I prefer white as if you get sick of grey cladding in10 years you might be able to paint it another colour. Both are nice it is a matter of taste.

I considered Dieskau, Stepney and Timeless Grey with our render. The Dieskau throws a slight pink and the Stepney is a little beige. It may be worthwhile getting sample pots and painting a few areas around your home to see what it looks like in various light. Alternatively paint a large piece of cardboard in each colour and move it around the house. We decided on Timeless Grey. I think Surfmist is too light. Good luck! It's a very difficult decision. Took us months :)

What ever colour you like is what you should go with - I have a black roof and a white house and white down pipes and guttering - the plastic type. All I notice is how dirty is looks when the winter has set in and been and gone and you are left with green mildew on the guttering and down pipes. If I have a choice and it suited my house I would go for a dark colour - however if you are going to tin you will want colour steel as the sun will just bake black or dark paint. Also look at the life time warranty of both the plastic and steel to determine which may last longer and be cheaper to fix longer term.

Hi all, I can't seem to reply individually to your comments so here's a general one :) Thanks all for the suggestions and experience-I'm really intrigued by these suggestions of pavilion extensions, those links you attached Kate are super striking! Unfortunately for us we are on a fairly small block of land and one side of the house is a narrow driveway-we looked into building a garage/study on the ground but as we have to be 900mm from the neighbouring fence it was going to be very skinny and just not worth it. I appreciate the thoughts shared on keeping our feet on the ground but as we've two young kids and two dogs (and would love to have chickens again) I'm less and less inclined to give up more of the garden which is what we'd have to do if we extend out. Our verandah roof was done back in the 60's and slopes down and leaks in the rain so hence it needs to be lifted up if we were to build out. Kate, I LOVE your idea of the shed! We actually converted a massive steel shed into a gorgeous shed home when we lived in QLD on a massive rural block of land, loved how easy it was to 'knock' down a wall! :) Sadly we have learned the hard way that trying to save money by hiring a draftsperson that didn't ask us what our budget was has cost us time and money, but I guess in a way I'm grateful as this extra time has given me time to consider building up now instead of out. I'm getting a sense that it will be a lot more expensive to do so so might have to wait another 2-3 years to get re-finance happening. In the meantime we are making some changes to the current set up, slowly adding value and making it more enjoyable to live in :)