Hi Bron,

Great potential you have there. I'm just not sure what you mean by "iron bales trading". Can you explain?

Many houses in Mexico and Spain are solid construction and the way they soften them is with various plants and sometimes benches and wall murals as decoration. A link here has some wild ideas for vertical wall gardens and plants etc but it might spark some ideas. http://www.planos-de-casas.net/plano/queques-pequenos-lindos

I was thinking Colourbond Monument (thanks lizziem10) for the guttering, can't go wrong there I think. The guttering will definitely be updated in the near future. I have planted desert star plants in the garden to create a hedge in front of the verandah to grow to the height of verandah. Will create an entry by moving posts I think. We have large rocks as stairs at the moment. Originally the verandah had dark green iron gates that were pulled out and hence destroyed the tiles at the front edge, I was thinking of black wrought Iron gates made especially to take their place and large tiles modern tiles as Lizziem10 suggested.. We have large dogs that are not allowed onto this piece of yard so it will stop them also. (The dogs have there own huge yard to themselves near the pool and on other side of house) Thank you all for the feedback its so helpful.

Thanks Shane - I think breaking it up in this method would work well, the quantity of brick is a little overwhelming. Also agree that we need to replace the tiling and the guttering colour as suggested by others. At first we thought about getting rid of the brick posts and replacing them with softer timber posts, but I like this idea better.

I'm no expert, but hey, I'm offering an alternative opinion which I think would work. The big problem in my mind is that it looks so dark in there. I say render it and pick a light coloured paint. Ditch those odd angled columns. Replace the columns for some rendered brick in a square shape (say 40x40cm) up to about 90cm from floor, and cap it with, maybe sandstone, then two white wooden square poles up to the roof. Replace the floor tiles with a sandstone look tile or travertine look tile. Get some plasterboard on the ceiling and some LED downlights. In the centre, you'll need a wide step or two down to the grass... might be good to have a wide path in front of that that leads somewhere (pool?). Can't see how wide the patio is, but perhaps it might be worth widening it to make it more of an outdoor entertaining area... with outdoor table, chairs and your BBQ close by.

This would give the rear patio a quite modern bright look, but not sure how that would go with the rest of the house... especially the back.

If you render or bag the exterior brick of your house, you will change it from a maintenance free property to a non-maintenance free ie you will need to paint the render or bagging from time to time - plenty will tell you, colour can be added to render but it will still fade and become shabby and paint colours go in and out of fashion just as bricks do (unless paint is white). Also, a builder warned us that termites love to get in tiny cavities between the render and bricks. I would give serious thought before rendering or bagging. It is actually a nice looking brick, why not work with that and focus on fixing up exterior porch/verandah area and bricks below it.

I like the brick. So I vote against bagging. I like the house too, it's different with the bays created by the angled columns.

Happy Easter. I love the house. I have visions of Palm Springs modernism so, thinking clean line render painted a shade of white on the walls to lighten up the veranda. I would leave the angled walls brick as a feature. A large 1.2m front door on pivot hinge would make feature of your entry area. ( Hume doors do a vertical timber with 4 glass panes to let in light.)

I feel your pain as I have a similar problem. For you, ditch the pots and verandah dross, embrace the the great lines of the house, gutters to match the roof, stay with the bricks (no daggy bagging), pull the garden (and those horrid stones) away from the house with large soft native gardens.

I agree....don't render it and don't enclose the verandah! Instead, spend that money painting or replacing the gutters (colour - Monument), replace those tiles on the porch with something large and timeless (changing the direction of the tiles at your entrance). Ditch the stones at the front and those random smaller pots and add a beautiful wide sweeping path (large steppers and pebbles) to the entrance, two stunning oversized pots near your entrance. To me, the house would look great with some soft weeping/moving/flowing plants...... like purple fountain grass or acacia cognata. Good luck :-)

Hi Bron. I'm totally with those who have suggested a. Colorbond Monument and b. No rendering. As a professional renovator, I see clients who had not taken into account the maintenance - cleaning, patching the cracks when the house moved and they all do, eventually) and would not render again. Bagging is really old-fashioned. The bricks are a great colour to work with. The suggestions of plants , a path leading (directing visitors) to your door, and I'll add using a feature colour on the door (an unobtrusive screen door - or even removing it) would make a big difference. It would be great to see a pic of the house from the street to see if there's anything else to suggest. Happy reno!!

Hi Bron, if you can get channel 94 itv, watch it, great ideas on doing houses up, they used a German slurry to make bricks look great. Looked like white plaster? It was wiped over bricks to give them that great old weathered look.

I also had a brown brick which I hated so I painted it a Porters Colour and did all the trim white and it looks great. The paint has lasted 10 years. When I was growing up in Sydney in the 1960's the architect designed houses in my area were all painted brick. regards

Hi Bron,

In a lot of these forums people seem very opposed to render personally I like it if you get it done properly it can take years off the property. And as for maintenance if you go with an acrylic render this will prevent a lot of the issues you might have with render. I will admit you will need to give it a paint job every now and then to keep the house looking fresh but when I look at places we have done that have not been rendered compared to the ones that have me personally I think going with the render is the way to go.

Good luck with your project

Love the house, don't paint the bricks!! paint the gutter and down pipes to match concrete roof tiles, look at changing the front door, nice timber would look good, check out second hand chunky ones

. Clear up all the ity bity pots and re tile the verandah.

Quite your old stone step, give it a clean and do some gardening, perhaps remove the rock garden along the front of the verandah and keep grass trimmed right up to the verandah.

Look forward to hearing what you have done

You brick looks fine. Give attention to the tiles and gutters. Please do not complicate that wonderfully simple roof. Maybe you need to look at the tile and how well it is aging, if it is OK, leave it. If you think it is time to resheet, this could be an option to look at the style of roof tile. I would probably avoid colorbond sheeting in your case, maybe a flat modern tile.

Finally give some attention to the landscape. This can make bigger changes to the look and feel of the home.

Bron,

Just found this on houzz

Original brick work with attention paid to the railing and doors.

Ruffey Lake House · More Info

The house has great style. Brick is in & that is quite a lovely brick. Love the angled wall I would render it in a contemporary colour.

Monument or similar on gutters (not down pipes)

No balustrading or bagging spend this money on :

A new quality front door as a feature along with a quality landscaped garden/paving design