@solarventi, Hi, sorry, I didnt work it correctly, It is an interesting concept, but I am not getting it>>> bit slow... How do you heat up in winter in Vic when we get very little sun and the weather has turned Artic this year, Main reason I am noticing the cold, especially when working outside. I do have low blood pressure so feel the cold, but the red clothing next to skin works a charm. I would like to understand... I have seen on uTube where they DIY passive heat I liked the pictures but no explanation and these were using exisiting windows .. I this with gap at bottom on outside so cold air comes in and gap at top on inside so warm air into house.... but got to technical for me. And I get confused, as hot air rises and I dont understand why fans are at the top in newer models not at bottom [of heaters] But I would mind understanding how it works.. Am going to check the website, TU very much. I have bats to put in kitchen reno but would like something to attach to the corrogated iron so there is no gap between iron and bats. Appreciate your help and will check again on your site to see if I missed anything :)

@oklouise Gosh, thank you for that. That gives us some good ideas. I didn't realise that's what you meant by 'will draw up your plans' haha. We were planning to have the house off-centred on the block, close to the western side, to reduce hot summer sun from the west in the living areas. That should give us enough room to put in even a double carport or garage. Your ideas have made us want to try and utilise the somewhat wasted hall space a bit better with storage. However, we do want to maintain the north-south dining room orientation. I agree that the dining room bay window is a waste. I agree that the laundry should be moved somehow so it doesn't jut out, but I'm not sure if I like the warren of service rooms. What do you think of something like this? I've seen houses where laundries and pantries are combined. Would the window pose too many issues if we have cupboards under the counter for 'larder' items like potatoes or things? It's east facing so it will get some morning sun. Not too keen on the upstairs rearrangement though, but they're food for thought. I can't see ourselves using the kitchenette, and we have a house rule of no food upstairs. And yes, we want to minimise the square metreage (is that a word?) if possible, whilst still keeping things reasonable. So it looks like a lot of the rooms could be made a bit smaller, to keep costs down. @C P We obviously intend to engage an architect but at this preliminary stage (several years until completion probably) it's not worth it. We know what we want, a closed-plan house with a formal and informal lounge, billiards or games room and a guest bedroom on the ground floor. We though that the architect would simply revise the idea, apply the finishing touches and then get it drawn up by their draughtsman. I understand most people begin designing with an architect but we don't want anything innovative. Might be in for a rude awakening once we actually discuss with architects, but it's a fun exercise at least.

Hi peeps, Apologies that i've been offline over the past few days. Suffice to day that i'm incredibly grateful for your contributions. If you will indulge me for one second (or minute), i never thought that i would get this house. I separated a few years ago and was on the lookout for a small renovation project. I figured out what i wanted to spend on a reno, or what i wanted to spend on a completed house. I also identified an area that i wanted to move to. During what felt like a long process, this house came up and i fell in love with it instantly, although being realistic i figured that it would be waaaay out of my price range (mainly due to size and location). But i attended two open houses and it was even better in person than in the pictures. I mentioned earlier about how i have a basement and when seeing it in person, my inner child came out and all i could think of was what it must have been like growing up in the house. So the auction came around and so i decided that i wanted to attend because i wanted to see how much it would be sold for. Whilst i was going through the pre-approval process, i hadn't quite dotted the 'i's' and crossed the 't's'. Having said that, my friends still convinced me to register! :-) Now i had no intention of bidding, but to my shock the house got passed in. And even after a vendor bid it got passed in for a value that was below my budget (albeit my budget for a completed house!). From speaking with the agent, i put in an offer subject to finance the following day and after a little bit of negotiation i secured it. Whilst acknowledging that buying a house is a huge investment, i really believe that i got the house for 150-200k less than it should have gone for. I guess that i was in the right place at the right time because i don't think that there were any other serious buyers at the time. Of course that means that i need to save (and borrow more) to do the renovations. But i love the house. Again, it's way to big for me so i'm not going to neccessarily be here forever. But it's very cool and in renovating i just want to do it justice :-)

my suggestions includes two new bathrooms, wiw and changes to the kitchen plus the new laundry, pwdr and mudroom and the alfresco or family room at the same floor level as inside (with or without the extra laundry door from the dining room with the alfresco)....separate areas could be improved in order of importance and work done as funds allow but imo a variation of the existing carports is the best use of the space (and you may not be able to erect anything else on the boundary and occasionally leaving the cars at the front would allow the courtyard and rear carport to be used for an undercover drying or kids or big kids extra play area) and there's an optional covered entry from the carport with sliding glass doors to help brighten the dining room and aligning the pool east west uses boundary fences for the pool, allows unrestricted supervision from inside and also retains some kids' safe garden and, i would also be interested to see if there is space inside the roof for a loft with pull down stairs and north facing roof window