To minimise costs, frame your windows, I would place a canopy above the front door (if this is the front door near the garage - if it isn't don't do) to draw your eye and paint the front door with strong wow colour - even if it is a few shades darker or lighter to what you have chosen for your window trims/roof line. Maybe large number near door also will drawn your eye to the door. Landscaping around the front will also add punch/wow - you don't have to do everywhere - but at least at the front and then you can work your way to the rest of the garden, but keep the rest of the lawn mowed (even if they are weeds) and edges trimmed. Look at a couple of other houses and pretend you might buy and note what your eye is instantly drawn to... go back to your house and note what you are instantly drawn to.... do you want to be drawn to those features? If not, make them blend and highlight the areas you want. I have just had another look at your photos - is the front door near the garage door or it is the one on the left hand...... if left hand don't place canopy at the garage end but would place some large planters (large plants too) to accentuate the front door entrance - you would have the space - but again do some landscaping in that area (the large pots can be placed in the garden beds (on a large paver) and smaller plantings around them, make the front door pop and place something i.e. large number on the wall next to the door. If the door next to garage is garage entrance not front door, then blend that door with the exterior (unlike what I had initially said when I first thought it was the front door). Tip - Just cause something is colourbond - you CAN paint it - don't think you are stuck with that initial colour thought when installed. i.e. paint your facia and gutter same colour and that will make it wider. (I have personally painted cutters and downpipes many times (when I want to change colouring). Just cause downpipes are connected to your guttering doesn't mean they need to be the same colour - I would colour them the same as the wall colour to make them blend - downpipes are not a feature. Good thing about paint, you can paint it again. A lot of paint shops will have colour consultants.

The most effective landscaping for selling is to make it as tidy as possible so the new owners are not daunted by the maintenance work they are taking on. Once everything is neat and tidy, think about what you can do to suggest possible uses for the space without necessarily investing too much. Approach it like staging a house - buyers currently are looking for indoor outdoor flow, all-weather outdoor rooms, vegetable garden options, and social features such as firepits, bbqs, seating etc

Hi Erin, Some very good points made by everyone. First, I'll start by recommending that your have a read of the government's Your Home website. Tonnes & tonnes of information about designing a comfortable, energy efficient home. I'll link to the orientation section, as that's what I'll discuss, but recommend that you read more. http://yourhome.gov.au/passive-design/orientation A western frontage with no northern neighbour is a great block. This has allowed you to locate the garage on the SW corner, blocking the very hot afternoon summer sun, which is brilliant. But the western facing master bedroom is a major concern. Western sunshine (& eastern to some degree) is very difficult to shade, as eaves are ineffective when the sun is low in the sky. So usually it's a good idea to minimise western windows & place rarely used rooms, like bathrooms, laundries (along with the garage) facing west. But this becomes difficult for west facing houses, as you don't want to negatively effect street appeal. So I'll start by asking, do you envisage using all of your bedrooms, all the time? Or will one or the bedrooms be a guest bedroom, that will be rarely used? If one of the bedrooms is a spare bedroom, is recommend moving it to the front of the house, so that it bares the brunt of the hot afternoon sun. I'd then move the master to the SE corner, so it has an outlook to the backyard. If this can't be done is recommend following the above designs, moving either the ensuite or WIR to the W frontage, while still trying to maintain an attractive western facade. Pity you don't have access from the north. A northern entrance could have limited the length of the hallway, & brightened it up. One option I like a lot for this type of block orientation is designing a split skillion roof, with north facing clerestory (highlight) windows running down the spine of the build. These windows will greatly brighten the hallway, & also the kitchen which will be quite dark otherwise. These high level windows can also be great in summer, purging the house of heat in the evenings & throughout the night. Just make sure they have appropriate eaves, so they receive no sunshine in the warmer months. Next question. You explained a little of what's to your north. But how is the outlook. Generally it is a good idea to face your living areas, & a large portion of your windows north. If you will have a nice outlook to the north you may consider more north facing glazing. Though, do your research, as I'm not too sure of your actual climate, & you wouldn't want to overglaze. Also, orientating your glazing for cooling summer breezes is important, particularly in hot QLD. Which direction do your breezes come from, throughout the year, & throughout the day. I'd recommend finding this out by looking for the local "wind roses" on the BOM, Bureau of Meteorology. That's it for now, phone battery's about to die. Good luck

Wow amazing advice - thank you!! We are in the mid-hinterland on the Gold Coast. :) Since posting we have planted out the back strip with a mix of Vibernum, Chinese dwarf bamboo, elephant ears, Xanadu and ornamental grass. We still have both sides to do yet and it feels like it will never end! Unfortunately our garden beds were edged with pavers at build stage and we aren't equipped to rip them out to widen the garden beds now. but I am considering culling the mulch in some areas on the sides and putting in feature sections with Riverstones. I love the idea of using water feature/bowl and will try to incorporate one. We went and bought 9 golden cane palms which we haven't yet planted due to some posts online about the root systems and them being problematic, we are thinking about maybe putting them along the retaining wall, any ideas how to manage the root growth? We thought about keeping them in larger pots and planting around the pots, has anyone seen this executed well? Updated pic attached. You can see a bush fire that went across the hinterland yesterday, bit close for comfort! Also the palms we are thinking about in bags against the wall. PS - Whoever would have thought that turf is so hard to keep lush! OMG thats a whole other post! hahaha