Depending on where you are with the purchase decision, get a book on home inspections, which will list all potential issues and how you can spot possible problems. Bring along a friend or family member with experience. Once you've decided to buy, get a good inspector and spring for any extras he recommends. (We were recommended to get someone to send video up the chimneys, which turned out to be unlined and not particularly safe). We bought a house in good shape, but thanks to our inspection report, negotiated down the price based on a number of items that needed to be fixed that we didn't see, but our inspector did. For stuff like the chimneys, which didn't get negotiated down, we had an estimate. Many things will be clues as to how well the house has been maintained and upgraded over the years. Have the electrics been redone? When? What about the heating? Or the roof? The house looks pristine, but you want to know if the house has been care fully and lovingly maintained over the years, or just recently painted for resale. The bath shower arrangement, for example, is strange. What happened to the shower curtain rod? Was there a miserable moldy -- or worse yet, rotting --- bathroom that got fixed up and they didn't put the curtain rod back because a quick sale was more important than doing a good job. It's great if someone else took care of headaches so you don't have to, but make sure they did a good job. Ask questions about the history of the house and its updates. Unless there's another serious buyer who sounds like he'll buy at the asking price now, honest sellers will be happy to answer questions.

Thanks Orangecamera. It's still a work in progress and mud everywhere Sorry we did look at having the steps' off set' but it didn't seem to go with only three steps and a small area. And about the zen well the cats are doing that for us much to our disappointment (it's still like a litter box to them). We went to the garden supply place still not knowing what kind of stones we were getting. We stood in front of all the bins (there where many). We even looked at mixing some. The grey stones had a bin more the size we wanted but we ended up getting the golden fleck. It was a little smaller, which was a shame, the bigger ones were so mixed in their grading it looked too messy. So this is what we finished up with. It was seagardens that got me thinking away from grey and nwduck mentioning the drainage. So this has really helped. Also everyone seem to think the wooden steps needed to go a lot lower. Next it's figuring out where the large river stones should go

I love that colorful floral!! it almost has a 40 vibe, and glamorous - I think it would look great in small toilet, maybe matte gold color mirror frame (and everything else white). The other floral is more retro - I prefer the glamorous florar. For the bathroom, if its a paper wallpaper I wouldn't use it beause of the moisture from showers might have the paper corners come off, and you can't really clean it - so I would skip wallpaper there. I love wallpaper and the drama it gives, but it has it challenges. But I like your choises so far, so you are on the right track. If you do something for the lounge I would do something geometric, and monogromatic more subtle.

I'm no architect, but I agree with yours. Instead of large windows in the loft above the garage, what about a high, short, but long window....non opening? Here's some examples