Excuse my duh-ness but i'm having difficulty trying to follow whats going on here. Are these two photos an exact replica of your house and pool ? If not a hasty sketch with dimensions could help a lot. By kitchen wall do you mean the wall behind the bar ? And where is the pool wall ? Are you considering the covered area as being "inside" ? Sorry for all those questions lol Sometimes when you have a design problem you need to turn it inside out or on it's head. If you can't beat it maybe embrace it by making a feature of it : i.e. contrast by having the lightest colored pool surround and a great blue or tile inside and under the overhang, something that will echo the water color ? If you have a great covered area as in photo you'll most likely be spending a lot of time there and it could be soothing to be able to sometimes retire into a darker inside. In my book, 10M isn't small and also contrasting two floor colors doesn't necessarily make a space seem smaller and confined and may in fact even open it up. Could it be that you've thought yourself into a box here ? Sometimes one needs to give it all a good shake up and see how it resettles.

I'm glad you guys are growing.

These houses were designed to look good from the street, regardless of what the orientation was for the Sun. Everything depends on your budget and how far your prepared to go. A friend's house in Queenstown faced the street, the toilet and bathroom had the best view of the lake and the Sun. They got a house removal Coy in, jacked it up put it on the truck drove out and turned it around and reconnected all the services. It then faced the North and West great views and warmth, doubled its value in 3 days!. I replaced my storage water cylinder with a outside gas one, picked up enormous space in our laundry. Another tip is to draw up your "dream" plan, then overlay it over the existing and see what you can really do, your then not influenced by what is already there, and often get a much better insight and removed from the existing. Good luck, its very rewarding and make it fun!

Hi all, Have signed up with a relatively well known building company who we went with in large part due to their 'Guaranteed Completion Date' guarantee. It's also written into our contract that we will get this on completion of 'floor down'. If said company fails to deliver on this, they express that they will pay for any additional costs e.g. rent, temporary accommodation etc. Our floor went down 2 weeks ago, and we were notified (and invoiced) in writing. We have waited more than a couple of weeks post 'floor down' for this Guaranteed completion date (and have emailed to pester for this) with no mention that this won't be provided, but that it's just a little delayed whilst finalising contractors. We have today however been told that a Guaranteed completion date cannot be offered, instead w can have an 'expected move in date'. They have cited Covid19 as being the reason they cannot offer a 'Guaranteed date'. We are not in an area that has Covid cases, or the recent outbreaks. Does anyone know the legal stance on this, given it's in the contract (and all over their website/brochures that this is one of their guarantees that make them stand out above the rest)? Does Covid change the contractual obligations? TIA