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.

A very simple layout keeping the floor space within the kitchen, the WIP takes up a lot of space with not much gain, The broom cupboard could be moved to the Laundry/entrance, narrow. If the wall has been bumped out to the eaves on the deck side giving an extra 300 depth to the kitchen you could make the island 2700 x 1200 and all drawers. The wall of narrow pantry will hold all pantry needs and more, no deep cupboards to dig into. cheers

windows in master bedroom need to allow views and privacy and much as i would prefer bed on NE this keeps the bed in view towards and from family room so prefer bed on south wests wall and small sliding doors pushed towards north side of room with tall narrow window beside sliding door and highlight window for light with privacy and wall space for chest of drawers...acknowledging theta the pwdr doesn't have a window but my suggested arrangement uses less total space more efficiently and is better for older kids and long stay visiting parents (more people can use the various options at the same time) and a small ventilating skylight will exhaust and brighten the toilet and vanity area ...the wide door into the lounge can be a stacker or stable door so you need to investigate local options (and everything is expensive unless it does what you want...we always use solid core doors that can be ten times the price of a basic hollow core door but love them so we economise elsewhere) and barn door between entry and family would be OK as long as you like them and it doesn't compromise lounge doors but could look ok if both doors are the same style and different widths...and location of dishwasher is personal and if you have already been unhappy with sink in main kitchen then have it in the scullery...main advantage of my suggested kitchen location is that it's closer to the front and the family area and external doors and the pantry uses the central space that can be much better illuminated with another ventilating skylight instead of a tiny external window and noisy exhaust fan

I can't see why you MUST connect a building to an electrical supply . Obviously some garden sheds , garages , farm barns and the like aren't 'powered' . Things like rental properties must be 'suitable for occupancy' , so you can't rent an unpowered house as a house , and in some cases you must even supply heating , heat pump , as well as working stove and shower ( I'm paraphrasing obviously ) . It is possible to provide most of that with gas or even a generator , but if it really came down to it , you'd need to disclose this before renting it out . To to revert back to a 'legal' distinction , these are rental requirements , not building code requirements . Having said all of that , you would need some sort of 'energy' supply , whether it be electricity , gas , generator , solar , your own dam or windmill , etc , and generally electricty is cheap to install and use , so it makes sense to have it installed or at the very least planned at construction . Slightly off subject but similar , a friend of mine bought an older caravan and it is way up the back of his farm -- he uses it maybe 1 night a month . He bought 2 large batteries , a 2000 watt invertor , some solar panels , but as a backup he bought a small generator that runs on LPG ( propane ) and as he cant get a vehicle close to the caravan , he carries in a 9kg bottle ( he has 2 so when 1 is empty he carries it out and gets it refilled for the next visit ) . He thinks that is better/easier than petrol or diesel .