Now it's beginning to work! Luv the rug! A few more red showstoppers, and I luv the post about matting your family pic, and larger frame for it. Looks like you might be a bit uncomfortable with the great post idea of moving your sofa out into the room away from wall. If so, could you accept putting it diagonally from the entrance doorway, across that corner where it is, stopping at the edge of your window? That's a bit of a move outward, still can see the fp and tv, and show off your new rug, which could go diagonally in front of the sofa. Then, if you like that, after a while you could move it on out as Deb K suggests. Sometimes intermediate steps are more doable for us than those big changes.Same with painting; if you could first paint just the fp wall, then later paint other walls...seems some color would really make it more homey. Would you cosider a quite contemporary fixture for the light in the center ceiling? Maybe a bit of red could go there!

You have lovely pieces to work with. To my mind, it appears you have a long and a short MCM credenza/buffet. I'd prefer them switched and then move the art pieces so they take up no more than 75% of the credenza's length. Also keep them closer to the furniture and lower than the door and window frames if possible. Red is a wonderfully appetizing color and I'd love to see it on the dining room wall as well, although I know it may make the air unit more obvious. The dining wall is the one I'd fill with a bookcase for the cookbooks. As a one-time owner of nearly 100 cookbooks, I found they made for great dinner party conversation, along with an unabridged two-volume set of the English language dictionary. An IKEA bookcase could work well and hold plenty of books. The white shelf system with the red wall behind and the backs of the shelves painted red would look great! Or you can paint the bookcase red and leave the wall white. Group books by color for another touch of fun! Don't forget to show off some great "foodie" accessories too.

Hello, I don't what to say, I'm really surprised by your generosity and how much time you have put in this for me you. Thank you so much. The kids bathroom design is still up in air too. Their rooms will have windows of course ( silly me ). I love what you have done with the family room. I'm not so sure about the master ensuite. We copied it from the Hyatt hotel where we stayed a couple of months ago( they had 2 sinks though), we loved the fact that the whole family kids adults and pets can take a shower bath together. That's why we liked the tub bath combo enclosure. Your comments about the steam and aroma are very valid that's why I think we will need to have 3 extract fans in there. We are currently living in china but we will be done here within a year. Thanks again for your help.

Thanks :) Yeah decided to go with tile. So sand cement is ok over existing tiles if I prep them first? Only problem is, the new pad can only be about 30mm at it's thickest (leaving up to 15mm for tiles) otherwise it'll end up being higher than the hallway floor. So I either need to make the fall shallower or not bother with the waste and make it all level. If I made it level, could I use levelling compound at that thickness or would deck mud/sand cement be the best option? Also, should I be putting in mesh for strength? (I know I should (and will) ask the local hardware what they suggest, but it's great to have suggestions from the Houzz community also)