Is there a reason the concrete is smaller than the gazebo footprint? 200mm on all sides adds up to a reasonable chunk of extra realestate. If you don't want paving going all the way to the house I would leave the strip closer to the house that way the gazebo remains a 'destination'. Have you thought about moving your bathtub planters and extending that way for an outdoor kitchen. Doesn't have to be fancy, just a good sized bench and a barbeque.

Ok, clearly you want to get a big change, but don't have the budget for it just yet. So you need wallet friendly options. My suggestion would be to whitewash ALL the brick walls. It literally is the fastest thing you will ever do and is ridiculously cheap as you water down the paint. If you try painting the brick instead of whitewashing, it may look whiter, but bricks soak up so much paint and it could cost you a small fortune. So I'd whitewash until youve saved enough money to do what you'd like in the long run. Once you've whitewashed, then also assess if you want to paint wood trims in white, but you probably will as it will still contrast nicely with the not so white of the white washed brick. Possibly don't paint the actual ceiling beams Other cheap suggestions with big impact I'd possibly do would be to choose one solid unbroken wall in every room (like the long wall on the left side of the pic running from the living into the dining) and simply stick up connecting wood panels you can buy from Bunnings, then I'd paint them a white along with the pine panels in the ceiling so it all matches. This helps to break up the feeling of soooooo much brick in every room and fits in with the other theme of all the wood. Possibly also make a feature of the fireplace by black washing it? Same idea as white washing, just use black paint instead. Or you could just paint it as its only one small area. Would really make it pop and break up all the white. You could possibly also team this with staining the ceiling beams in an almost black, would make all the beautiful features in the room stand out! What ever you decide, good luck and have fun!

Living west of the Great Dividing Range in Northern NSW, our house gets warm enough in summer without painting it black as well. We also have a limestone gravel driveway, so the dust from that would always make a black house look messy. However, I really like the look of the black house in the title picture, it looks great! Maybe I should move to Tasmania?

Dulux Quarter Snowy Mountain