It's really nicely done, maybe just some fresh cloud white paint from Benjamin Moore? It really adds a lot of texture and interest.

Get the professional sander guys in to repair the living areas and kitchen but don't go too dark with the stain as it will kill the lovely grain in the matai. I'm thinking a couple of tones richer than the timber knots showing in your photo, definitely no yellow tone at all. In NZ stepping on to carpet especially in a kiwi winter is so much nicer than a cold floor board shock!!! A nice area rug for the lounge and you're done.

Paint your house and ceiling first. You are probably asking for trouble if you put the floors down only to paint over the top of them. If you can, remove the tiles in the kitchen and paint just behind the line of the splashback too. Once painting is done replace kitchen benchtop then splashback. I would call the bathroom its own job and do it individually, unless you only need to paint the ceiling and if a tiler doesn't need to be brought in for anything else in the house? A lot of bathrooms now are getting tiled from floor to the ceiling if this is the case, paint the ceiling first, then tile. If walls need to be painted, it wouldn't really matter if you did them first or last, though if you did it first expect to do some touch-ups. I guess if you really wanted, you could do the first coat before tiles then second after... I don't exactly like stopping and starting painting, so I would do the walls (if they needed to be done) in one hit, after its been tiled. Well that's the order in which I would do everything... Really, for what you're asking, the painting could be done at anytime, but to make life easy on yourself, I would definitely recommend doing it before the floor.

Hi there, We have a rural site in Wellington (NZ) that we are planning to build on. It gets really high winds and so we need a robust house concept. Hubby is keen on a two story half round haybarn or Quonset style house but I can't even imagine the floor plan for this type of design. He wants 4 bedrooms upstairs with the master, (WIW and ensuite), living, main bathroom, kitchen and skullery/utility on the main floor. Aiming for about 10m wide by 12-14m long. Anyone got any experience with this kind of design? Any recommendations? Any insights much appreciated :-)