my suggestion are based on the fact that mum and dad are usually at the house alone and aims for simple two person accommodation that can be rearranged to suit a crowd...the kitchen cabinets are the only fixed objects in the room and include a tall pantry, base cabinets and/or drawers with open shelves and wall cabinets and space for several people to work side by side with a small extendable dining table, two chairs and a bench seat (also used as a place for newspaper and lamp etc behind the recliners)...a patio with big table for outdoor eating under the shade of the tree with extra bench seats that can also be used inside... there's space for a small divan or night and day lounge with a wall hung tv and the corner bedroom door allows for much better circulation space in both the living and bedrooms with preferably a sliding glass door for indoor outdoor connection with or without the original front door and, based on the size of king single beds, there's no other arrangement that would allow both beds to have a view to the lake and there's just enough space for a biw, small desk and two chairs

If you are in Sydney, we do have in house kitchen designers, who can help with kitchen layout and as your an electrician you can save money by fitting out the electrical side yourself, however we don't do landscaping. Have you had a look on houzz or pinterest to get some ideas of lighting you like. Ambience lighting is about having dimmers on your main lights and placing lamps ect in dark corners. Task lighting is important in the kitchen, office (if your having one) and basically anywhere you sit and have to look at things like a book, plans for your home, crafting, food. Sconces are to accentuate something like a window, painting or help you find your way down a hallway. Use long pendant, chandelier type lights for your ceilings it draws your eyes up. Track-lights or too many down-lights can look tacky. Everything essentially depends on how you are styling your home. A building company we have worked with that does what you need and are pretty good is Scopeview Projects. Check them out they maybe able to help.

My house is also built at the top of a hill, the summit and is cut into a cliff. We bought it, it was built in the 90s and the orientation is entirely wrong. The living areas face west and all bedrooms are in the east. The master is exposed to the western and the northern sunshine. It’s nice in the winter and entirely unbearable in the summer. The same goes for my living room. We take extra long holidays in the summer to avoid being at home. The home had no insulation in ceilings, and raked ceilings. So the first thing we did was remove the roof sheeting install battens to create a cavity and installed R3.5 insulation. We are also upgrading installing new windows to upgrade the glazing on the western windows and looking to put insulation in all the walls It also gets really windy, so windy. So I understand your concerns. When it gets windy the entire house shakes. So the next thing will be to improve the bracing. There is a 3-4metre clearance under our home for storage. We could do a build in under. Even with the positioning of our shed and close proximity to the home it does little to shelter from the wind. We are considered the building an “outdoor room” which would act as an alfresco with skylights, lounge, pool and kitchenette that could act as an outdoor entertainment area when weather permits. I just did a sustainable design for a client nearby. I am so jealous of her amazing home. Her land is smaller then my land and her land cost the same price as my house and land. So I am grateful for what I have.

I'll look out for it next time I'm browsing! I've found this new online company called painttint or tintpaint so I'm keen to pick something from there, though I'm trying to use up what I already bought. I let the kids go and pick about 6 different sample tins of pastel for their room thinking it would end up some sort of miami art deco vibe. But i have no idea how i'm going to integrate it all! I figure I can do some furniture and just top it with a clear coat of enamel to make it hardwearing. So far we have painted some boxes to make a dollshouse and test out the shades. I thought maybe I could make some sort of rainbow mural using painting tape, but then I found this really interesting painterly mural and my daughter loves it so I might just let them go for it and randomly paint everywhere! The kids room is the one place I'm happy to go a little bit more wild. It's entirely possible once the plywood cladding is up they will love it as is and demand I just leave it wood!