Ozbern: we had a similar dilemma, lovely backyard and then they started tearing down bungalows and building four story townhouses all around us. I built a single depth pergola along the back property line, the beauty of this is not only the privacy, but it brings the scale of the yard down to make it feel more intimate when we are outside. We also added a 10' x 10' (little over three meters) pergola right up against the house where we had a wall of windows. Will try to find that photo too. We have coral vine now growing in it. Dies in winter, comes back in spring. You can always do more contemporary details if this is too casual.

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.

Hello people, Question time again. Im trying to match indoor and outdoor colour to my project around the living and pool area. I have 10 Meters of space to work with which includes 5 meters width of the living area. If i break the colours indoor v's outdoor it will make my area look smaller, more confined ? If i use polished concrete inside and try and match the colour outside, the surface will get hot. Soooooo... I have added some photos here. I went and purchased a box of man made granit tiles 80x 80cm. Keeping the shiny for the inside and tried "honing" the surface of the other tile as a test so i could use it outside and keeping the surface of the 'honed tile" slightly textured to ensure not so slippery and matching the inside colour. After coating this honed tile it has gone slightly darker which is ok. What im wanting to know, is this ok to do ? will there be any down the line effects of the tile if its outside in a wet area ? it maybe only wet for 3 months of the year for a few hours at a time. My challenge here is price V's product / Styling / practacality -Timber is too expensive for outdoor application / requires maintenance -Marble expensive -Natural stone expensive also if anyone has any solutions / kmowledge / advice it its ok to hone an indoor tile and add a protective coating for the outside. this would be much appreciated. Thanks Houzz'ers! Justin :)

You could reverse the layout of the ensuite, and have the door to it through the walk in wardrobe (so you would only have one door coming off the bedroom). If I were you, I'd consider swapping the positions of the ensuite and wardrobe, so the current ensuite door becomes the wardrobe door. That way you could move the bed to the east (right), and you would have room for a seating area in the north west corner of the room (as your bedroom looks huge!). I'd also add a window on the small bit of north facing wall in that room; you already have corner windows in the living and another bedroom, so you could match those in style. Personally I don't particularly like the current layout of the main bathroom, although I can see the reasoning behind it (i.e. vanity at entrance, toilet hidden behind wall, window above bath). I think it might work better if you put the shower in the corner where the bath currently is (i.e. beside the toilet, opening to the west), and the bath on the same wall as the vanity. You'd have to move the window, of course. Alternatively, do you actually need three toilets? You could remove the toilet in the main bathroom, and you'd have room for a freestanding bath and/or a bigger shower. You could consider stealing a bit of space from the kitchen to create some storage at the entryway. I'm not sure where your garage will be, but it's really handy to have a designated place at the point of entry for all the stuff you tend to dump when you first come into the house (schoolbags, coats, mail etc). Overall, I think the layout is pretty good, but you could potentially lower the build cost by making it all a bit smaller. It's really worthwhile taking the time to figure out just how much space you actually need, and where you need it. For example, if it were my house, I'd take about half a metre off both the east bedrooms (so the house is shorter from east to west), plus I'd make it smaller north to south by slightly reducing the size of all three bedrooms, and making the kitchen a bit smaller (so the hall cupboard lines up with the back wall of the small living room). But your priorities may be completely different from mine!