@courton, I've been in a quandry since purchasing a sample pot of Lexicon as it was visibly blue although not so much in the quarter strength, but I too want a warm colour and not a cool colour. I have a sample of Dulux Light Rice quarter possibly for the walls and Dulux Natural White for the roof but I'm still not sure. I wanted to stick to brown tones as that is what seems to catch my eye and Light Rice is the lightest colour in the dulux colour wall in the browns and the Natural White simply tones in with it and no other reason. Will still have to wait till I can paint up a sample but I previously tried Stucco and Harbour Stone and both were a bit too caramely for me and too coloured if that makes sense, even though I have seen Stucco in a bedroom and kitchen and it looked great but just isn't working for me now that I've tried it myself. Interesting how you can see a colour in someone else's home and it looks great but when you try it yourself, you hate it!!! I have allot of windows and door ways and very little wall area and I don't want a jigsaw effect of colour running around these areas and be jumping out at me when I walk into the home, instead I want to have to look for the walls and barely see colour.

Hi rissv100 It is rare that I would endorse living rooms on the upper floor over the lower floor. Exceptional views are one reason - however even then, especially for family homes, I would still recommend a living area of some sort on the ground level. With families of any age, but particularly with young children, the ability to have them move easily in and out of the home, be supervised from inside, but also be within easy reach should you need to get to them, and that indoor/outdoor connection physical connection ... all bode very well for a functional, flexible family home. Perhaps as has been suggested, consider a double height living space that can access natural light at high level clerestory glazing to light the lower level too. Using other devices in the home to get light from a higher level to below can be through locating the stair void near the living areas, and using an open design to help light get access. Voids are also good. Alternatively, you can consider your home seasonally ... a living / kitchen / dining area on the ground floor that helps with entertaining, and daily living with a family ... and then a upper floor family area / snug that may have a small kitchenette in it. Based on where you are, the warming north-west sun is generally most useful in winter to help you have warmer evenings in your home - which works with that idea of a family/TV/relaxing evening space. Other times of the year, you generally want to keep the heat of that sun out of your home. I have an 8, 6 and 4 year old who all sleep on a separate level to us and we generally don't have issues. I have designed lots of homes for families of different ages and there are various views on where kids' bedrooms should be. Some families like having the parents on the lower floor, and the kids on the upper floor because they think this is better security. Some don't mind kids on the lower floor as long as they can manage their access outside and security of openings, especially at night. I recommend to all my clients that your kids are big for a lot longer than they're little - and having separation between bedrooms is good for long term use of your home ... however maintaining some visual and audio connection is useful for that casual surveillance of their activities with each other and when friends are over. We renovated our homes for resale (it was how we got ourselves to our current home in the Byron Hinterland), and getting a big living/kitchen/dining area well connected to the garden was always a winner for a family home that sells quickly and sells well. Even though you may have no intention to sell in the near future, your home is generally your biggest asset, and you never know what's around the corner. So any money you invest in it should give you the biggest bang for buck, and help you improve the value of your asset. Hope that helps - best wishes with your renovation - it's an exciting (and daunting) adventure you're about to embark on! Regards Amelia, UA www.undercoverarchitect.com amelia@undercoverarchitect.com Get your free guide to keep your renovation project on budget - CLICK HERE

Just love that rabbit perhaps his hutch would be good to the left on the top terrace The sandstone rock and stairs to the left of your house could be worked on to look really special again, a Zen like The fern that was moved off the rocks is likened to a weed and best removed, I quite like the rock as a feature. As for any pavers any of the square or rectangle concrete ones would look great and are cheaper than most, please don't paint them you can get them from Bunnings. We also play Bocci on our grass that over looks water. great fun.

Follow the path of the sun over a day, & throughout the year. When the sun is to the E & the W it is low in the sky. This means eaves become less effective, & other shading techniques must also be used, such as vertical awnings, external shutters, low-e glazing or trees. Also the sunlight at this time is nearly perpendicular to the window area. This means the sunlight is more intense & also that more of it passes through the window, & less is reflected. You're right in saying that generally W glazing is the worst, & should be minimized or eliminated. This is because the sun strikes W windows in the afternoon, at the hottest time of the day. Making it difficult to cool a home in the evening. E windows face the exact same problems, with regards to the sun being low in the sky, & perpendicular to the window surface. But this occurs in the morning, when it is generally cooler, & still gives the occupants some time to try to cool the house by cross ventilation. However, it's obviously better to minimize this heat build up through E windows in the first place. Conversely, N glazing will be shaded by eaves in summer, when the sun is high in the sky, while admitting winter sunlight, when the sun is lower in the sky. Northern eave length can be adjusted to suit a particular climate. In Brisbane the eave length should be somewhat larger, so north windows are also shaded in the shoulder seasons of spring & autumn, admitting winter sunlight. Even without eaves, in summer N sunlight is from very high in the sky, striking windows far from perpendicular to the window surface. So much more of that sunlight is reflected off the window surface, with less being transmitted through the window into the home. Though of course, I wouldn't recommend having no eaves. But as you say, limiting E glazing may come at the expense of limiting cross ventilation. So it's a balancing act, with different glazing solutions for different climate zones, local conditions, individual homes. But generally, the highest proportion of glazing should face N, as it can warm the house in winter, but not in summer. E glazing (which warms the house in summer) & S glazing (which cools the house in winter) should be incorporated for cross ventilation & daylighting purposes, but at a lower proportion than N glazing. W glazing should be minimized or eliminated, as it is very detrimental in summer. These optimum glazing proportions will differ, depending on your local conditions, & the building design. Generally living areas should be positioned to the north. As this side of the house will be lighter (from northern sunlight) & warmer in winter. Yes, some E or even W aspect is OK. But you don't want to use E aspect for living areas if it pushes the bedrooms to the W, as this is the absolute worst location for bedrooms. You do have a northern frontage, but it's quite wide, & the block is quite large. So luckily you should be able to design a house where northern light isn't too influenced by the garage out front. With that block size, as OKLouise had suggested, you may be able to come up with an interesting design that incorporates courtyards or even pavilions, to help with cross ventilation. Getting northern light inside your home, while also maintaining privacy. Good luck with the design process, & the build.