Congrats! My first observation is the brick looks "tired". I'm thinking it just needs a good cleaning. So the first thing I'd do is pressure wash the brick and I'll bet it will look prettier than it appears now. Plus, the newly cleaned brick may change your mind about colors to pick for the doors and trim. The second thing I'd suggest is a fabulous, updated modern front door. This will go a long way to give your home an upgrade. A door something like this style. After a washing and a new door you love it would be then time to decide on paint colors.

Going through the photos these are my thoughts. - Personally I do not mind the contrast between the colours of the house but it is a strong contrast and might not be to everyone's taste. Do you dislike either of the colours? Changing either colour involves cost and possibly increased ongoing maintenance but if you hate the colour scheme you might feel it's worth it. - The change in driveway material is visually distracting. It looks like a tight turn into the driveway? As has been said, reducing the amount of gravel would help. I'm not sure what else you can do in the short term. - The PVC downpipe needs painting so that it doesn't stand out. - What is the tree on the corner of the house? I think when it gets bigger it will improve the kerb appeal. When it comes to landscaping sometimes what is needed is patience - Do you need the path to be so wide. If you don't need it for say trailer access or something like that I suggest extending the garden bed on the left further across towards the front door. - What is the upper lawn for? I lived in a rental property where I had to mow the lawn at the top of a sleeper retaining wall and if possible I would always design such things with a garden bed along the edge to avoid needing to mow right up to the wall. Bonus benefit, you can plant something to spill over the wall and soften it. - The plants in front of the garage look too large and random and distract from what is quite an interesting modern roofline. I see something like a larger garden bed with more variation in colour and texture, or perhaps more uniformity and one feature plant? And the house number on the brick wall in the same colour as the upper part of the house. - How's the drainage? I finally worked out what else was bothering me. Not strictly aesthetic. But it looks like you front door is not very high above the surrounding ground level? - I think the bush garden style with the rocks and strappy plants suits the house.

Yes, I agree they are fairly narrow and I think practicality must trump original design in this regard. You can still remain true to the era, and simply widening the steps to flush with width of verandah will only improve upon the original design. I believe it will also future-proof the steps as I can imagine as people age, they sometimes require the firm arm of someone else to assist them safely up and down the stairs. I have to agree with Mel about the letterbox. IF you are set on mixing styles, then perhaps use the same timber you used for the letterbox to face facade (street facing) of new steps.

Thank you for comments, and suggestions because the verge (and my driveway) were originally higher but eroded with the sheer volume and velocity of water flowing down from the road. The lack of a drainage pit means I am concerned that whatever work I get done is impacted by that. I will continue trying to find out who the council drainage engineer is and speak with that person, however the council worker (non engineer) who inspected the site said flat out council would do nothing except put a bitumen hump in again and wait and see. The concreting contractor said not to think about stormwater but only about the driveway, however those 2 issues are connected. If the council engineer has software to determine water flow and could provide some solid technical evidence to mitigate risk of failure when 2 different kerb profiles are joined up I would be going in eyes wide open rather than taking a chance.