Everyone desires to live in beautiful, harmonious and practical surroundings, and nowhere is this more evident than in the bathroom. To prevent a lot of heartache and wasted money throughout your renovation, a little planning goes a long way.

For an increasing number of people the daily commute to work consists of a stroll down the garden path. A combination of cutting-edge technology, ever-more congested peak-hour roads and soaring petrol prices means that working from home, on either a part or full-time basis, is finding favour with employees and employers alike.

I have just read an article which suggests the move to open-plan living that has held sway through the last two decades may be on the wane. The reason, the author suggests, is that so many open-plan renovations and extensions have been done with no clear purpose in mind.

Was it just 60 years ago that a sizeable proportion of Australian homes still had outside toilets?  Moving the loo inside, with the consequent adjustment in plumbing, was at the cutting edge of bathroom design in those days.

Lighting was once something that new home buyers took for granted, often leaving it to the builder or architect to decide placement and intensity.  Times are changing and now a growing number of companies that specialise in lighting – as opposed to simply selling lights - are advertising their services in towns and cities around Australia.

Research in Britain suggests that it takes just eight seconds for a prospective home buyer to decide against buying a property - or to keep an open mind and investigate further. In other words, first impressions count for a great deal.

A reader asks about kitchen extensions.

Are they worth the effort and will the additional investment be recouped if and when the property is sold?

There’s an art to preparing homes for sale in the depths of winter.

Spring, summer and autumn are much easier. A well presented, sensibly priced home can virtually sell itself at these times.

Australians have been heeding former Treasurer Peter Costello’s advice to have “one child for mum, one for dad and one for the country”. More babies were born in 2006 than at any time since 1971 which was the most productive year on record.

While much has been written about the ‘sea change’ and ‘tree change’ flights from the cities to coast and country, a less publicised but persistent movement has been going in the opposite direction.