We are not allowed to have garages in our precinct ..if you have back access (and some people do) you can have a garage around the back..no walled fronts either ..ours was walled before the ruling so can stay..I really like having my wall. Gates have to open material..not solid

The difference is amazing. Stone and water just WORK together, and the combination of brown, rust, cream and gold with the blue that picks up the colour of the pool is a match made in heaven. Great result.

I would let your natural elements shine ..match your wall colour to your classic white laminate and be lazy and paint the same for the ceilings so not to distract from your features or you could use your Caesar stone Urban as an inspiration and choose that colour as wall colour..ie go a bit lighter ..since you can play around with the colours as your room has lots of natural light .. Urban is a nice colour..brownish grey.. personally I'd just go white..

Hi all, Sorry for the slow replies and thanks for the input so far. From what I've read online a re-inforced besser block wall should be about $600 p/sqm including footings in Sydney (Hornsby shire council area). Given the wall is 1m x 10m it should be let's say $7k including design and DA or am I way off? I'd also need to dispose of the current wall + footings but I could probably give the blocks away. The paved area is about 40sqm. Would it be safe to assume $200 p/sqm for concrete base, paver supply (travertine) and install (coping and surrounds)? So the wall and and paving would cost let's say $16k + fencing + cladding. This isn't too bad considering how much better it would look and the value it would add to the house. I like the flexibility the besser would give - render, cladding etc are all options. I'm not sure how bad it is structurally it just has a couple of spots where I can see the blocks have pulled apart over time. Below are some pictures of the bad spots. Also looking at the Amber website it says the maximum courses is maximum non reinforced wall height of 972mm (6 courses). It looks like my wall is actually 7 courses un-reinforced. The wall and pool was built back in 2003. I definitely think planting in front of the wall would help, as would removing the lights but I'm in two minds about whether to bite the bullet and do it properly or just hide it.