Great house, why are you removing the front porch, this protects the entrance, Love the metal roof profile. I would replace brown cladding with white and paint windows and doors white to match. You live in a beautiful part of the world chees

Thank you so much for your ideas Siriuskey. It is actually hard to tell in the photo but the front door is actually under a porch roof already, the little extra porch unfortunately places a downpipe at the front entrance and we can only remove the downpipe by altering the add on. I hadn't considered white before as I had in mind either a darker colour or cedar cladding!? If you don't mind me asking you, what colour roofing would you use?

Surfmist or Shale Grey would be good colours for roof. Are you wanting timber, weatherboard or vinyl cladding for second storey? Are you in a bushfire zone? I agree window frames would look great painted white.

If you wanted timber cladding, would you be wanting to maintain it (as in re-oiling) or would you be happy to let it weather naturally?

Wow Annb1997,

i stood outside yesterday squinting at small swatches of Colorbond colours and surfmist and shale grey both made it to the short list. As for the cladding, if I choose natural timber, I would probably prefer to let a cedar cladding weather to grey naturally. I am very open to any advise about options for cladding the top storey... thank you both for spending your valuable time on my house issues.

Spotted gum is quite beautiful. The front of my house is clad with it, run vertically. We have had it re-oiled twice but may decide to let it gray naturally. It's the only timber I've any experience with, but others may have more suggestions.

If you are considering letting the timber grey naturally I would look to match roof and gutter/barge boards to it.

Your new home looks fabulous! Congratulations from the Team at North!

Your home has more yellow brick then red like these homes. However the dark grey, light grey and white framing works well with the brick creating a modern clean look.

Darker grey for roof, light grey timber/cladding on top level and light grey down stairs around the smaller square windows. You could add a window frame, to frame the windows in light grey/white around the yellow windows or just leave them as they are. Painting aluminum is not recommend unless you get the professionals in.

If you wanted to use panels instead of timber have a look at James Hardie cladding - 13 11 03 is the contact number - They have a fabulous products that give you cladding with a paint finish that will outlast any timber you put on your home and is low maintenance.

Need to check with the local council as to what roof colours are aloud some don't allow to dark because of cooling costs. Its suggested you pick 3 colours to keep it unified.

Its a personal preference what colours you like? Below the white and blue grey looks amazing!

Please let us know what you choose. A project is always exciting.

If you are going grey for the roof, it should be light rather than dark, for environmental/heat reasons I think. I really don't like the charcoal look - but a grey with some of the eucalypt blue/green within its tones works well with wood and white. And with white, go for one that has some warmth to it, rather than the stark shiny variety that doesn't look as good with brick and wood.

Annb1997: I researched spotted gum cladding and it is beautiful! How long have you had your cladding up for? If you happen to have any photos I would really appreciate a sticky beak☺️

Siriuskey: you are exactly right about choosing roof colours that have to match before and after the greying of the timber. Thank you so much for your input, I could easily have overlooked that and had a house that only looked great for a year or two...

Team North: the photos are fantastic as I have no imagination. I love all your ideas especially about the window framing to disguise the 80''s beige windows. I am definitely going to research the cladding you mentioned as I am concerned about the level of maintenance that timber will have, some parts are difficult to access, so the less repainting the better.

I have been thinking that even though grey/ blues are very fashionable and modern (and I love them). I was wondering if because I live in the mountains on an acre should I look to make the house more natural (local colours)?? Cladding colour example below. Please tell me if you think this is a terrible idea, as I have said this is not my forte

Jennifer: thank you for your input. There is a lovely range of metal roof colours and so many greys. I think I might need a mid range colour as the light ones up here are all stained from the trees and red soil and I agree that the dark ones maybe too hot in summer. I have attached a close up of the brick as I think my original photo washed the colour out too much.

The first photo was after about 6 months, and just prior to re-oiling. I show you so you can see how it starts to look (kind of mottled). We couldn't bear to lose the rich reddish tones of the spotted gum.

These next photos are ones I just took, and house is two years old. We had it re-oiled again one year after the 2nd oiling. In all, it has had 3 likings. It's important to note we live in regional Victoria and the summers are stinkin' hot, so the cladding really takes a beating from the harsh sun.

Up close:

You can see how some boards are lightening up again. We will probably re-oil it ourselves this summer.

Despite the maintenance, we are happy with the timber. It has such beauty. I've seen spotted gum greyed off naturally, and it looks wonderful too. It's really a personal choice. BTW, we are in bushfire zone so had to go with a hardwood. Hope this helps.

Sorry, it has had 3oilings, all in all.

cubby_house, what is that colour of cladding? Looks like Dune? I think that would work nicely.

Haha, I hope it won't be such a regular maintenance job for you, but the end result is so worth it. Best wishes and keep us posted on your progress.