i love this home. stunning but if you want to detract from the red i would add something on the stairs like sandstone or paint in white as then the stairs are an amazing feature that the eye will zone in on rather than simply zoning in on the red. Design is thinking outside the box. Ask yourself why you hate it and then think of some reasons to change and it may be that you feel it is just to bold and a solution would be to give another focal area

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

Don't plant the giant bird of paradise in this small bed. Fantastic plants and have used them at our house. They will grow so big and destroy your paving. I have also used clumping bamboo and my wife hates it due to the mess it makes. Constantly dropping leave etc. Would not plant near a pool for this reason. Another negative comment. Bougainvillea should never be planted in the ground. Lovely flowers but get our of control, dangerous spines and almost impossible to kill. Keep in a pot and keep trimmed. We put Xanadus next to our pool at our holiday house. Perfect size and clean. Consider other ways to hid the fence. Perhaps some type of bamboo screening??

Thanks annb1997 and Bernadette Staal. Bernadette, I do like the red roof; it is the creamy yellow walls and dark green trim that I'm not a fan of... But good point though, my husband actually suggested the same thing on the weekend! :) Annb, I just thought if I incorporated some red into the trim work it would tie the whole colour scheme together. Door is currently same as wall colour, so painting it the red sounds like a good idea. And I do like the idea of fewer colours, then it wouldn't look so busy.... Currently leaning towards the soft sage green, just need to find the right shade now.