I hope you've already found a great furniture arrangement for your living room by now, but if you're still looking for advice, I'm here to help! When it comes to optimizing the space in a living room with a front entry, it's essential to find a balance between functionality and aesthetics. Here are a few suggestions that might be helpful: Consider placing the couch against the back wall to create a clear pathway from the front entry into the living room. If you have additional seating options like chairs or loveseats, position them in a way that complements the couch and allows for easy conversation and movement within the room. Don't forget about the power of rugs and decor. A strategically placed rug can visually separate the entryway from the living area, adding a sense of organization and style. If you're still looking for more inspiration and ideas, this source could provide helpful references. They offer a wide range of furniture options and design tips.

Hi kristymacd, after changing my mind many times we went for a built in 1700 bath! Mostly as builder and tiler thought it would be easier to slope the floor properly and I liked the idea of the slightly larger built in compared to the 1590 back to wall. I’m sure a back to wall would’ve been possible and been fine, it all just got a bit hard and I knew both would look good. And I don’t think a back to wall would be any harder to clean than a built in - with a built in you have the hob and tiled face of the bath and back to wall there is the floor either side of the bath - same same! Here’s a pic of ours, not totally finished yet but really happy with it.

How wide is the garden bed? 4-5m tall and very narrow is difficult to find. You need to think about things like do you need so much lawn, how much wider could you make the garden bed, how much time will you allow for maintenance to keep the screening plants pruned? Just to be clear, do your back windows face north? You don't want anything that blocks the sun in winter. Although come to think of it I don't see any windows, just an alfresco? Builders really don't understand orientation. What do you mean by pine trees? Maybe you are thinking of pencil pines?

the carport could be converted to a separate rumpus or MPR with a concrete slab at ground level with access through the original entry porch enclosed to allow all weather access and use the old driveway for an outdoor sitting area and/or maybe use my new corner study as an alternate location for a new laundry to allow more space in the kitchen but it will need careful planning of a new "front" gate and footpaths to show clear directions to make sure visitors know how to find the "front" door.. attempting to access the new rumpus from the family room would create challenges with doorways, changing old external walls, ceiling and floor heights so i would simple enclose the carport space and keep it separate from the main house and you should be able to find inspiration from many examples of similar era homes (eg Pettit and Sevitt) that had timber cladding combined with blond brick walls BUT it would be very useful to organise a site plan showing the house and accurate distances to all boundaries, scale sized buildings, existing driveways, front gate, location of street address, power, waters, sewerage, precise direction of north and any trees that you would keep...an accurate site plan and more photos could help inspire other options or confirm that my suggestions are either possible or not