I have always dreamed of renovating an older commercial building into living space. However, Klein Kitchen is correct.......the first thing that you must do is check with the city to see if they will allow you to use the space as a residence. If it is zoned exclusively for commercial use, then you would not be allowed to renovate it into a house. Hopefully the neighborhood is zoned for both uses.......... Keep us posted on what you do with this project because I am sure that there are some excellent ideas that we all can share with you once you have made the commitment to go ahead...............

I won't bother with lattice, barrels are partially obscured from the street by fencing and if I put it up I would have to work around the lattice in order to turn the valves for water. If I can just make better use of collected water I'll be happy. We are at the end of our growing season so I should be cleaning up the garden and putting it to bed for the winter, just can't seem to get motivated. We had our first frost last week. Usually, our average early frost date is 1 November. I got almost no produce from garden this year, but there is always next year. Chookchook2 I've seen some of those decorative metal panels and they are gorgeous, sure hope your budget will allow you to get some before too long. Most of our state has been on fire for a good part of the summer. The closest is across the river from us and they have been battling it for almost a month. Some friends have had to evacuate repeatedly. We've only been concerned once, a small grass fire on our side of the river on a day we had wind gusts up to 65mph. Fortunately, it was put out quickly. Australia and New Zealand have both sent firefighters to help with the blazes. I can't begin to tell you how appreciative we are. The closest fire was fought for almost a week by local volunteers only as there were no other resources available. They were all on other fires. The Army National Guard (reserve troops) were called out to help with support duties and for the first time ever the federal Department of Natural Resources (DNR) asked for civilian volunteers to help with non firefighting tasks, cutting fire breaks, moving supplies etc.

We're doing a big renovation including a 75m2 extension to an old farm cottage. We've used houzz heaps - everything from the design of a feature fireplace to the front door and family bathroom. Just 6 more weeks till completion and we're expecting it to make some very good 'before and after' pics based on how grotty the 'before' scenario was!

Personally I would save the room you want done the most until last - often during renovations, whether you're doing it yourself or paying someone, you still get sick of the mess, having other people in your home every day etc and what happens is you finish one room and want a break which can lead on to eith takgin months or not getting the last rooms done at all. If the last room is the one most important to you, you will continue on until that one is completed and this gives a much better feeling of satisfaction than doing that room first because you have that build up of anticipation.