Here is one idea - pretty standard hedge plant.

Yes! Why not! I'm more than "a tad" older than you and can see all the inappropriate plantings here and wish I'd not been so adamant, stubborn and even enthisiastic and passionate back then. I'd like to imagine you 20 years from now enjoying the beautiful fragrance of your plantings and not having to remember, looking at your aged, sore and tired hands, how hard was the task of taming and imprisoning the devil in lilac! There comes a time when even one's passion becomes a chore...Nobody is exempt. My hands are crippled with arthritis. I cannot get a grip on my brushes, thus the hard work has deprived me of a pleasure and a passion....that is the way it is for many so I hope you are immune. Unfortunately ageing is what the body once strong and virile does and it has no mean influence on that part of a creative person's life. I will imagine you 20 yrs from now, sitting peacefully and enjoying the tenacity of your younger days...not wishing you had done anything differently!

Hi everyone, thanks for all your contributions. Siriuskey, really love that floorplan. To be honest, we came up with a similar floorplan where the kitchen, dining and living were all lined up. However, with 10m in length, my partner and I couldn't see it all comfortably fitting without us feeling too cramped. What measurements did you leave between kitchen bench and island, dining and living area? Our current living area is only 4m x 4m and we already feel that it's a bit cramped, let alone our plans to have kids in the near future where we are hoping to use parts of the living area as the play area (either in front or beside). Using your floorplan idea, I've come up with a slight alternative. The kitchen/dining area is approx. 7m long and living is 9m long - saving us approx. 2m x 10m of internal space when compared to our original final. I've moved the bank of pantry cupboards so they extend along the west boundary where the dining is. Gives us a living area of about 5x 6.5m with the proposed smaller study. I like that the kitchen is now closer to the deck with the north sun coming in. I don't like that we lose a WIP as we love the idea of hiding all our appliances in one. Not sure how much this floorplan will save us in build cost. If it is significant enough, we would be willing to compromise. I've sent the floorplans to a couple of builders to try and get a ballpark figure. In the mean time, what do you guys think of the alternative floorplan? Will it make a big difference to our building cost?

oh dear an electrician asap