Thanks all - our belongings arrive this week so I will have a go at transforming the space with what we have then search for new things to add. We have quite a bit of art with strong yellow colors and also a Tibetian Chest with yellows and greens. Thanks again!

We got the IKEA shelves that are pictured in the butlers pantry photo I posted when we were on holiday in Melbourne, Australia. We don't have IKEA here in New Zealand! Hubby is going back over in May/June so will get him to get more of that sort of thing when there. We would pay about 4x the price for that sort of thing here in NZ. I need to work out what I will do now where the fridge was and there is the angle change (does that make sense?).

I'm not a builder or an expert . The downstairs looks easy -- obviously you want exactly the same width and profile -- take 1 or 2 boards off the end of the house , add new boards , paint the entire thing . The garage will 'hide' the existing side wall , so that can be left as it is , relined , painted , whatever you want , as its now an 'internal' wall . Upstairs though is trickier -- I assume there are horizontal weatherboards along the side of the house , so adding across and 'around the corner' would be more difficult , but not impossible -- it will take more labour and a bit more materials . At the end of the day , talk to your builder -- they are the one that will asked , so if they say No , pretty much the end of the conversation -- you accept , or you look for another builder , who hopefully says yes , and even more hopefully , actually can do it haha !

Is the photo the right way up ? It looks like it would run off at that angle . But if it is building up , and draining isn't suitable , then a flashing sealed would be the logical thing , or possibly something like 30 x 30 battening ( treated and painted ) a few cm out to deflect the majority of any water .