just had a look at your existing plans for the second storey.. 1/ I'd make it all open plan .. First I'd move your bed 4 downstairs into the theatre room..reason ? bathroom is existing down there..you can turn it into a master suite..bathroom..study as retreat. which then leave you all that room ..bed 4 ..kitchen ..meals..lounge..foyer to just be one huge living area.. from that living area you can pop in a stacker door/bi folds to lead to your screen verandah. Personally I'd get rid of the screens and open it right up with banisters so you can have fresh air flowing in. You can do the same with the front as well to make it one huge area without much changes.

Hi Lorena, Given that your aim is to sell within a year this gives us a framework for working up a strategy to get the property to market with the greatest potential ROI. Working back from your realistic sale price expectations you can set a budget for your renovation. I would prioritise the internal upgrades ahead of the exterior. If the internals really appeal, buyers may be more willing to accept compromise on the exterior. On the other hand if it looks great from the outside, but the interior is under done, it may turn buyers off. Marketing images of a great looking interior are bound to drive solid enquiry. Once you have the interior up to speed, you will know how much is still in the kitty to spend on the outside. At the very least get all the currently painted surfaces re-painted, which may also mean some substrate repairs given the coastal location and age of the building. If there is still budget remaining after that, consider your options for the brickwork. Maybe just a professional pressure clean will be enough to freshen it up? Rendering is going to be a big ticket item, so perhaps leave that to the new owner's preference. If an investor buys the property they may even prefer low maintenance brickwork. For colour advice, check out manufacturer web sites such as Dulux and Resene. Paying for a colour consultancy is definitely worth it if you are not confident with picking colours yourself.

I hope you don't feel offended or that you wasted precious time and energy, siriuskey? I really do wish we'd reached the point of seeing your concept earlier. But I am happy with the design we settled on. Perfection isn't achievable. There will be things that we wish we'd done differently for sure, but overall I think we will end up with a home we can enjoy living in and be very happy with. This will be the 28th house we've lived in, and definitely the last (Said that four time before, but we really are getting too old to be moving! And this move is only happening because of a family crisis. We had renovated this house to be forever.). You do get a feel for the things that work best for your lifestyle after living in that many different homes. Things like the sewing nook in the laundry, for example, I wouldn't have considered years ago, but having had to run from one end of the house to the other to press a seam open, it's a biggy! And laundries today are not like they once were. They are clean, streamlined and pleasant to be in. My sewing bench will be under a north-facing window with a pleasant outlook and the washing area will be at the other end of the room. The kitchen will be very close so I can keep an eye on any cooking in progress while sewing or ironing. I have also decided that for me, the cooktop should be on the same bench as the sink - not opposite as is usual. So we have settled on an L-shaped island with the sink tucked behind a raised section so it's largely out of sight (as was suggested here), and the cooktop in the leg of the L. Hubby cooks a lot so the kitchen design ended up being important to him and he hated the main sink being far away from the cooktop. For some reason, the small sink on the island didn't work for him. Little things - but little things can be really annoying sometimes. I loved the idea of the sink near the servery window but it didn't appeal to him at all. In the end, we compromised on having the pantry sink under a servery window to the terrace, since the outdoor room won't be used a lot for dining and when it is, there will be a team to carry things out from the kitchen, whereas we will dine on the terrace frequently, especially when we have just one or two guests, and the servery there will be useful. So, final draft this weekend and on to working drawings, shed plans and council applications.

as you can see from the sun on the lawn you should still received some western sun into the courtyard and new living room in the afternoon and the courtyard would be shaded in the morning when the sun should come into the new living room from the east but unless you need the extra external floor space consider using the leftover courtyard space for a garden or at lease use some big planters of greenery once you extend the paving