Can I suggest looking into having a quantity surveyor assess your property (and you can claim the cost of having this done). They will provide a depreciation schedule for you which will tell you how much each item will depreciate in value over the maximum number of years you can claim. If an item is at the end of its depreciable life, they will tell you what you are able to replace. Even if you only have tenants for a short while, you are able to claim depreciation for a pro-rata period that your asset is income producing. What all this means for you in terms of design - there may be ways to improve the look of your property in line with what you will want it to look like when you eventually move in, which could gain you a tax benefit. Of course, you have to have the $$ to spend on it in the first place. Oh - and in terms of furniture - do you know about Casey Auctions in Hallam? they are close by and you may pick up some really good bargains. I know we did!

@baretta11...you made me laugh heaps! You sound down to earth and no fuss...I like that. My walls are all natural timber, curtains cream, some pink in the bedroom and bathroom with pressed metal rather than subways...a bit older style but painted pale shell pink. Yes real hardwood rable, decent sized cooktop...I imagined the tomato sauce but could not imagine these young people even cooking that! Decent 6ft 1924 bathtub all reglazed...the whole bathroom is reminiscent of the inside of a shell...used to live in the islands so a few shells for decoration... "Old Fashioned" never dates! THE BLOCK will date very quickly and even become non finctional....but there's the money so let them play. The wooden bathtub got me...couldn't wait to see if it had been made from a solid lump of wood...but Oh No...the bottom is glued.....one day the people below will have a shower where they don't expect! Then how will that be fixed and who will foot the expense? No thanks! "Grandma Chic" is a big joke for me too. My Grandma was always classical and simple and always looked lovely..."Little Old Lady passing by...". At least what 'we old fashioned ones prefer is founded on substance, substance lasts a lifetime and then some. Some places are dateless as are some dress fashions. All this renovating and decorating is fun to watch...even thechildish antics and the bare faced lies...don't know how they do it, I'd be out of the game very quickly! Looks stunning but wonder what it will look like, say, in about 12 months...and I don't think God would be at all prompted to save them from some of the folley.....but it seems to be a temporary world with temporary fittings....I'd rather live in the past in my solid old house that nothing has managed to destroy in 94 years...it will outlast me...and then some developer will come with paper and glue and put up a block of temporary units....Reminds me me of the three little pigs somehow...or the Cheshire Cat and Alice.. .."Which way should I go from from here? asked Alice. Cat: "you can go either way...they are all mad. " Alice" "But I do not want to go among mad people". Cat: "Oh you can't help that, everyone is mad here...you're mad and I am mad...". Alice:"How do you know I am mad?" Cat: (who by that stage had become partly invisible) "You must be if you are standing here talking to me!" Enjoyed the exchange baretta11 Parla Italiano?

Personally if I had the access to the marble I would take it! Traditional concerns regarding bleach spill etc are not that relevant these day s. If you keep these items like laundry powders and cleaning chemicals off the bench and in the cupboard they shouldn't cause you much trouble. I keep all mine in a caddy that keeps them off surfaces and easy to move around the house and store in the cupboard. How many of us hand colour or hand bleach anything anymore. Most laundry troughs these days are too small to make these jobs even possible. Or if you are a craft lover do these things in the outdoors or garage. Hand washing is usually with very gentle detergents on smaller items and usually done with care. If the laundry is a chore make your work area a pleasure to be in!

When you go contrast in colors with grout and tiles you are not getting perfect look for the first 2016 post. But that tiling in the shower having small cut at bottom was just not a good planning by tiler, and its not fixing job now its redoing whole bathroom now. And not aligning joints in the other post shower floor and mainfloor does not look too off as photo in clicked at an angle and separation between two floors will have glass or something. But not aligning up the walls is odd but still be affected by other factors