Don't waste your money rendering the bricks - that look will go out of fashion. Don't replace your tiles with a colourbond roof either as that would be giving you an inferior roof and colourbond roofs are noisy. Replace your front door and try and choose wrought iron bannister railing. Then start off fresh with your front garden; soften it with magnolia shrubs, white agapanthus and trailing plants such as erigon to trail over brickwork in the driveway. Your bricks show a lot of character; please don't render them.

We have an even better match now. Took my sample of frame to another paint shop and they were brilliant! Kept working on the mix until it was right. And even better the lady was an interior decorator and advisor and gave me some great advice on colour choosing. Thinking of going quite a bit lighter for the walls and adding some pops of colour in verandah posts and/or fret work. Feeling so much better about the choices now. The samples on the cards are all the colours I originally had, we’ve just pulled in Haymes Overcast as the overall colour rather than Charcoal Grey. Will use the Charcoal in the features. Really excited to get weatherboards on and start painting!! It pays to shop around!!

We have a backyard with 2 x Colorbond 'Monument' fences alreacy in place! We are about to replace our other old timber fence! Looking to soften the look before landscaping and planting round a new pool! Looking for advice in fencing colours to complement tge 'monument' everywhere out back! Basalt or Shale grey etc?? Even neighbours hv monument everywhere (ie roofing, guttering etc - as well as our shared fencing already mentioned! Thoughts?

Hi oklouise, thank you also for your excellent ideas. We like the idea of the window seat, but in the first instance we will try removing the existing gable end and exposing the overhanging eaves as you suggested. We saw this sort of thing on some old houses in Orange (NSW) last weekend and really liked it, so it is uncanny that you suggested it. Do you think we could get away with a gable vent to make a bit of a statement, or do you think that might be a bit fussy? Regarding the roof, we are considering Shale Grey as it is light (and therefore will absorb less heat), and it it the Colorbond colour that supposedly most resembles old zincalume. However, we are still trying to work out if this works the best with our brick colour. Again, thank you for your advice !