Gerringong
colour ideas for you Rozeta
If you add another floor through the roof right above the entire house - put on new roof structure along with a new roof (which is probably needed soonish anyway), flat ceilings on middle level living rooms - ceiling height would be 2400 in bedrooms and 2700 in living rooms due to different floor levels, would still be high ceilings, look great, and give you a huge house with tonnes of space upstairs for your bedroom, ensuite, wardrobe, office and for a private living room and/or visitors suite if you want...
conversation pit style living room that might look great in front of your kitchen with lots of windows to the view and lots of seating facing both the view and the kitchen, (and possibly even a fireplace for winter on that side wall facing to the east) - I would have awning style windows that open right up at a 90 degree angle all around, so that you can open all the windows when you want breezes so it feels like an outdoor room. Even better, if possible, automate all the windows so you can open them all up at a flick of a switch! Then have automated transparent solar blind fitted above all the windows so you can block the sun when too hot or glarey
when exposing beams and posts, big is good, small looks awkward and mean. No trims. Posts should not be bigger (wider) than the beams they are supporting or again they look unbalanced and ugly. If the beam above is smaller than the post required, then better to add another beam beside it to bring it out to the same width as the post.
Notice how, with exposed beams, it is really important to square set the ceilings around them so you see the entire beam's square/rectangular lines. If trims are used between the beams and the ceiling, it takes away the clean square lines and gives a messy unattractive look. Also important to get downlights installed in a nice regular/formal pattern - if skewif, doesn't look so good
its not a problem to have posts in the middle of your rooms as long as it is done attractively and the furniture and traffic flow path can work around them
ideas on how to make a big open plan area work
Q