As others have mentioned, it really depends on the whole house but there is general move away from renders amongst architects at this point because of ongoing maintenance. If your cousin is a bricklayer, then I think you could consider your laying costs sorted so surely face brick would be the best alternative for you - and I bet he would feel better about the project. I would certainly take advantage of that. There are lots of great options for feature brickwork these days and if you make the right choice in this regard, it will increase the value of your home.

We rendered our 80's home, and painted the roof colorbond Shale Grey. Out of all our reno work we have done I think the rendering had the most impact. If you like the wall colour I can go back through my files. Colorbond have a great websit check it out. you are going to be amazed when your job is complete

I would say it is more beige than grey. It has been quite some time since I have looked at a sample not online though. I like to look at the dulux colour atlas to see where the 'white/neutral' sits in relation to stronger colours. For example the white duck/oyster linen suggested sit in the green toned region. I like white duck for our home as we have woodland grey colourbond and I feel it is a charcoal with a green under tone. Based on your description of what you are after beige Royal sounds like a good choice. Fingers crossed sample pot helps you finalise selection against your charcoal roof colour and lighting.

Switching the windows to white contributed greatly to the appeal of the render.