@kymryan..just having another look at your cladded house...Why do you want to remove the white cladding.? Apart from looking into recladding with colourbond as an option...or anything else....I think you might be wise to make sure of exactly what is under the present cladding...if you have not done that already. As cloudpants here says, your place has loads of potential and I am sure you would want it to be timeless so all you have to do is the maintenance. You mentioned that there are weatherboards under the cladding on your house. Do you know that for sure? Usually when they clad old weatherboard places the weatherboards are removed first because they cannot just be c;lad over. Check! Underneath your cladding you might have what I think was called ' wide chamferboards' or even a narrower kind used about 1950-60. These were PINE and the reason for cladding was usually because they were weather-worn or rotted. It might even be that there are no "boards" of any kind under that cladding...maybe fibro or cement sheeting.....or, if you are lucky...the house framework...onto which you can put any exterior cladding. I'd advise you to check this if you have not done so already. The tiles on the roof suggest to me that the original outside of the house may have been these pine boards or even the cement sheeting...but I think the former. I do not think that there would be the older style hardwood weatherboards under that cladding...the house is of the wrong era for those....it would need to be much older.. Another option...some of the really old weatherboard houses around here (in country Queensland) have been rendered using a very old system...All of these houses were on wooden stumps. Before they started they stabilised the stumps as I have described and then built in all around the sides of the underneath with bricks. They covered the house with insulating foil or tar paper then they covered that with chicken wire netting!!! Over that they simply applied a cement mixture and they trowelled it leaving swirls...a bit like the Mexican adobe. Then they painred it. Its a very old technique. It is materials cheap and labour intensive. If the old house on stumps inderneath shifts a little there's no problems with cracking of any kind....due to the cement, hand applied "render" having the (chicken) wire reinforcing bonded throughout with the cement. The finished house looks as if it is built of stone or concrete! ..The insulating properties are great. Its a very old system that lasts the test of time....the early Italians brought it in when this area was opened up for orchards, There's an old weatherboard house just opposite mine that was "rendered" in this manner about 50 years ago and it still looks new.....been pained occasionally of course. Recently its had a verandah added in keeping with the style of the house and they've "prettied up" the facade under the roof with some ornamenral work. You could research that I am sure...you might even find out "How To".

i love bamboo, giant bird of paradise etc but do NOT put next to your pool. In our last build we used Zanadu. Big leaves that do not drop and bullet proof. Perhaps find another way to cover the fence other than plants that almost always drop their leave and have invasive roots.

As for your other question about hydronic heating. Firstly, are you considering hydronic panels (radiators) or hydronic underfloor heating? Each has their advantages & disadvantages. But be aware that the water temperature for panels must be significantly higher than required for underfloor hydronics. I'm assuming by "solar" you are talking about solar thermal (evacuated tubes or panels), & not solar PV (electric) panels. In any case, solar thermal is not really advisable for hydronic heating, for a few reasons. Firstly, hydronic heating (like any space heating) requires a lot of heat. A normal sized solar thermal system (of 30 evac tubes) may (or may not) be enough to heat you're domestic water in winter. But it will not be enough to heat a hydronic system. Not even close! A solar thermal system this size will need boosting to a very, very high level. Even a very large solar thermal system with over a hundred tubes will most likely require boosting. Secondly, hydronics operate in winter, when your solar thermal is performing at its worst. If you put in a very large solar thermal system (sized to operate hydronics in winter) what do you do with the vast quantity of hot water produced in summer? Waste it no doubt. Finally, solar thermal is expensive to buy! Installing a system sized for hydronics would be stupid expensive!! Even for a system sized for just heating domestic water (30 evac tubes/300l tank), the current thought is it's not worth the investment, & you can get much better returns on heating your water with solar PV panels. Solar PV is only getting cheaper & cheaper, & once your water is heated the electricity produced can be used for other purposes, or exported to the grid. For houses without good solar access a heat pump domestic hot water system can be a good idea. So for hydronics, as solar thermal isn't worth the investment, what are your options to heat your hydronics? Gas boiler. Expensive to run, bad for the environment, but cheaper to install than a heat pump. A heat pump. A more expensive to install, much better for the environment, much cheaper to run. Particularly if coupled with a large PV system (even better if a large buffer tank is also used). A "wetback" water jacket wood fire system. Appropriate away from suburbia, though a lot of work (or cost) to keep it fuelled. Personally, if I was going to all the effort & expense of installing a hydronic system I'd like to think I'd take the green option, & heat it with a heat pump. It would cost though!

Thank you again to everyone for your suggestions, almost all of which have great merit. On reflection, I think removing the old fence is fraught with potential drama, not the least of which is if the idiot neighbour decides to remove the screen which is wholly within his property, we are left without a fence. Many of you seem to have difficulty understanding my reluctance to force the removal of the illegal screen. In an ideal world that is what should happen but as I have already explained my health is up the creek at the moment (never underestimate the effect a tiny mosquito can have on your previously rather pleasant life) and I have learned the hard way with a previous neighbour in another State that councils have limited power and/or care factor when it comes to issues such as this. A threatening letter with no follow up, which was what happened with another non-life threatening issue several years ago ended in an enemy being made with whom I had to live side by side until eventually I sold my house. I am thinking of using several suggestions which will mean bolting new uprights to my side of the existing fence and attaching a lightweight screen of some sort and growing a creeper or preferably a tree in the existing garden bed to the right of the bench which will help replace what we have lost (we being me and the king parrots). Thank you to Bill for the links to the Bunnings screens, I’m heading in there tomorrow to have a closer look. Again, thank you to all!