Sorry to dampen your ideas about changing your home but I think it is a beautiful home, in no need of any changes at all, in my opinion! It is a picture perfect home with a lovely low maintenence garden and beautifully presented. I would not have bought the home personally, if I wanted to make the amount of external changes as you are thinking of, perhaps instead, use this home as a stepping stone and buy something already more like what you are dreaming of owning or accept the beautiful home you already have, again in my opinion of course!!

there are way too many colours going on here. Your home is a traditional style and yes the cream and green are traditional colours with the reddish brick however why did you put grey around the windows??also you have red scollops above the grey and it doesn't do the house justice. What colour was there before you painted the grey?? considering grey is a more modern colour I think you were attempting to modernise the externals. in saying that the roof would have been better to paint charcoal the cream in white and then the grey and then the driveway would be done in a grey stain. but if you leave it the way it is and cover the red scolloping above the windows the same grey and the bricks below the windows near the ground grey as well then get the drive way restained to the reddish colour of the bricks on the house and then it would blend more and look inviting.

Exposed aggregate is not costly when compared to plain. More expensive p/m2 yes, but not costly. When you consider value for money, I feel that exposed is the best value for money product on the market in regards to horizontal surfaces in particular if it is from scratch. As the comment above reads, you will struggle to find a concreter who is willing to do just 2 steps and also doing exposed on steps is a difficult task due to the boxing removal and retardant spraying process which has to be done just right. If it is just 2 steps, I'd be looking into stone cladding the concrete steps (pavers glued to formed concrete) as it is the entrance to your home and really should be finished at a high level. Not sure if you have existing concrete steps and their condition but it may be an option to look at a company like Alternative Surfaces or similar who can change the look of what is existing. Might be the cheapest way to tackle this.

I do love native violets but they show their best with some shade. For full sun a very rough forums cover with small white flowers is myoporum. The Gardening with Angus site has a great plant selector for other options. Good on you for looking at standard Lilly pilly - they give you greenery all year around unlike roses, weeping cherries etc.