Agree about the paving stones - a mistake to be repaired & pulling them up & allowing someone on eBay to reuse them where they may match, sounds good. However, don't agree that the bricks are a mistake. Personally, I love textured bricks as you can pick out a colour from them to do trims & in 15 years, change the colours & refresh & still go well with the brick colours. I think yours are particularly nice. Removing shutters - great. If you can, take the opportunuty to take off the ornate screens on doors & windows & replace them with the very simple looking security screens. Renewing the roofing material to something that lets in more light is also a good idea. If it's not feasible to do at this time, it can always be planned in steps, but it's good to know ahead what the plan is/will be. Re colour choices. I would suggest not going with the current fashion completely. Remember when everything in every suburb was "mission brown"? Everything that has that colour is immediately dated. Best of luck, and enjoy

I agree with Billmore Homes paperbark is a very nice colour and goes well with Jasper http://colorbond.com/colour?Category=4969402186C2455AB302B1ECD6FE7176 The idea to use double strength is good for outside projects because the light can affect colour so much at different times of the day. Soft greys are back in fashion too so don't overlook Ironstone, Basalt and Wallaby( the web link shows what I mean by those colour titles) if you are stuck with the blue door it can be hard to coordinate with blue but you can alter its shade slightly by a freshen-up coat of the original colour or a tone or two darker or a few drops of black (and I mean drops) is amazing the depth it adds to a paint tone without changing the overall colour.

apennameandthata i don't know... vertical is more shed like style, while we still have a colonial style base and veranda. Dust will be an issue here (although its not so bad in that particular spot on a river, good protection from trees) but pressure wash will be regular practice anyway. Thanks for all your suggestions and I will take all on board, especially sandstone ideas. I don't this I want this house to look pretentious, but how can I describe that, I am after some subtle "wow" factor or something a bit different, but it must look like we knew what we are doing and YES, I want it to look like high quality build and not a transportable house or kit home. The house rectangle is so simple that I worry it may have that boring factor in its looks and that is why I am looking for some ideas. My problem is a tendency to overthink but I hope I will find a balance at some point :) At this stage I think: galvanised tin everywhere (or that zincalum), rusty steel posts, aluminum windows with timber look, sandstone features around main door and sandstone chimney. We had a big flood last year and the spot never goes under water, its on high grounds even though it is only meters from the river.

I would look at respecting the period and the architecture of the home by keeping the white exterior. All you need to do is highlight the window frames with a black paint to give it some visual highlights and cleaner lines. I wouldn't get too 'out there' with the colour palette or doing too much to the facade as it will start to look like your trying too hard, respect what you have and don't try to make it something it is not.