Hello Down Under! I love your house. Beautiful and I agree with keeping the color. Really nice. How about replacing the metal staircase with a nice raised deck to fill in that space and give a place to sit and put plants. Then turn the stairs toward the street to make them more inviting. Wooden stairs. As for landscaping after that, well, how about some of those fabulous English borders with lots of perennials? Replace metal awning with wood? Or fabric? Also, if I were you, I would keep the fence. It is ugly but it has great value --especially if you have a dog. How about planting English ivy all along the fence. We have it in our yard growing on a large rock and by the second year it was taking over. This can cover your fence completely and make it look, well, English. It will even grow up the cinder block wall--if you can handle that much ivy. There are some pretty green and white ivy varieties that would look great with your house color. I have another one here that is pale green and white. Not a fast grower but very pretty. Anyway, great house. All the best!

We recently made over a bathroom with dated features & a claw foot bath. See before & after pics. The bath was almond beige with brass feet. Painted it Dulux Ticking on the outside & used Rustoleum Tub & Tile on the inside. Bit of a process but we're very happy with the result. We were able to take the bath out of the room to paint so this made it easier. Left it to "cure" for quite a while before reinstalling & using. Sprayed the feet with chrome paint. The cabinet in after pic is the same cab as before, but with laminate benchtop removed & new wooden top & sides, benchtop basin, new tap. Treated the benchtop with 5 coats of marine grade polyurethane & painted the cabinet drawer fronts & doors with same paint as the bath (oil based). Floor retiled (over existing tile), double hung window removed and replaced with a fixed frame & frosted glass. Most expensive part was the new glass shower screen. My advice is to take the time to do correct prep & leave surfaces to harden thoroughly before using. With the bath I never run the hot tap first into the bath ie. warm water first then hot & only clean with detergent & a soft cloth, don't use any abrasive or harsh cleaners.

Thank you everyone! Between you all you have summed up my concerns (changing bulbs, enough detail already in the stairwell, honouring the old house) and my desires (a nice lantern pendant or period light, LEDs need less changing, overhead lighting. I like the idea of the wall lights but we have not wired for this. There is wiring for for stair lighting (phew, glad we got that right) and one down light in the middle of the void. We have reconsidered a pendant as the one down light will be harder to change but are worried about obscuring the windows. Perhaps one of the simple fine-framed lantern pendants or white vintage light, on chains will be easier to change as we can pull it across to the stair, or a pulley pendant like this I'll post some more photos of our reno once its further on.

If you mean the green tinge on the edge of the glass , I assume that was done to tie in with the tiles . Personally , I would have tried to bring in some green tiles in the shower too -- either as a frieze a metre up the wall ; or probably on the '90 degree' parts of the inset boxes . But overall it has colour and class , the darker timber suits the tiles , the overall effect is great IMO -- this bathroom ( pics above ) could be any mid range new build or hotel room in any established country -- no colour , no personality , and speaking of old -- look at the floor tiles !