliding wardrobe doors always seem to cover something you want to get at. Also here they need to be lockable, and that's not easy to do with sliding. So they are hinged. This is not a house for wheelchairs, the configuration is too limited and it would be a major job even to get a bathroom wheelchair accessible. The tiny bathrooms don't have enough wall space to allow for wider doors, even if I wanted it. Fortunately being tiny they are just fine for seniors needing some support: I am about to install shower grabs but everywhere else there is something to hold onto. No room for a sliding door there either. The guest room door and the kitchen door are sliding, again because the house is tiny and hinged doors get in the way. Only the master bedroom has a hinged door, but it goes back against the wall...there is a 6" deep space between it and the wall, and I filled it with a floor to ceiling rack of cds. The door hides it, for the most part. The guest room door slides behind a chair, the kitchen door alongside the fridge. I'm not a fan of feng shui. But if a client insists then I try to make designs feng shui compliant. Or vastu compliant - this is the Indian version of feng shui. However I do put a small mirror on any wall enclosing a void, like a lift shaft, because a friend insisted. It's no big deal and it makes her happy.

The biggest thing to remember is to have a plan before you set out and make any changes. A WIR is the way most people seem to go these days when redoing up an old space, or if you are building a new home, but a WIR is becoming much more glamorous these days, and they are quiet a destination. If you going to have a WIR, one of the biggest considerations is to decide if you are going to have doors, or if its all going to be open. Now if you are quiet a tidy person, then a full open WIR will be fine for you, but if you are someone that is not so tidy or good at putting things away, then I suggest that you finish of the WIR with some doors to hide any mess. Then the next major step is to make sure that if you are designing or getting it designed, that you have the right amount of areas for the right amount of each category of hanging to folding ratio, and also shoes and accessory storage too. There is obviously many more things to consider, but these are two major ones that people get wrong or don't consider. At the end of the day, each style of wardrobe has its pros and cons, but to date the WIR robe style dressing room is still the most popular, and I myself love this style because there is so much you can do to cater for individual needs. check out some of the WIR ideas we have on www.inthecloset.com.au