Hi, I like the overall concept of the darkish grey, it suits the home. I am a colour consultant and have been working with the Dulux range for 17 years and you are on the right track with the Guild Grey. The Dulux Signature will give you a dark blue house. Another option if Simone Weil which is just a bit lighter than the Guild Grey, if you find that one too dark. Sample pots and A4 brush outs onto white cardboard are the best way to decide, because computer programs give an overall impression of the "look" but are not accurate with colour choices, you can't beat the human eye. All the best, it's going to look great.

Oh boy oklouise, this is dangerous territory when you ask about the perfect reno! We thought we did have the perfect Reno we could afford in stages but we got just about ready to lodge with council and our architect surprised us with the costings going over by $200K and giving us a lovely flat roof and new cladding for our first stage budget. We now have about $10K less after this process and are really feeling vulnerable I suppose. So we are back to square one but the essentials are: repair the deck on the steep slope at the back, remove internal walls to open the space downstairs, reposition the staircase, new flooring, new kitchen and provide an aesthetically pleasing but functional entrance. Wish list would be garage/carport & driveway, flat roof, new bathroom upstairs, new laundry & WC downstairs and landscaping. $100K for the first stage (which probably means just deck repairs and removing walls?!) then we would be looking at refinancing and seeing what we can do next. The architect designs were beautiful but unattainable unfortunately. Anyway, I advertised our job about a week ago and I think someone is interested in meeting with us and I've also left a message for Dr Retro so I don't want you all to spend too much time on this although I really really appreciate and welcome your advice. Thank you again oklouise, Lisa

considering Weathertex comprises of 97% hardwood it arguably complies with the covenant as technically it's achieving greater than 3/4 of "timber materials".... that's the angle I'd take anyway ;) PD

I think the bricks are 'busy' , but overall it's not a bad house . I think those lantern lights are so 80's , but nothing else would suit . I don't even think wooden garage doors would make much difference , except to your bank haha , and I definitely wouldn't brick in the veranda posts . the front door looks quite classy too -- maybe a stain or varnish , but it all suits . About all I would do is paint the pergola in white , and something 'weird' to confuse people , but hopefully there's method in my madness -- I'd get some fake shutters fitted to those 2 upstairs windows -- narrow , only about 300mm wide , and crisp white . It takes away a bit of the 'bland' look , ties in with the garage doors and that nice gate on the left side of the house , and of course references the fake panes on those ( and the 'downstairs' ) windows . Just a cheap tweak , and like Kate says , trim everything in the garden to about half the bulk .