I agree with several other commentators. I love the look of your house, arches & all. Retro is in! I would pretty much leave as is & concentrate on cleaning concrete & landscaping. You will be amazed at what a difference good landscaping will make to the street appeal. With the right colors in your planting you might even come to like the look of your home like most of us already do. In a busy world the last thing you want is more upkeep & I think you would be making a rod for you own back if you render or paint the brick. And keeping it true to the era could add to its resale value. The only things I would change is the color of the garage doors & facia to either Dulux Natural White or Antique White USA whichever you prefer & the gates black if you want to be safe or a bolder contrasting color. As for the window frames I keep tossing up between the black & the white. Maybe black window frames with black gates would look good. Good luck with it all & look forward to seeing the finished result. Cheers Jenny

Hi new to all this but thought I'd pass on some fan tips; Be very selective of the shape of the fan blades. They all look stylish but in my experience the flatter the blade the less air they move. We have now gone back to the original metal fans with the blades that bend at the edge, http://regencyfan.com/industrial, our fans are more stylish than the one shown (the blade shape is nice and clear in this example). Our weather in no where near as warm as yours I'd hate for you to make the same mistake we made, twice, before we learnt. Look at the fans motor size, some of the expensive and lots of the cheap ones have small motors that don't last long, unfortunately price does not dictate quality in this case so don't get caught out. My husband is a mechanic and this is one of his "things" when every we shop for electrical items (drills, fans, pumps etc.) always make sure the motor is quality and large enough to do the job and last. How may speeds. We have 8 fans in our home, one is in our extension and was purchased at a different time; It's low speed is realllllllly slow the next one is so fast it's like a cyclone and I'm not game to try the third one in case it dismounts from the ceiling. Be careful not to mount fans too close to down lights or you get a flickering effect caused by the blade passing over the light. Try not to mount the fan directly over the dining table as it will cause food to go cold. I'm with mydesignobsession when it comes to style/look I prefer visitors see my wonderful eclectic decoration then my ceiling fans! Good luck

Hi petapea, the phal orchids, I have killed more that two but now have one with three stems of buds and I am pretty happy with myself... I went to an orchid fair..advice was plant them in blue metal. Yes blue metal!!! I mixed some spagnum moss and charcoal through my blue metal. I water only when blue metal not looking dark. We have been going through a cool spring so about every two to four weeks. They sit in a north facing window and when I water I using strike back for orchids liquid fertiliser every third of fourth time just water to flush. It has taken two to three years and many sad phal deaths to succeed

Hi Houzzers You have all been so kind with your design advice, and helped us come up with this design. I think we are nearly there, and are pretty happy with the result...we still ended up with the door into bedroom from hall....but think it will be ok.....may swing the door the other way...will put doors on bathroom and sitting(not shown) I like the 2 dressing areas we have created either side of our wardrobes, and the seperate toilet. Very happy for any other input on this design before we send it off to the builder!