I personally think the cladding would look nice and be the easiest to maintain. We also live on the Gold Coast and have a brick house that has been rendered (not by us) and, to be honest, it is not particularly low maintenance (if you want it to stay looking good that is). It is prone to leaching which leaves ugly stains so regularly needs retouching with the paintbrush. It can also develop small cracks in the render due to temperature change and movement. However, the most worrying thing for us is with regards to termites. If you render over your brick on the lower half of your house, it is highly unlikely you will see the telltale "mud" they leave that indicates they are trying to gain access into your house (they climb up in between the render and the brickwork). I would be trying to keep the exposed bricks in preference to rendering over them, particularly if you have a garden bed up against the house anywhere.

Yes, our harsh Australian environment does hammer our external finishes but if exposed timber is coated with a good quality finish initially ( i recommend 4 coats minimum ) then an ongoing maintenance coat every couple of years, your timber can still look great many years down the track. People just need to understand if you want that beautiful natural timber look you have to put time in to maintain it.

The weatherboard look suits so stay with that but maybe a recladd in an FC Weatherboard. Have a look at Scyon Linea. Which is a high performance version of Fibro Cement. Also use some architraves around windows and doors. A repaint will make a big change. I'm not a fan of blue blue I'm more a grey so look at 'Windspray' or 'Timeless Grey'. Paint the new architraves in white or 'Shale Grey'. One other change I would make is landscaping. Have a professional do a design for you this where you'll really make the property your own.

We want something that blends in, but because it's a zinc and colourbond shed home, I want to choose a colour that makes it look more like a house and less like a shed. I was looking at basalt but my husband would prefer a lighter colour for keeping the place cool in summer. My original choice was windspray but I'm a bit concerned it won't contrast enough with the zinc roof...but perhaps better than dune that might look too 'sheddy'...so hard to decide!