We are a little biased, but wood floors are versatile, durable, clean, and timeless. Whereas carpet will eventually need to be replaced, high quality wood floors can last forever. You can install radiant heat under the wood floors if you are worried about them being too cold during certain times of year, and you can easily install area rugs over the flooring. Wood flooring is also more versatile than it has ever been so you can create any look. As an added bonus you can easily sweep and mop your wood floors, whereas with Carpet you don't always know what is lying below the surface. Good luck!

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.

We had the same issue in an old kitchen, we went with Coopers, There is a stripper then wax that will soak in. The stripper is in spray bottles, but I'd send the dogs on holiday or keep them outside while you're doing it. It'll take some elbow wax, but will look amazing when you're finished. Good luck!

Hi Mandamaree, You are fairly limited in space and in the size of the bedrooms to introduce what you request without compromising these spaces and future expansions to the house. The lounge too is a bit of a thoroughfare in the current layout. However, a few suggestions to ponder. Ensuite to B1, this could be just a 1m wide x 2.7m long space either along the wall to bedroom 2 or expand the wardrobe to 1m wide and re build a 600mm int. depth W/R along the B2 wall. If you used the existing wardrobe for the ensuite though, B3 would have no robe, but if it is to be a study, this may not be a concern. Alternatively, you could build in the space where the back door is and incorporate a toilet beside the laundry. Put the back door in the laundry. The toilet could be either beside the bathroom or B2. You could also economise by not having two accesses to the back corridor. (one from the living room and one from the kitchen) If you are looking at renovating the kitchen, I'd block off the back hall access opening and build a full wall of bench and joinery along that wall and either make an opening in the wall between the kitchen and living room or open it all up, except the back 600-700mm portion at the end of the joinery. If you remove the wall between the kitchen and living - might need a beam to replace it, then I'd extend the peninsular bench between the dining and kitchen, making sure it does not make the dining too small. You should have a minimum of 1200mm between kitchen benches so 2560 is good for this. You can butt the dining table upto the peninsular and still have 5 people seated around the table rather than have a breakfast bar. The space is too tight for a bar. Storage - always a drama in these older homes. Work high level units into the laundry and if possible, the bathroom. If you can afford to lose a few mm from the living room, make B2 robe the proper 600mm deep and include the old fireplace area too. As it is only a guest room, make part of that for the storage you need, i.e, suitcases, boxes of 'stuff' etc. The robe in B2 should be no less than 1200mm long to future proof this as a kids room or for rental. Hope that helps. Cheers, Christine.