Restore the facade. Don't render as you'll loose the fabulous brickwork. Just re-point it. Do maintenance on the roof as needed. I'd pressure clean then see what it comes up like. If it's still a bit ordinary then paint it. I would do a bit of investigating on other original colour schemes before choosing charcoal, even though I admit the charcoal does look really good! By the way we render as we don't want to pay brickies to really use their craft so we buy cheap bricks and render. Render does look fine when used as a feature rather than a whole facade. Don't compete with neighbours make your house more desirable by keeping its character. I would however consider spending some good money on the landscaping. There are some superb gardens on these wonderful homes around the inner suburbs of Melbourne for example and would work great with yours.

That’s a good idea, we’re going to go with painter on the first room, once he leaves we can decide whether or not we paint the trims. More work, but playing it safe!

To Modernise this without rendering or retiling the roof I would probably recommend to go darker with the trims. My top pick as a colour consultant would be Dulux's Domino for the trim. It will be a little bolder and create a more modern contemporary feel. You can see it pictured below as the trim. Obviously this house has painted their bricks in the shade "teahouse" however it will still look much better on your 1980s "peru" colour bricks! Don't hesitate to contact me if you need any more help colour wise!

I love your view! There's options here, and they'll be led by where your blinds are installed in my opinion. It looks like you might need to install the blinds to the face of the architraves, in which case, I'd be selecting pale blinds to sit outside the window as they'll, hopefully be up out of the way most of the time. If they fit inside the recess, then I'd select dark.